|
07/24/19 Sorry for the total lack of posts - I did do a few key updates on our FB page, but haven't gathered the energy to do proper blogs. It was supposed to be the easiest Pikes Peak yet for us but turned out quite the opposite. The most intense and emotional. The unified blog below reconstructs key milestones of the event. I will also create a separate blog for the D2EV because there is more that these two (yes two) cars are supposed to do. Anyway, here goes. 06/21/19 The crazy week of preparation is over. Tomorrow early AM we leave for Colorado. In the last few days a number of things were designed, molds fabricated, parts made and installed. Yes a week ago some of this didn't exist even conceptually. Canopy mounts, doors and windows. I cheated a bit on the driver door by leaving the window glass out and putting a temporary button latch on top, but it will work for the race.
The 'barge boards' - from molds to parts.
Rear spoiler.
Rear wing mount.
Car 2 chassis assembly. We didn't get it running in time (wasn't needed anyway), but it's a full set of spares and the plan is to display it at Fan Fest. Our partners and sponsors, Cascadia Motion, will transport it with their own van and trailer that are identical to ours (and will be used to transport the finished car when they take possession of it).
Finally, Friday, half hour before our self-imposed deadline, Car 1 is ready to load for the trip. It's a huge sense of relief and accomplishment for the team. As well as anxiety about all that still lies ahead. A big milestone in the race to the starting line.
06/24/19 The two-day trip was uneventful - the new van and trailer are awesome! Comfortably cruising 75 including up and down long grades. Perfectly stable even in gusty crosswinds. It did look pretty iffy weather-wise through parts of Wyoming, but on arrival in Colorado Springs the weather looked considerably better.
Today is tech inspection, which we pass. Our original plan was to paint the car white (which is the color it will be eventually). It then became the plan to vinyl-wrap it white later in the week. But upon arriving at tech we confirmed our suspicion that we have to go through with the car as it's going to race. So primer grey it is. Doesn't look too bad actually.
Next is figuring out how we're going to charge the car at the rental house. We need a 240V 50A circuit. After locating the breaker panel and looking at the fuses, the best one is for the kitchen stove. So we pull it out, go to Home Depot to get the right plugs and cable to build an adapter, and we're in business.
Finally some testing at PPIR because we haven't run the car at all since we've made massive changes to it, and the Mountain is not the ideal place to shake things down. It goes pretty well, although the car is unstable over a big high speed bump. We make a few software tweaks and we're ready for the top section test tomorrow.
6/25/19 The first test of the new car on the Mountain, and the harshest being on the bumpy upper section. We are told the bumps are the worst they've been yet. It is the heaviest (unfortunately) car we've ever built. At nearly 3,500 lbs with driver it's more than 1,000 lbs heavier than anything we've run before. The suspension is all new and experimental, especially the third shock. I had made some educated guesses at the settings and the valving, but the behavior over bumps in ORP testing has left some concerns. Ideally we'd have another month to sort everything out, but we don't.
Greg completes one run, gets out and tells me the car is undrivable over the bumps. Turns out he had spun but managed to keep it on the road somehow (in the video linked at the end of the blog, look for skid marks at around 9:28 - those are ours from testing). Unless I come up with some fixes by race day the car is too dangerous to run - Greg says that if he drove slow enough to be safe there's no point to even bother. This is coming from the guy who in 2012 crashed his Ducati in practice, broke a leg and a vertebra, raced anyway and became the first rider to get under 10 minutes. He is not one to give up easily so I have to take this very seriously. OK, I've got a problem to solve, away from the shop, and we won't be testing up here again. Tomorrow is qualifying on the lower section which is much smoother, so we will still do that while I try to come up with a fix. 6/26/19 Qualifying day on the lower section. Given that on race day weather moves in by early afternoon, qualifying well is a prerequisite for having a good run. The pavement is smoother down here so this helps. But our tires are too hard in compound (S100 is all that's available from Hoosier in our sizes, which is an endurance tire). Tire warmers help but only just.
