Progress on SubZero

 So, we have made a lot of progress on our latest car, SubZero in recent weeks, with Andy, Mr Thomas and I working every Tuesday, Wednesday and many other evenings, often working into the small hours of the morning! Fuelled by many cups of tea and Freddos, we have bonded the floor on, fitted the two axles, and are in the process of fitting the sides on the car.

Andy and I drilling holes for the floor. Mostly Andy really.

Remeasuring the roof for SubZero after we discovered that the cockpit could only fit  a small dog in it.

Just making sure he's doing it properly.

In other news, there have been a few updates to the website, and the hope for some new designs for the photo gallery. I shall keep you posted as to any progress on that front.

Meanwhile, Gigazord is coming along nicely, the electrics are being put in soon and we hope to have it on the road in the next few weeks. Unfortunately, it has taken somewhat of a sideline as the team have had to concentrate on getting SubZero race ready as there was much more to do.

Harry fitting an electric component for Gigazord.

A little history...

Megazord was Bristol Grammar School’s first car and has served the team very well in the past few years having run reliably at every race we entered. We have made many modifications to Megazord over the years with the main aims of improving aerodynamic efficiency. These changes include new rear bodywork which has helped to significantly increase our mileage in 2011, even with the new smaller batteries. We have also removed the motor controller and replaced it with a relay which has further increased our efficiency and mileage. Unfortunately, Megazord is too heavy to be competitive, so while we aim to make some more modifications to get her past the 100 miles in 4 hours, most of the teams efforts are currently concentrated on building Gigazord and SubZero.

Gigazord is the second car we have produced and is based on the same dimensions as Megazord but the entire chassis is made from aluminium and the bodywork is made from carbon fibre. This results in a car that will be half the weight of Megazord without batteries or driver. Coupled with some aerodynamic improvements, we hope Gigazord will move the team towards the sharp end of the grid with the potential for some wins in regional heats (if Rotary Racer doesn’t turn up). We hope to have Gigazord ready for some shakedowns in school and any necessary alterations before we go to testing at Goodwood in March.

SubZero is our third car which started life as an old Greenpower car which we bought from another school and stripped for parts as it was uncompetitive. The front wheels and steering were removed and kept for the new car. We also managed to keep the brake cables, motor, seatbelts, rear wheels and many other useful items such as foam and nuts and bolts. The chassis has been made entirely from recycled materials. We used four broken aluminium chairs from the school’s sixth form centre to make the main chassis. The roll bar was taken from an A2 Design Technology project which was to help people get in and out of swimming pools. All other aluminium used for strengthening was taken from offcuts. The rear wheel bearings were spares that we had bought for Megazord but are now surplus to requirements. The whole front steering sub frame had to be modified to ensure that it is square and the stub axle height had to be altered to achieve the desired ride height. This sub frame was simply bolted in. The rear axle was a spare that we had made which was not perfectly straight so was not used for Gigazord but we managed to adjust this and it is now much better. As a result, getting the car to a rolling chassis stage has cost nothing. The bodywork will be plywood to continue with the recycled/sustainable theme. This is a great project because all of the design and development has been done by the students and the only input from an adult was when structural welding was necessary to ensure that the car is as safe as possible. We look forward to testing SubZero early in the new year.

Andy.