A few missing things

Back to normal!? After the speed show we have had a bit of a hiatus while we got back to more mundane things like sorting out paper work and catching up on sleep.

The passing of time also helps to address things you are waiting on. At the speed show, we were still waiting on the completion of a few key components. The good news is that our half shafts have been completed and Bruce has sent them up from Bunnythorpe.

The bad news is that we are still waiting on the completion of the inverter software required to drive the car. It appears that the software engineering has been more time consuming than expected (who forgot to double the estimate?), but it shouldn't be too far away now. The first cut is expected in late November.

In the meantime we have been working on our proposal for potential major sponsors. As a direct result of the Speed Show, we have already been approached by one likely candidate (they were on our list of potential sponsors). We believe the marketing opportunities are immense and we hope to expand the imagination and reality of both the public and corporate partners with what we have to offer.

Stay tuned as we knock off the remaining tasks in preparation for the track.

Speed Show (open to the public)

Busy day, many questions, many interesting people...


The decision to go public with this project at the speed show has been a good one. We have already established a number of personal and business level contacts which will be useful now and in the future and I'm sure in return we will be just as useful as a resource and motivational example for many of the people that stopped to have a look.

If you are in the Auckland area and you haven't been to the show yet, come and see us tomorrow. It's a great show and we would love to meet you.

-Philip

At the speed show!

We made it. We have stand 125 at the Speed Show which is open this weekend (the 2oth and 21st September at the ASB Show Grounds in Greenlane, Auckland).

This morning we were busy setting up and this afternoon from 2pm we were open for the trade, sponsor and media only preview. I didn't manage to get any photos of the completed stand, but I promise to get some for tomorrow. To whet your appetite, here are a few photos of the car which we captured over the last week while we have been working on it. The picture of the dash shows the EVision fired up and connected to the test pack.


It has taken many late nights by a number of people to achieve this and the result is well worth it. Special thanks to Bruce, Paul, Tom, Ed, Vik and Michael. It takes amazing people to produce amazing results and we are well on the way.

The trip back home

In case you are wondering, yes, we have made it back to Auckland.

We left Bunnythorpe on Saturday at 3:15pm and arrived back in Auckland on Sunday at about 2pm (after spending the night in Thames).

Suffice to say we are now flat out getting the car ready for the speed show. I will update the blog some more closer to the show.

Day 11

One and a half days until the car and I return to Auckland. Work harder!

Since the windscreen was booked in to be installed at 2pm today, we needed to get the dash permanent installed. Some of the switches I was waiting for had not arrived, so I ran cables without the switches attached, this job would be twice as hard with the dash installed. The dash (which is now black) is riveted in and waiting for the glazier. It's starting to look nice.



The glazier arrived pretty much on time as I was tidying up and making sure the felt was sitting nicely above the dash board. Clint went through his preparations, cleaning the glass and masking the edges etc. The glass had some glue residue from the tape that had held it in place over the last 9 months while it has been waiting for us! A bit of turps and a glass scraper did the trick. The end result is quite stunning. The car looks so much better with the front window in.

After the dash and window saga, I completed the radiator install (a few bolts and a couple of brackets hold it down against high density stick on foam attached to the new air deflectors (required for the small radiator).

Bruce and Paul continued with the welding and grinding... Inverter mount points are now sorted and Bruce has started shortening the central harness mount points because the stuck out far to much and caused issues with space.

Anyway, time for bed. The car is looking good.

Day 10

Today we went shopping. Yes, it was the trip we planed on Monday. Took about 2 hours, but we got all the items: threaded rod, 2 radiator caps (one for the radiator and one for the header tube at the top of the system because the radiator is at the bottom), radiator and heater hose, dash switches, ignition key, fuse box and brake fluid).

In the workshop we completed the contactor bracket and and prepared the mounting points for the new radiator (it is smaller than normally used so the deflectors needed to be enlarged). Bruce had a small heomorage when he relised one of his measurements for the machining being done to the halfshaft was wrong. Luckily he got through to the machine shop before they started the job. All turned out well :)

Earlier in the day I sent out an email to various people I know, have been in contact with recently or that might be interested in what we are doing. Already I have had a lot of positive feedback on the project. Unfortunately though, for those that were new to the site and happened to have saved the blog's RSS feed, they will have probably got a bad feed address (this has only been a problem in the last 16 hrs). It's fixed now, but of course if you are relying on the rss feed, you wont be reading this!? Never mind...

Tomorrow lots of things are coming together. Final installation of dash, windscreen goes in, seats should be complete, boss kit and steering wheel arrives, inverter mount points completed. It's all coming together.

Day 9

I have transport back to Auckland! My brother is going to be in the area and has offered to stay an extra night to take the car and myself back up the island (to Thames anyway). This is good because the best transporter option we could find was going to pick the car up Monday and deliver it on Tuesday which is not ideal (I want to be back in Auckland Monday at the latest).

Today Bruce and I sorted out the floor pan area for the temporary battery pack and I ordered a couple of acrylic covers for the pack to keep fingers out while the rear of the car is off (this is not a long term solution, but will serve a important purpose while we have the test pack in).

Bruce also got into building the mount point for the contactor. we are creating an aluminum frame (which bolts to the top of the motor) to hold it. Bruce has cut all the aluminum so it is ready to be welded tomorrow.

I finalised positions for various buttons today (nothing is final until the holes are drilled). This meant I was able to start running wires and creating the looms for the various sets of buttons and switches (e.g. up, down, select and menu button loom for the dash2 on board computer). Still a bit more to do and I would like to get another key switch because the one I have from Bruce is missing a few bits and seems to have a strange auxillary behaviour (haven't tested it out electricaly, but mechanically it doesn't seem right).

Three days until departure.