Greg does three runs with a best of 4:18. This puts us 9th today so I'm guessing 15-20th on race day after everyone else qualifies (ended up 17th). Not great. The suspension is too stiff and bouncy even over the smaller bumps. Greg spun on one of the runs after Engineer's Corner. None of this helps confidence. The good part is that we have plenty of power, as this launch demonstrates. As a demo for the capabilities of Cascadia electric drivetrain components, the car is awesome. Just need to work on the rest. I now have a plan for the suspension. First is making adjustments to shift bellcranks to a softer spot on the progression curve. This will soften up the overall effective rates at rideheight. The second is more radical - I'm going to overnight the third shocks to Penske for a revalve and they will overnight them back so I'll have them friday. We can still test at PPIR before race day. Of course I'm still guessing here but it's the only shot we have. This is where having the whole car's worth of spares helps - I send off the spare shocks and we can keep running on the ones we have. Also, talked to Bruce Foss from Hoosier and he's going to overnight us a set of A7s which are softer than the slicks we have. Yes we'll end up running on DOT tires but with the sizes we have and the timeline this is the only available option. Tomorrow is middle section testing, at least we'll see what effect the geometry changes have. 6/27/19 Middle section testing. Some positive progress, as the suspension changes are a good step in the right direction. We are the third (or even second?) fastest among the cars present, so that's encouraging.
We are back at the house by 10 am. Shortly after the tires show up. We get them mounted and head to PPIR for more testing. We also make some alignment changes to fight the understeer. Turns out that when I moved the steering rack forward to clear the front diff, I killed Ackerman geometry. On a car that actually uses the inside front tire, this leads the fronts to fight each other. More rubber doesn't help, they just fight each other harder. So we put as much front toe out on it as we dared, and more rear toe in to compensate. It worked to an extent. Tomorrow is another bottom section test, which will give us a solid comparison of the progress made, and what to expect on race day. Overall Greg is feeling much better about the car. 6/28/19 The last day of testing. This is as good as the car is going to be so the anxiety is high, at least on my part. Fortunately the testing goes well - the stability is massively improved, the tires are much better and Greg is able to take full 10 seconds off our qualifying run. Too bad it doesn't count, would have moved us from 17th to 10th.
The revalved shocks show up and we head out to PPIR again. We do a baseline run, then without them at all, then with new valving. The results are very encouraging - the car is hugely more stable over the big bump with the new valving. Good data. Also a coupe of last-minute software tweaks to regen profile. We'll know how well it works on Sunday. In the evening is Fan Fest. Starts out hot and ends in pouring rain. Tomorrow we set up in the pits and then the one run that matters.
6/30/19 Today could be anything. Something could go wrong (we only get one shot at this). Or, everything could click and give Greg the confidence and speed we need. Even though the car is heavy due to big battery that was sized for other roles, plagued with understeer and is running on still-too-hard DOT tires, I feel that if we had showed up a week ago with the car in this state we'd have a good shot at the overall today. Now, we'll just have to see.
David Meyer is here too with his twin-turbo D2, hoping to do well if the weather holds.
Bikes go first and immediately there are issues and delays - couple crashes and restarts. We were hoping that cars could start as early as 10am but at 11:30 bikes are still going up. The the last one goes up and we wait for the car start. Then the news comes that Carlin Dunne, Greg's many time Ducati teammate and close friend, has crashed and had to be lifeflighted out. There is a considerable delay. When the cars do start running, clouds are already starting to form. Some more delays and by the time Greg is on the starting line they tell us there is rain on parts of the course, so that doesn't inspire confidence. After he took the green flag, the usual longest 10 minutes as we watch the section times. The first one is OK but not great - we're definitely not going to win overall. Next one is better, and the top section is third fastest of all competitors. Looks like the shocks worked and Greg was gaining confidence in the car as he went. Later he told me it was very stable over bumps, despite bottoming out a few times. Definitely great potential, but today we end with a 9:55, second in Unlimited and 9th overall. An emotional rollercoaster for me. But that was nothing compared to what Greg, his family and friends experienced. As Greg sat at the starting line, there was one thing I did not know yet but he already did. His close friend Carlin Dunne had died less than an hour earlier. At that point the official announcement hadn't been made and only the inner circle of friends had learned the news. I can only imagine what it was like for Greg, on top of all the issues we've had in testing, and the uncertainty of the conditions. I have tremendous respect for his professionalism for taking the start and putting in a great run, finally getting us under 10 minutes. As you watch the video you can see he is pushing hard yet maintaining control. The perfect balance of aggression and prudence - I am honored to have Greg as part of our team. By the time David Meyer is lined up with his D2 it is pouring rain and he elects to skip it. Not worth the risk when he knows the whole run will be in a downpour. Eventually the event is over and the cars come down in the rain.
