SubZero is getting along nicely...

Over half term, instead of skiing, the BGS Greenpower team have been hard at work in the workshop. Work started slowly until Andy told us to get a move on by quoting his favourite police term:

"Stop fannying about and get something done."

We have now almost fitted the top of the car, and we took the car out in the playground today to test whether our hard work had paid off! I have been hard at work creating a guard for the steering arm to prevent kicking it when we get in the car. To do this, I had to make use of the local bender to much avail. We also had our professional photographer Ollie, Mr Thomas's son, in the workshop today. He has been taking many photos of us in the car and a few too many of his own face...

Progress has not been as swift with Gigazord however, as Mr T said he would start work on it at 10 o'clock today and at 2, he had still not started.

Unfortunately, progress to Gigazord has been put on hold for a while as we have been concentrating all of our efforts on SubZero.

So, some photos of the new developments for SubZero:

Tim pointing to the new lid for the electrics.

The new sides on the car.

Me putting the guard for the steering arm in.

Andy getting comfortable.



All the photos of SubZero are on the Greenpower BGS Website and of the other cars.

Here is a video of Tim taking SubZero out for its first run.

Dan

Progress on SubZero

We're making fantastic progress on SubZero, our latest car over the last few weeks. Tim and I were not up to our usual  shenanigans in the centre of Bristol on a Friday night but instead worked all day on the car and were far too exhausted after sanding and greasing the front axle so it moved more freely. The axle we got from the car we took apart was less than perfect and was bending the steering bar because there was so much friction. But we fixed it nonetheless and we created something truly beautiful. It now moves brilliantly and we can now concentrate on the rear axle. As per usual Mr Thomas is taking his time trimming the axle down but had a good time cutting some bearings apart to let us use them for some spacers. There were a lot of sparks. Simple pleasures. 
We've had some problems with the brakes for SubZero and Tim and I have had many trips to the local bike shops asking for obscure parts with no real clue what we want and various assistants giving us very strange looks. After the last failed location of a part to hold the brake cable in place we have had to resort to out other trusted supplier; eBay. 
The side panels for SubZero are beginning to take shape and we are hoping to rivet them on in the next few weeks or so and get testing as soon as possible for the new season.

Sadly however, Gigazord has taken a bit of a back-seat role of recent weeks as we've placed more emphasis on getting SubZero ready. Mr Thomas hasn't had much time to work on Gigazord either, due to parents' evenings, GCSE coursework and making us cups of tea.
In other news, Andy has done some rather fantastic work on a gearing calculator. It is colour coordinated and I have approved the colour scheme to ensure that there are no clashes. It is incredibly intelligent and can work out all sorts of strange things, many of which I simply cannot fathom. Either way, it will help us enormously in the new season to work out our gearing which will benefit us hugely.


Below are some photos of the work we have been doing:

The brakes.

The start of the new design battery case.

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.

Goodwood Final 2011

We had a fantastic weekend at Goodwood Race Circuit, racing in the Greenpower National Final with Megazord. We entered both categories and came 11th in F24+ and 13th in F24. We are extremely pleased with these results and these as well as some of the ones earlier in the season reflect the hard work put in by the team this year. After a night of bowling and pizza we were ready for the race and amongst interviews for the DVD and over the intercom, we managed to have successful pit stops, driver changes and the driving itself. Now begins a long creating, testing and improving period over the summer to get Gigazord and an unnamed car on the track for the season opener. Thank you to the school, staff, parents and sponsors for supporting us this season and we hope that we will improve for next year with our new cars.

Here are some photos from the weekend:

Dan, Senior Engineer.