A few guys on the board have asked me to post pictures and updates of the car. Sorry for the delay but we only had a couple guys working on the car so I didn't have much extra time to frequent RDC. Now that the season (and graduation) are done and I have my life back, I decided that I should probably post some pictures. Basically, we ran all three North American events this year (Portland, Oregon; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Montreal, Quebec) which was a first for our school. Here are a few pictures from the various events. I have other pictures of the car during build-up if anyone would like to see. Last but not least I would like to thank everyone that sponsored us and helped us out this year. Knowing that we were on a very limited budget, a lot of generous companies in the dezert community donated their time and money to make our season possible. Thanks!
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Here's a picture from Montreal during the 4 hour endurance event. We ended up finishing 29th out of 62 teams. We were running in the top 10 untill our fenders broke off which killed our speed in the 120 yard water portion of the endurance event. Entries for the East event need to be amphibious. We were the first Californian team to compete in the East event since its conception in 1976. It was quite a learning experience. The fastest teams in the water were moving at 6-7 mph with the 10 hp Briggs and Stratton motors.
A picture of the car in the water during the endurance event in Montreal. Its obvious that the car is sitting too low. At the begining of the year we decided to design a car for the West and Midwest events which do not have a water crossing and adapt the vehicle for the east event which does. This resulted in a car with way too much travel and ground clearance for the east. Some of the cars at the east event had less than 3" of ground clearance and they got hung up on the littlest of bumps but they hauled a$$ in the water. After talking to a few teams we learned that ideally you want 40-50% of the rear tires in the water for maximum propulsion.
Yeah, they are actually a new dirt paddle tire designed by Scat Trak to be used in racing over in europe. They donated them to us so we decided to give them a try. They didn't work as well as we would have hoped for our application but none the less it was a learning experience. All of the teams that are fast in the water use a Chevron Style tire turned backwards. The tread is basically a "V" pattern
Here's another picture from the Portland, Oregon event. The dynamic events which include an acceleration event, hill climb, manuverability, rock crawl and a 4 hour endurance were actually held at the motocross course in Washougal, Washington. Here is a picture of the car trying to get by other competitors in the whoop section.
Here's a picture of the car off of a double at the Milwaukee event. We finished 7th in the endurance and 12th overall (136 competitors). We missed 5th place in the endurance by 20 seconds (which would have placed us in the top 10 overall) simply because I had to pit after forgetting to put on a kneck restraint that is mandated by SAE. It was a tough way to learn how important it is to be properly prepared.
When your in the water, is the car floating? Got to say, your car looks the best compared to the others from the picture. Is it all college kids or do other people do this for fun?
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