3/8/21 Three months after delivering the first D2EV, the second one is ready to go. They have been under construction in parallel since 2019. First car is now in Detroit, but this one will be staying local. They are identical except for color.

It is satisfying to see it all done, in the flesh. A crazy amount of effort went into building it. The D2EV is the most complex thing we've built to date. This particular one is the 30th car we've completed. A big milestone on a journey that started over 15 years ago.

I was recently experimenting with upscaling old videos (impressive tech btw) and this one from 9/18/2006 brought back memories.

From that car to this one, the journey has been eventful, at times exasperating. Learning something new every day. Still.

And the slightly older sibling for comparison.

In other news, work continues on bringing the D2 to rFactor2, in all the variants including EV. It's a substantial undertaking (by the same crew that created the D4 for the sim) and much work remains. There is progress though.

3/17/21 This post is more of a crossing the t and dotting the i. The second D2EV is finally titled, road registered, and delivered to the customer. Feels good. Yes, the door fully opens and closes inside a trailer - by design.

Lots of other exciting things in progress. Much more to come.

11/8/21 Making good progress on the final details of several D2s.

One of those items is the HVAC system - full heater and A/C (using VintageAir components). Of course the packaging of the car being what it is, nothing just fits - it all has to be custom. From figuring out how to mount the condenser, to evaporator, to compressor brackets, and so on. The dash assembly is all new too.

Now that this is all figured out, time to order the sheetmetal and make the updates to front and rear crush structures (had to revise the wing mounts too). Everything is connected to everything else.

On the new D2RS we're doing a different exhaust and intake setup. No mufflers, just catalysts (works well), and new to us heatshielding.

Other items include continued progress on infusing the carbon parts for the canopies and doors. Getting better at it every time. Still a steep learning curve though.

Really looking forward to having all of these done so we can wrap up D2 production run and fully move on to the D8, D9 and D47. Plus other projects too.

2/2/22 Lots happening, much of it on ModBatt and D8, but a fair bit on the D2s as well.

On the technical progress front - we got the AC and heating sorted and working well. Lots of little gotchas first time through, like how the heater plumbing has to be in order for thermostat to open.

We've recently connected with Daniel at VIA Films, who does awesome video work. First, we did a shoot at ORP a week ago. Despite forecast we were treated to a clear, 50F day in the middle of January - we'll take it!

The resulting video clip is fun!

I even got to drive the video rig for some of the filming, while Neil drove the D2. Interesting experience. Neil got to exercise his D1 as well, though we didn't get any footage of that.

Yesterday we did some filming at Daniel's studio. Very interesting to see the process, and the amount of skill, planning, work and equipment it takes. Will post result when it's ready, some behind-the-schenes cellphone pics below in the meantime.

Life isn't just about cars of course, so I also did an intro flight at Precision flight school in a Guimbal Cabri G2 helicopter. There are several reasons for this (yes, ModBatt), but one is that I haven't flown a rotorcraft since 1988. So it was about time. Back then it was in a Robinson R22, so it's interesting to see the progress that has been made. The G2 has many advances, mostly in safety and handling. It's capable of negative 1g performance thanks to its rotor design, which the R22 is not. The result is more fun, as this brief video illustrates.

While out and about in the general McMinnville area, stopped by the Evergreen Aviation museum as well. It's been a while and the collection has been rearranged significantly. The space building is now much more comprehensive and fun. Good to see it continues to thrive.

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