7/1/19 A very emotional awards ceremony, starting with an official announcement and a long standing ovation in Carlin's honor. Pikes Peak is a family and a community, and while I did not know Carlin personally, it is clear that his passing has deeply affected many. We collected the trophy, our 6th in five years of participating as a team (2016 was a two-car effort). Then started on the long drive home.
There is a huge amount of work ahead. As a next milestone, we're going to Bonneville salt flats for Speed Week early August. That will be a whole new learning curve and another iconic motorsports event to add to our experience. More to come. 08/18/19 Another retroactive post for an event - this time it's Speed Week at the Bonneville salt flats. Our goal with the electric D2 has all along been to do Pikes Peak at the end of June and then Bonneville at the start of August. We knew it was ambitious and that changes would be required to the car in between events. Didn't realize just how ambitious and the full extent of the changes at the time, but that's the case for all memorable endeavors. Took 5 hours with pressure washer to get the salt out from under the van and trailer, and to clean the inside of the van. Will deal with the race car and the contents of the trailer on Monday.
Below is the record of the events reconstructed from dates on the pictures and other clues. As an indication of how crazy the whole thing was, I had to look up official run logs to figure out on which days the runs took place, and correct the blog as I wrote it. 07/10/19 A bit over week since Pikes Peak and a month till Bonneville. We now need to decide if we are actually going to do this, and what it's going to take. If we change the gearing in the diffs to 3:1 (from 5:1), the car will be capable of theoretical top speed of 265mph. We have the power to do it - my many CFD runs at that speed show that our ~1,300 hp is about what it would take. Aero stability is the big unknown. We know we'll have to keep the wings but can set them flat to reduce drag while still providing some downforce - about 2,000 lb total biased towards the rear to roughly match weight distribution.
A while back I joined SCTA and got a copy of the current rule book. Going through it, the obvious list is parachute, tires capable of these speeds, head and upper body restraint limiting motion to 2", 11 lb fire system, steel driveshaft hoops, lexan windows, and probably some rollcage modifications. And swapping the diff gearing. A lot to get done in a month, but doable. A quick check of hotels and AirBnB shows that the nearest available lodging that isn't over $200/person/night is 100 miles away near Salt Lake City. That would make for 1.5 hour commute each way, each day. Not great but doable (people in some parts of the country do that every working day of their lives). So after discussions with Cascadia Motion, our sponsors and partners in these adventures, the decision is made to go for it. It'll be interesting. 7/12/19 From Pikes Peak experience I know that it really helps to reach out to the tech people in advance to try and limit race-day suprises. Which I did. A bit of time goes by during which I discover the only tires that will fit are Mickey Thompson LSR tires (at $740 apiece), but they will need custom wheels. After some dead end paths it turns out Forgeline can make us a set with the correct offsets that will clear the brakes and can be done in time. So orders placed for tires and wheels. It's a hefty expenditure so we're committed now! For driver safety we ended up ordering a Kirkey full containment seat, hoping it will suffice. It showed up a couple days later.
In the meantime we pull the diffs and swap gearing, then reinstall them. As I mentioned there are two cars, code named C1 and C2. Each has its own battery pack (P1 and P2, predictably). C1 is the race car - it ran Pikes Peak and will run Bonneville. C2 is a general demo vehicle and we work on it when schedule allows. Hower P1 had an issue with some of the cells and needed to go back to EVDrive for diagnostics/repair, so we had to fit yet-untried P2 to C1 for the event. This means we should really dyno it and see how much it heats up delivering full power for 45-60 seconds. 7/19/19 In order to fit lexan windows we need to drill through the canopy for the retaining bolts. The current one doesn't have enough of a lip to do that, so we have to make a new one just for this race (and upper door skins too). The plan is to have the full door operational and latching. I start figuring out how to make that happen. Our two summer interns are getting direct experience in everything from CNC machining to composites.
