First semester done, looking ahead

Like always, this semester went by quite quickly.

We've made a lot of progress on the car, although
it still has a ways to go before competition.

Things are definitely coming together.  The car rolls, and
will be able to steer once the front gearbox is mounted.

This is one of our front hubs, and as you can see, they
are huge! The axle diameter is 1.25 inches.  On a standard
bike wheel, this same dimension is only about 0.375 inches.

The axles are like this to allow the car to take a beating
without any components breaking.

However, we were still able to keep the weight of
our whole steering setup (including the hubs) quite
reasonable. The hubs were designed and made by us.

Here's the back of the car.  The engine is mounted along
with the EFI kit, and drives a standard centrifugal clutch.

The left-hand drive of the Odyssey hub allowed the
engine to be fairly centered, but still line up with the
rear sprocket.

The car doesn't quite drive yet, but it's really close.

We've also been working on designing the shell, and
we'll start building that next semester as well.

Frame done, and other cool things

The frame took some time, but it was worth it.

Above is a partially completed photo.

And here it is!  We're pretty excited about it.
It only weighs 19.6 pounds on the scale, and
just feels light when you pick it up.

We're thinking of going for the "brushed
aluminum" look, which should really make
it stand out (in a good way).

We also hope to have several
components mounted to it soon.

Above is our new rear hub.  It's left-hand drive (which
is very rare in bike wheels) in order to line up with the
engine output shaft.  It was recommended to us by a
team last year at Supermileage in Michigan.

We're also currently working on adding an electric starter
to the engine.  It will allow us to employ a driving strategy
that we believe will give us the best possible fuel economy.

Fuel injection works! And fabrication is underway

Here's a short video of the engine running on the new fuel-
injected setup.  There were some initial issues with the
programming sent with the kit, but it's all been resolved.

We're also building the frame.  It's all aluminum, and
should be done fairly soon.  To build it, we're using a number
of "jigs" to hold the tubing in place while it is welded.

From last year's experience, once the frame is complete,
the rest of the car will come together very quickly.

Engine Testing, Electronic Fuel Injection

Here is the engine and dyno on the new test stand. 

This test stand was actually just designed and built 

this September, as the "cart and clamps" setup used

previously for engine testing tended to rattle apart

(the Briggs engine is not particularly well-balanced).  

Future teams will now also be able to use this test stand.

A closer view of the EFI (electronic fuel injection)
kit mounted on the engine.  This kit was actually

recommended by another team at competition last year,

and is called the "Ecotrons Small Engine Fuel Injection Kit."

We hope to have it running soon, and it should cut our 

fuel usage significantly over last year's carbureted setup.

Round 2

Wow; last year certainly was interesting, and the time really flew by.  It was our first time doing Supermileage as a school (Baja's the usual), and we learned a lot.

I'll catch you up on what went down over the course of the 2011-2012 year.

Here is our first prototype frame, nearly completed.

This would be used at a test car for the first semester, but would not be the final vehicle brought to competition.

Here's the test (AKA, bogey) car with wheels, a steering system, and brakes.

Things didn't always go as planned (which I suppose is a good life lesson).

But here's the finished bogey car, running strong, and giving us a lot of useful knowledge for building the real thing.

The new frame was constructed using 3/4" steel square tubing, with wooden jigs built for each section to ensure accuracy of construction.

Here is the completed new frame, freshly painted black.

Significant progress made on the vehicle.

This particular drivetrain setup included a manual clutch, which was unfortunately unable to be used due to inherent problems with the clutch's design.  Ultimately, the team decided a centrifugal clutch was the best option.

The team constructed a foam negative of the shell design.  This pink creature soon gained the name "The Manatee."


Unfortunately, the Manatee was soon discovered to be less useful than initially thought.  The thermoformer project was never completed, so we couldn't mold our body panels using this method.

The team explored other options for shell fabrication.  The method used consists of rigid plastic profiles (ribs), spaced at given intervals, with thin plastic bridging the gaps.  The ribs were cut out on the waterjet using half inch polycarbonate.

The thin plastic was then either glued, plastic-welded, or screwed to the ribs as a means of attachment.

We made it to Michigan!

Here, some final adjustments are being made to the car in the pit area.

Here is the car on a run around the track; the team got three solid runs in during the day. A final fuel economy of 239mpg was achieved, as well as a 3rd place design report award.

These scores placed Rowan in 9th place overall, in a field of 32 competitors.






The whole team is back on the project this year, with a couple of new recruits as well.  Some new goals for this year include: electronic fuel injection, a lighter aluminum frame, and general improvement on last year's problem areas.  The new car will be completely redesigned, and I hope to post some progress soon.

Also, here's an (almost) team photo, taken from the top of a trailer.