| The Greenpower Electric Kart Challenge |
| The Greenpower Electric Kart Challenge is a relatively new concept of racing. Each team is a school or youth group team (There is a separate class for College entrants) and is supplied with strictly controlled motors and batteries. My school (RGS High Wycombe) is entering a team for the 2002 6 hour race that the final of which is to be held at the GoodWood Motor Circuit. As mentioned before, each team recieves controlled motors (Fracmo 24v 240W) and controlled batteries (Lucas type 096) to ensure that it is the best designed vehicle that wins, NOT the team with the biggest budget! I will be updating this page when anything interesting happens, so keep yer eyes peeled! |
| Pictures (This link will become active when we start building and I get some pictures!) |
| UPDATE 14/9/01: At the moment the team is just me, Harry Sharp and Neil Stretton, and we will start designing the thing soon. When we are done we will start looking for 3 more drivers and 6 Pitcrew. Oh, I will see if I can get the designs up on here when they are finished... |
| UPDATE 26/9/01: We have started the basic design for the chassis: spaceframe chassis with hydraulic kart brakes, and Ackermann steering. Mr Howe is at the greenpower conference tomorrow (Thursday) so he can get more details about the motors etc... |
| UPDATE 9/10/01: We have got to lose weight! No more hydraulic kart brakes, now we are looking into bike brakes because they are MUCH lighter, and no Ackermann steering. In fact, we are not even having a steering wheel! We are going to be steering with our feet and having a hand throttle and hand brake. Plus we have started the construction, PICTURES COMING SOON! |
| Update: 21/01/02: I know I havn't been updating this page for ages, there has been so much going on! We now have a complete rolling chassis, which is in the process of being painted, and we are now looking for sponsors. Oh, and the motors should be here tomorrow and we are now down to only me and Neil Stretton; Harry Sharp is no longer in the team. |
| UPDATE: 10/7/02: Ok, almost 7 months down the line from the last update, and we now have a completed Greenpower car. We have two motors (one in the car, and one spare), 4 batteries and a nice lightweight chassis. We entered the regional qualifiers at Goodwood on Sunday the 7th under the team name of Ergophobia, finishing 5th overall which we were quite impressed with considering that was our first real race! At the race meeting we also won the trophy for 'Greenest Car' which was really good! Photos will follow shortly, however I do not have a scanner so I will get them e-mailed to me soon. At the race we made a decision to convert the foot steering system to a conventional steeringwheel system, for a number of reasons. Our next race will be in mid-September, which is the Thames Valley version of the Greenwood race. Although we came 5th at Greenwood we still have a good chance of going through to the finals, which are on the 13th of October (I think!), also held at Goodwood. However if we place 3rd or higher in the Thames Valley heat, we will automatically go through to the Finals. Wish us luck! |