7/23/19 Time is running short. The tech people have some big concerns about the rollcage and other items based on pictures. Turns out a couple of tech inspectors live near Portland and are willing to come by the shop to take a first-hand look and provide feedback. Great! We set that up for the 28th. In the meantime tires show up. It's interesting how they are 'concave', must be due to whatever is necessary to keep them from expanding at high speeds. They are rated for 450mph.
Parachute and window net ordered from Stroud Safety, they are custom built and will be done in about a week. 7/28/19 With only 9 days to go until we are scheduled to leave for Utah, tech inspectors stop by. The list of what they want changed is daunting, neither of them seems to think we can get it done. Major rollcage reinforcement, steel hoops on driveshafts, extra paneling. The left side of seat head restraint is not sufficient, it needs to go forward to the front of the helmet but only goes half way. Yet it already makes entry/exit very difficult, extending it would make it impossible. If it's made to be movable, it needs to lock in place securely and be releasable by the driver. Driver has to demonstrate unassisted exit from the car wearing full safety gear. But, we're committed. I have some design work to do and the guys a bit of fabrication. Takes me a couple hours to crank out cage mods and get the drawings detailed to have VR3 make the tubes. They confirm the tubes can be made and shipped for monday delivery. Getting in and out will be tight but doable, based on a quick mockup of the changes. This of course is without bodywork.
8/4/19 Cage tubes showed up yesterday and Mark welded them in. Confirmed with tech that this will work.
Found a rem of 6" OD steel tube that is 3' long to make the steel hoops. This was the only thing available in time. Works out - I figure out how we're going to install them and Mark is able to get that done as well.
I text the pictures to tech for approval, and get it. Parachute is here along with window net. After some figuring out how to mount it all and realizing we didn't get a release handle/cable (ordered, will be ovenighted), the window net is in and we have a plan for parachute mount.
Our fire system is 10 lb (more on that later), so to get to 11 we simply mount two of them. Cleared by tech.
With the cage mods done, getting in and out is possible but even more challenging, even without bodywork. I still don't have a head restraint solution. 3 days to go. We scheduled dyno time for tonight at 8PM at English Racing. As we go to load the car, it does not want to move. After canceling the session, Chris from Cascadia figures out the solution and we're running. I call back to try and get the session done, and Lucas kindly agrees. We are there till almost midnight but do confirm that the battery pack can deliver 1,200+hp for over 45 seconds continuous. This is roughly 14C discharge - those who know batteries will be impressed, since even 'power' packs are usually only rated for 5C for 10 seconds. Temperature range was well within and slightly below expectations. We're good.
8/6/19 We are supposed to leave Friday early am so that we can start running Saturday. Huge amount of work remains. This is not looking good. Still don't have upper door skins made, but I think I finally figured out the head restraint. Mark fabricates it and it works! Tech approval received.
I find a suitable retaining pin on McMaster and order it for tomorrow delivery. Door skins are being made.
Wheels show up from Forgeline and tires are mounted. Everything fits, which is a relief since dimensions are radically different from our normal setup. 8/7/19 Head restraint completed. Works even better than I hoped.
A few interior panels are being fabricated. Parachute mount is now done and bodywork is being installed.
We have now decided to skip Saturday racing and use the day for travel instead. The official schedule made it seem that tech and rookie orientation only happen on friday and saturday, so we confirmed multiple times that we can in fact get that done any day during the event. This is very different from how Pikes Peak is run, and the Cascadia folks are a bit uneasy still. But we have no choice. 8/9/19 The passenger side door is fixed and doesn't need to open, so that one is easy. Done. The driver side one I get to the point where it latches, but I don't have a release mechanism. Time for plan C.
We cut the door in half, bolt the lower half to the bodywork, and make an evolution of the Pikes Peak hack that has a roof-mounted latching button and a hole in the lexan window for the driver to access it. It takes all weekend to get the remaining items sorted so we are way behind but still committed to doing this. We get word that it rained on the flats and first day of racing is postponed till Monday, and then till Tuesday. So we didn't miss anything, yet. 8/11/19 No time to even take pictures, but by the end of the day all is ready and we load up the car and all the gear for the trip. Monday is the 12-hour drive to get to our AirBnB. 8/13/19 After the long drive yesterday, we get up at 4 am to be on the road by 5 for our 100 mile commute. We arrive to a long line of cars waiting to get through the checkpoint. For all of us other than Greg it is the first time here. It's quite the place.
