A Flurry of Progress.

Following a fairly hectic run up to Christmas, followed by OFSTED last week. the team have been working hard, but I've not had a chance to update the blog, so here goes!

The Front End:

Not entirely happy with the steering set-up, Reece, Nathan and Tash took it all to bits and we had a head scratch on how it could be remade simpler and cleaner looking.

Before



After (much neater!)

detail of the new steering arms in place

 

The steering column was raised by around 4" which will conveniently increase the amount of leg room when steering at full lock!

 

Before...somewhat ungainly and awkward!

 

 

And after...much more room at full lock.

 

The Back End:

After mocking up the originally proposed derallieur gearing system an inherent flaw was discovered! Since we have no freewheel in the system, the chain falls off every time!!! So the decision was quickly made to keep the sprocket block but to fabricate a manual chain tensioning system a bit like an alternator bracket on a car. That way we can change gear quickly when stationary during testing at races!

 

Before, using upside down derallieur

 

After, using new hinged motor mount in lowest gear

 

And in highest gear

 

This month has flown by and we still have a LOT to do, including picking the lastest batch of team members from years 8 and 9 as well as hopefully putting together a 3rd car (resurrecting the old Plume Power name from 2007)

 

Stay tuned followers, next up is hooking up the braking system, installing the electronics and mounting the body shell. We hope to be ready for the season opener at Rockingham raceway in May!!