Electric Racer Update!

[greenpower dude reloaded]

As you may or may not know I have been competing in a UK Based electric race car series since 2002 now and I decided late last year that it was time for a new Horsfall Racing Car!

SO, as F1technical.net and all of its members have been so helpful over the past few years I have decided to provide you with somewhat of an exclusive, a video of the new cars maiden test! It's still not totally finished I'm now spending most of my time on plug preparation now for the bodywork, so if anybody has any materials they could donate towards the project PM me.

anyway!! heres the video http://s18.photobucket.com/albums/b134/ ... 0_3337.flv we were only in the bottom ratio on our NuVinci gear box, just to check various systems work we are hoping to be approaching 45mph top whack!

Thanks

-Luke

[mx_tifoso]

Thanks for the update Luke,

I have a question about this racing series, if you don't mind.

How exactly do you guys race? "Wheel to wheel", or by lap times? I'm sorry for the ignorance, but I have only heard about this series through your posts around here.

And how are points scored? Or more precisely, how is the winner of the series crowned? i.e points system. And how is an event coordinated? Is it like a normal race series? With practice, qualy and then the actual race?

Thanks in advance for your response.

And not to be forgotten.....I wish your team the best of luck!

[checkered]

It's nice to

see that you've put the CVT in good use. Judging from the video, that's pretty much the lowest COG you can achieve! Best of luck for the upcoming season.

[greenpower dude reloaded]

Mx_Tifosi

Depending on the formula (either F24 or F24+) the traditional format is that the you compete in as many national heats as you want with your best mileage(over 4hours) being recorded. Assuming you cover enough miles you'll make it to the National final at goodwood where you compete against another 74cars all at the same time.

The other way to qualify for this is to finish in the top 3 at a regional heat.

Race day includes a practise session, support race (F24+) and then the 4hour endurance race.

If you race in F24+ the regs are virtually the same just allow for a longer car and older team/driver. These cars race for 1.5hours and have to attend at least 3 races in order to score points best 3 results count. Team with the most points win!

My first race is going to be up against Bentley, Blue Peter, Rolls Royce amongst others Honda F1 are rumoured to be there as well. Heres a link to bentley's site http://www.bentleygreenpower.com/ and Mine http://www.horsfallracing.co.uk

I think we may have the advantage in a couple of ways with our car, and with a rather special body planned it should be a good race!!

[mx_tifoso]

So points are earned based on the total mileage in the alloted time slot for each event? ..That's why increasing top speed is so important, as it allows for a higher completion of laps (?). And how is the points system set up?

The 24 in F24(+) stands for the age limit correct?

And how many gears in the NuVinci gearbox used by your team?

I'm pretty much all questions, sorry.....although I still have more for sure but it's getting late and I might have to get up pretty early tomorrow for work, so goodnight for now.

[greenpower dude reloaded]

The points are done the same way as F1, 1st – 10 points; 2nd – 8 points; 3rd – 6 points; 4th – 5 points; 5th – 4 points; 6th – 3 points; 7th – 2 points; 8th – 1.

its the inaugral F24+ season so at the moment its just a constructors championship but there is talk of a drivers champ as well.

F24+ is pretty much to do with age limit. The NuVinci is CVT so there is an infinite amount with a range of 350%

Yes the highest mileage in the time wins, much like any traditional race. don't worry about the questions, It's nice to hear your interested!

The entry of corporate teams has been announced today
1) BBC Blue Peter & West Somerset Community College (Blue Peter)
2) Fordingbridge plc
3) Longton High School (Renascor)
4) Battery Vehicle Society
5) GR Asia (GR Racers)
6) *ASGB Horsfall Racing*
7) MJP Racing (MJP Racing)
8 ) Continental DC (Team Bentley Greenpower)
9) Renishaw - 'Out of Hours' (Probation)
10) Flash Distribution Ltd (Flash Harry)
11) J.C.G. Engineering
12) Hampshire Scouts (The Woggle)

There are a fair few teams that pulled out, its easy to underestimate how complicated these cars are.

[flynfrog]

what motor do you use

also what battery chemistly

why do you need a cvt on an electric motor

what analisys do you do on your body

[greenpower dude reloaded]

Hi Flynfrog!
Every team has to use a Fracmo 24v 240watt motor and Yuasa Tip/Tilt 100t Batteries(lead acid.)

We use a CVT so that we can always be in the perfect ratio and virtually set the car to the correct amount of amps.

As for the bodywork I have just designed it using the somewhat limited aero knowledge if you know of anybody that could run it in CFD or something like that it would be greatly appriciated!

I can convert my model into the following formats,
VRML, Parasolid transmit file, Stereo Lithography File, IGES File, Medusa Model file. I made it in pro/Desktop a couple of months ago.

[flynfrog]

Cool in solar car racing we can use any motor we want the NGM motor we used had variable air gap or timing so that it didn't need gears and was a hub motor so it was bolted directly to the wheels.

[greenpower dude reloaded]

Niice!! I'd love to have a go with a hub motor, I think its such good way of driving a vehicle as its so compact and is even more simple than the set up we have.

[flynfrog]

Niice!! I'd love to have a go with a hub motor, I think its such good way of driving a vehicle as its so compact and is even more simple than the set up we have.

It adds a lot of unsprung weight though and all of your wires move with the suspension


but you can cut all of the weing and rotating mass of a drive train down to nothing

[greenpower dude reloaded]

Ahh but you see we don't need to have suspension anymore so we have done away with it all together, there is some chassis flex but all in all its pretty good so it would still be interesting to try one, if only i had the time....

So what comp do you compete in then flynfrog?

[flynfrog]

I competed in Formula Sun Grand Prix 2003 2005
American Solar challenge 2003
also North American solar challenge 2005


Me taking a nap in the car

Driving the car

[greenpower dude reloaded]

WOW!! that really is something.... I'm impressed. What sort of speed did it top out at?? ours has a target of around 45mph but that may be a tad ambitious prior to development, we only have a 240watt motor so its still not bad going even if it does sound somewhat pedestrian.

[flynfrog]

WOW!! that really is something.... I'm impressed. What sort of speed did it top out at?? ours has a target of around 45mph but that may be a tad ambitious prior to development, we only have a 240watt motor so its still not bad going even if it does sound somewhat pedestrian.

I had it to about 80 mph it will go faster but its pretty scary the suspension was not made for those speeds

some of the better cars will run the speed limit most of the day we are in stock class with a less powerful array we averaged 45-50 depending on sun