Takes some time, then to find a pit space and set up. Rookie orientation and drivers meeting is at 8am and we barely make that. We are told course conditions are very challenging with the salt still being very wet. Instead of the usual 4-course setup, only two courses are running. The rookie/test short course is only 1 mile (instead of the usual 3), and the single 'long' course is 4 miles instead of normal 6. There is an amazing variety of machinery here, both racers and just random hotrods driven by spectators.
Race cars are not allowed to move under their own power except on the course, so we have to tow the car everywhere. Getting it through tech is the first order of business - which takes several hours. There are many inspectors and each has his own approach to inspection and the rule book. They don't get many electrics here (despite over 100 classes for gas powered cars, there are only three electric ones going by weight alone). We are in the heaviest class, E3. The record in class is held by the Buckeye Bullet streamliner at about 315 mph. We have no chance of reaching that (our theoretical max is 265 mph) but because of classification we have to pass tech to the 300mph+ requirements. When all is said and done we get conditional approval, provided we fix two issues. One is fire suit needs to be SFI 15 or higher, rather than Greg's SFI 5. He orders another suit for tomorrow, so we won't be able to run today. The other issue is that our fire systems are 10 lb 'equivalent', with actual charge weight of 5lbs each. They add up to 10 lbs so we are short of 11. We eventually reach an agreement with the inspectors that if we add a third extinguisher pointed at the driver we'll be good. Of course no store in town has one, so that's another item for tomorrow. It also has to be mounted securely so we have to figure that out.
We pack up and then head 100 miles east towards Salt Lake.
We stop at a tractor supply place which has no extinguishers (really!?) but at least has hardware. Greg was able to get an extinguisher from a friend so we figure out how to mount it, then go to sleep. 8/14/19 We are back at tech with the SFI 20 suit and the extinguisher, but get a different inspector who finds a number of other issues. One is to close the gap on the passenger side between firewall and bodywork. It needs to be done with aluminum sheetmetal, though aluminum tape is acceptable to secure it. If only we can find some sheetmetal. Some asking around yields nothing, but then I remember that we have a pair of old license plates in the trailer. That'll do! Some fabrication, a few more labels and stickers and we finally get the one that matters - inspection passed!
Even though Greg has been here before (on a bike, doing about 210 mph), the car is new so the chief tech inspector has to witness our first run which has to be under 175mph. We proceed to the short course, spend a fair bit of time in line and are eventually lined up. Then a few more minutes to wait for the inspector, and Greg does a first run at 159 mph. Pefect. We are signed off to go faster now, up to 175 mph.
As soon as Greg leaves the starting line we drive along the return road to retrieve him.
Even after just one 1-mile pass the car is already clogged with salt, including the radiators. Fortunately we are not relying on the radiators for these short runs and we know the pack can do what we need without cooling. All temps look normal and we only used 6% of the battery for the pass.
We do two more passes, at 167 and 174 mph, working up to speed cautiously. No issues so far although the salt is rough and wet. This is a one-mile, rather slushy course so we are told it's pretty good for the conditions. We are also told that the water table is just below the surface and rises throughout the day as the temperature goes up. So it's considerably wetter the later in the day we go. The car does kick up quite a bit of salt with the aero. Just like Pikes Peak, earlier in the day is better.
We tried charging from the generator we brought but the charger keeps shutting down after 20-30 seconds (we had only tested it for maybe 5 seconds back at the shop to verify functionality, guess should have been more thorough). So that is a problem we need to solve since we are now at about 80% charge and a long top-speed run will take a lot more than the short ones have been taking. We also have to check out from the AirBnB tomorrow since it was originally booked when we were going to start racing on the 10th, and I wasn't able to extend the stay. I did find another one that became available in Wendover. So no more 100 mile commute. And, it has an electric stove! Charging problem solved.
