ISC Encino Pictures

Some of the sights and people of the race from this past weekend.

About to be on my way

The car made it to Cali in one piece and my flight leaves tomorrow afternoon, next stop... Encino Velodrome!

So wish me luck and hopefully I will go fast and keep the car in one piece. Also wish me luck in that my flight is not too miserable or late.

I did a new body for the race but left it at the office so pics will have to wait until later (but before I run so that I have pics of it in one piece).

Chris

New Aero Package

First off, as promised here as some pictures of the car post crash. It come out pretty good considering I am even going to keep using the rear shock tower for now as it seems to be fine from the shock mounting points in.



I am rocked, reeling a bit, but I ain't down yet... time for round two. I made some big 'ole vertical stabilizers and added them on this evening and I also revamped the front lip spoilers with some small stabilizers, hopefully this we get it in line. I think I got them about as straight and true as you can possible hope to get lexan fins attached to a lexan body. I am not real happy about the weight they added as it is quite a bit of lexan and I may be a little overkill using 6-32 screws and lock nuts but I was worried about something smaller like 4-40's pulling out under what I think will be a fair amount of force and I didn't want to deal with that.

Hopefully the design will not compromise turning any on the velodrome, I am going to go do some straightline testing this weekend hopefully (velodrome testing will not get to happen until race weekend) and with any luck I will come back a happier person.

The fins can be a bit hard to see as they are clear but I think you guys can make them out.


I also made a nifty rotating car stand as I am entirely too cheap to go buy one. Anyway it was made from some scrap aluminum and the only thing I bought was a $5 lazy susan so I think I did ok.

Ouch, not so stellar test experience

So I tried to get some testing in Sunday so after finding a decent place to run I got to it only to run into handling issues. The car was doing a big back and forth weave (not a wiggle like an over aggressive gyro can cause though) and it eventually ended up causing a crash, don't worry I will get crash damage pics up later. I was lucky though and it didn't seem to hurt any electronics or the central core of the car.

It really felt like I had to much rear downforce and that the car could not get enough load on the front to track straight. I am going to make some changes to the setup on my gyro though as it is possible it was acting up but I am not sure yet.

So I am going to stop using a rear wing and switch to just big upright vertical stabilizers as I think they will make enough downforce with drag to keep the back down but not so much that I have handling problems. The big decision is how big should I go, a very large side mounted stabilizer (dark gray) or a smaller rear deck mounted one (light gray). I am thinking I should go big as I can always trim it down easier than add to. Given enough time I will try both but I still have many other things to try to work out to match a given wing setup so I have a good overall package.

On an upside I think I have found a better place to run as I have gotten permission to use a closed airstrip that is supposed to be in decent shape (I will check it out this weekend to see for myself). Hopefully it will work out.

Pretty pictures and some testing

Finally got some runs in this weekend and so far so good for the most part. I put in a 28 tooth pinion and went out and found the largest parking lot I could find (which still wasn't big enough) and started out doing some runs on 2s first and it handled great and was actually pretty tame. This was good since the parking lot was actually to rough, my buddy Scott's TC4 which has an undertray (and less ground clearance) and less downforce was having trouble staying on the ground and was really giving him fits at times (mainly from loose pebbles and whatnot on the asphalt).

After a bit I put the second battery in and did a few slow runs and nothing smoked itself so I looked over at Scott and told him I was going to nail it, we both agreed it was a bad idea given the surface and I did it anyway. I have to tell you I was very surprised at the stability, now I didn't get to stay in it for real long because of room but it was amazing for the time it lasted. I have never driven something so brutally fast and the spring pollen on the ground that rose up from underneath it made it look just like a landspeed racer blasting across the Bonneville Salt Flats. I know I need to go buy some sort of speed measuring device to see where I am at speed wise but at the moment I am really more worried about stability and reliability.

The only real bummer was after a couple of 4s full throttle jaunts the spur gear let go. Now I felt pretty good about the mesh (it looked good after running 2s) so I am not sure if it picked up a rock, couldn't handle 4s power, I need to change the mesh for 4s power, or even if maybe I got onto the throttle too fast. With some more testing I hope to straighten it out and with any luck my contact at a local small airport will come through and I will get a chance to really stretch it out on the strip.

Anyway I borrowed a decent camera to get some nice shots in case I destroyed the car testing. I really flubbed the paint job and had to strip it and repaint it so the paint job is not the best but I will hopefully have a prettier one for the first race.

Running out of time gotta keep on, keepin' on!

Made a few bits and pieces to get the body and wing mounted and basically try to get some runs in this weekend. I also recieved my tires from BSR so I will balance them, finish up the last of the modifications and add-ons, paint the body and let 'er rip.


I waterjet some mounts to attach the rear wing to the shock
towers as I feel it will be best to put the force from the wing directly into the chassis instead of into the lexan body. I will bend a section of .078 piano wire into an upside down "L" attach it to the wing with buttons and in slips into the bracket and is held by set screws.





Here is another angle of the wing mounts and a view of the extension I had to make for the rear body mounts. I still need to countersink the screw heads and decide on a finish on most of the parts... just trying to get it all done at the moment.




I also made a new front under bumper out of aluminum that was bigger to hold the lexan front-lip spoiler I am planning on using. This way it can be interchangable so that I can adjust downforce with different lips.

Basically it won't be long now, at least I hope so as I really need to test this thing!

Its Official

Barring any catastrophe, the ticket has been reserved and I am going to the ISC event at the Encino Velodrome. I guess I need to get this thing finished and do some testing, huh?

Encino Event Flyer