Endurance Day

Saturday was the day of the final event, the endurance event. Two drivers must complete 14 laps each around the course and the amount of fuel used is also scored at the end.

The team arrived at the track very early to set up the car and hopefully get some testing time in before the event. The University of Minnesota car was scheduled to run in the middle of the afternoon.

Suspension was quickly set up the way we wanted but a slow oil leak became apparent and needed a lot of time to be fixed. Even a slow leak is enough to disqualify a team from a dynamic event. The leak was fixed and the car was taken to the practice area for testing before the race. A problem with suspension travel led to one of the axles jumping out of the tripod cup on the suspension upright side and shearing off the turnbuckles. The team rushed back to the paddock, repaired the axle, and put a suspension stop in to limit the travel. The car was run in the practice area again and the suspension travel was maxed out the opposite way and a rod end was sheared off. By this point, time did not permit another repair and the team had to deal with another tough break.

Overall, the team worked extremely well together throughout the day and spirits were high despite disappointments in all the dynamic events. Everybody learned a lot and walked away with extensive knowledge about how to design a race car and what it takes to excel.

At the end of the day, we took advantage of the onsite chasis dynomometer at were able to get power curve data for power to the rear wheels, which is different form our engine dyno in which we read power to the crankshaft. Our engine was one of the most powerful engines of the week.