8/15/19 Today is when we are hoping to go for it. First, a run on the short course. When we retrieve Greg he says the speedo showed 197 mph through the trap. Then an official drives over in his truck. 'We seem to be having a computer issue - do you have a speedo? How fast do you think you went?' - 'About 197' - 'Ah, ok then, they said 196+'. 196.960 to be precise. Seems it's a pretty good time for the standing mile in the slush and they wanted to make sure :) Another official later told us she thought it was the fastest run of the meet on the short course, and looking through posted times that appears to be the case (it's a bit confusing looking at the lists because there are also 'short course' runs on the long course, where the competitor has to pull off after 3 miles, so the way to tell an actual short course run is that it will have a 'quarter' speed but no 1 mile or 2 mile speed). One issue is that at about 190mph the lexan windshield popped in, knocking the cockpit camera off its mount. It popped back out as the car slowed down. We'll have to figure out a way to support it before we do another run. At this point our spirits are high and we head over to get in line for the long course. It is not as bad as it was yesterday (some people spent entire day in line without getting to run), but still long. This is all because of the conditions and only having one long course instead of three. But the wait gives us time to figure out windshield support.
I take a mental note of everything that could possibly be used for the purpose. Aluminum angle would be ideal. Ah, the trailer door trim! As we wait in line, Tristan and Jay go back to the pits returning with the material.
By the time our turn comes up it is mid-afternoon and course conditions are bad. We are told to stay out of the middle because it's slushy and rutted, and stay as close to the cones as we can. Mile 3-4 is in the best condition, but we are not approved to go the full 4 miles yet. After some discussion we get a waiver because it's likely the only run we'll be able to make today. We do our usual preflight - belts, restraints, net, door latched. Greg takes off and even before we get a chance to follow him in the van the door pops open. Parachute is out shortly after. Bummer. Greg said that shortly after the door popped the car started going sideways and he pulled the chute which straightened it right out. We look at the latch and it appears to engage, but now seems to pop off with even moderate pressure. We are certain it was checked on the starting line. Some cleaning and adjustment and it's functional again. We discuss whether to run again today or try early tomorrow morning. Conditions are already bad and only getting worse, so we opt for the latter hoping the morning will be better. My key concern is that the car is wide at 81" and wheelbase is relatively short at 104". The middle of the course is slush and we have to run off to the side. If one side hits slush while the other is on solid salt it's going to want to spin, and after thinking about it I'm pretty certain that's what happened on this last run (initial thought was that it was due to aero change from the door). In the evening we keep checking for any announcements from SCTA. The one that comes through is not good - the course conditions deteriorated further and only the competitors who qualified for a record today will be allowed to run so they can validate the records. We still plan to show up early and maybe beg our way in to a run. 8/16/19 We are on the salt at 6:30 am. Good opportunity to roll out the car and get some cool pictures.
Unfortunately the answer is no - we will not be allowed to run today. Disappointing, but after some discussion we decide to come back for World Finals in october. So the adventure will continue, and maybe I'll finally figure out the doors by then! 10/15/19 The weather looked great for World Finals at Bonneville, right up until two days before the event. Which is when the skies opened up and the lake became, well, a lake. Picture below from event organizers.
We looked at a number of other options, from the Alvord desert in Oregon to half-mile and mile events, to Spaceport America and all in between. Given all the requirements and gotchas (like we can't run the LSR tires on pavement, so we'd need new tires AND wheels since no high-speed tires are available in sizes that fit existing wheels), it doesn't look like we'll do another top-speed run anytime soon. So the 197mph in standing mile on slushy salt is what we've got. Car 1 needs to be delivered to the customer soon, and for that it has to be fully disassembled, cleaned of salt, powdercoated, systems updated, and then put back together. It's a lot of work. The doors are continuing to progress at the same time.
Concurrently with that Car 2 is getting assembled. It's now to a stage where we decided to take some pictures to show off its 1MW (~1,300hp) of propulsion (motors and inverters) courtesy of Cascadia Motion. It's a lot of power in a compact package. Below are pix of the setup and the result.
Click on the last picture above for full resolution version. A huge amount of work still lies ahead, and there are many other projects starting up that will be revealed in due time. I will try to keep updates more current. Site Sponsors and Links:
|
