Still in Progress

We are still working on getting the car up and running. Thus far it looks like we will definitely be able to run next Friday and Saturday.

Kaelan took a video of our wheel blowout on Friday during Scrutineering. Hopefully we will be able to upload that later.

Progress Update: Fixing the Car

The team is working quickly and efficiently to get the car fixed for good.

We have cleaned up the wiring in the electronics bay and covered the wires in the driver compartment. A couple of team members are looking at brakes.

Currently some members are going to the school to pick up a few tools, while others are at the shop working on putting locktite on parts of the car and organizing information.

The suspension is coming along; in fact, we discovered a weak weld near the shocks an hour ago when a team member ripped off the weld while trying to disconnect the shocks to realign them. This weld is relatively simple to repair, and fortunately we found the weakness now rather than later on during operation. Team members are continuing to fix it currently.

Research and Redesign

Today, the team has begun researching and redesigning parts for the car. Everyone is hard at work, trying to identify the problems that were caused by the blowout at scrutineering. We will have to find completely new wheels along with new rear shocks that can handle the weight of the car. Rishi, Saagar, and Nick are heading up the search for wheels, while Michael and David are adjusting the front shocks and looking for replacements for the rear shocks. According to which wheels they find, the spindles on the kingpins may have to be changed.

Although the team has met problems, we are still determined to get this car done and show everyone the result of our hard work.

Sending off the teams

This morning, CSRT members went up to Texas Motor Speedway to send off the other teams in the Hunt Winston Solar Car Challenge 2010. We were excited to see all the other cars and be able to see a part of the race first hand! It was a pleasure to meet all the representatives of the race and to discuss the other cars designs with team members from Mississippi, Florida, and other teams, including some from Texas itself.

The crowd gave the cars a rousing sendoff, and Coppell even recieved one round of applause for supporting the teams, although we were not able to race.

It was a pleasure to send off the other cars participating in the race!

Meeting Update

This morning the team met to decide on a new game plan. We will now be racing on Friday, July 30 and Saturday, July 31.

The team has devised a schedule to complete the car and get it running by those dates. We are also working on communicating to all our supporters and sponsors the sad news. However, we are excited for next Saturday and Sunday and hope you will continue to support us.

Tomorrow the team is going to the Hunt Winston Race to see off all the other teams.

Sad News

Unfortunately, the car experienced a catastrophic blowout today during scrutineering. The metal wheel is damaged beyond repair. We will not be able to replace the wheels in time to complete scrutineering in the morning.

The team is not giving up on completing the car, though. They are working this week to have the car back up and running ASAP. Stay tuned for more details.

Car without Panels!

Here is the car without the panels on! The blue covering is shrink wrap to protect the car components from water and other flying debris.

Race tomorrow!

Tomorrow is scrutineering for the race and we have had amazing progress with the car.

Yesterday night we drove it around the school and were able to test the u-turn radius, which was extremely good!

Now the team is working hard to get everything working and packed! We still have to mount the panels ASAP.

Stickers for the sponsors to go on the car are coming in today at some time and I am going to have to pick them up. They will go on the access panel to the electronics bay with a lot of prominence.