This is my first time posting to the blog so let me introduce myself. My name is Scott Nesbitt and I am the Mechanical Engineering Manager for the team. In the past two and a half year with the team I have seen tremendous growth and advances, here's just a few more to add to the list.
As previously mentioned the car was out in lot 10 here at the U of C on the weekend of April 10th and 11th. While the car has been designed over a lengthy 12 months (compared to our previous car's 9 month design and build cycles), the first time a vehicle is tested is always a nerve racking event until you know that everything works as it's supposed to; especially when testing occurs so close to exams (fretting over exams is enough in itself for any engineer). To no one's surprise though the car handled perfectly, nay, fantastically. Compared to Schulich I body roll has been virtually eliminated in cornering and I'm proud to say the figure 8 test was completed in only 6.7 seconds (regulations require 9 seconds). One minor ergonomic issue was identified, but with a modification of the brake pedal the car will be more comfortable to drive than a couch! Here's a teaser picture taken post-testing, showing the driver's seat and our brand new 2 piece moulded carbon fiber steering wheel.
When your part of the solar team though you always know that with fun comes fun work, and that couldn't be further from the truth after testing was completed. In the week following testing, Bondo and sanding work commenced on the shells again. Now that that work is done, the top shell of the car has been aligned perfectly with the bottom shell and any gaps between the two have been filled...on to painting! After removing parts from the car and covering any non-removable parts, the shells were primed and painted. After painting the prototype car with metallic silver we decided to keep the color as everyone agreed it looked amazing although we did make a small change to the type of paint we used due to issues with flaking on the prototype. I'm sure you'll agree the paint job turned out great, here's a few shots as the car looks today following painting. (Sorry about the quality, I'm not much of a photographer.)Cheers,
Scott
