A complete Solidworks assembly of the inside of the car exactly how it should be in real life. You can see our support structure and engine as well as steering system.
A model of the fairing of the car
The team likes to play around with different paint jobs.
This was the first design we made for the 2015 competition season.
Some members of the team know how to do rough finite element analysis. This is an analysis of our support structure.
The next step after finalizing designs was to machine the outside shape of the car. This is the foam master plug that we machined out of a massive polyisocyanurate foam block.
This is the machining process halfway through the final pass where it actually begins to look like a car.
Unfortunately you can't pull nice molds off of a foam surface, so you have to seal the surface. We use Duratec which is a polyester based sandable primer, which we mix with a high gloss additive, to seal the foam plug.
DeVilbuss guns we use to spray all different flavors of chemicals: Duratec, PVA release film, paints.
The prepreg layup of the bottom half of the car before it gets cured in an oven.
Boron fibers are much stiffer than carbon fibers so we use them for carbon repair or things that need extra reinforcement.
A rectangular prepreg carbon fiber tube I hand made that will act as the steering support. I was pleasantly surprised at how this part turned out.
The finished car on a race run!
Shouts out to our sponsors!
Meet Laura, driver and mechanical engineer.
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High temp female mold for the bottom half of the car. Surface finish is important on this part, and I nailed it.
Our rollbar adds torsional stiffness and protects our driver.
Oven used to post cure our female molds, and cure our (male) car body. All the carbon fiber we use is prepreg which is only strong if you catalyze the matrix reaction with heat.
Caution: Layup in Progress
Prototyping sprocket mounting components before machining a final version.
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2015 Supermileage Vehicle
This project is a special one. My team's 2015 CP Supermileage vehicle.The team and I went through the design phase in spring 2014 coming up with 3d models and drawings of concepts which were based off: maximizing performance aerodynamically and structurally, minimizing total weight, and accounting for driver comfort and usability. Next was the acquisition of materials, machining of master plugs, laying up molds, and building a monocoque prepreg carbon fiber chassis.
