Club run to Wundowie for the EV Challenge.
8th November 2014
We all got together at Deepwater Point car park and set off to meet more club members at Mundaring for coffee. Unlike many of our club runs, we were leaving at lunchtime instead of early morning. This caused problems in keeping the group together, so it was a bit of a stop and start affair. Our progress was also impeded by Greg O’Brien, who decided to stop and help some Swedish backpackers a mother and daughter who had suffered a flat tyre. Apparently Greg actually carries a wheel brace in his car and was able to help change the wheel on the ladies’ car. The rest of us were waving our plastic RAC cards!
Chris Forbes also retired “hurt” with lots of engine smoke, but his car seemed to fix itself on the trip home. We may get more info at the next meeting.
Here is a “selfie” I took while some of us were sitting at the lights.
We did eventually join Bradtke, Rad and others for coffee at Mundaring. After a quick stop we headed up the highway to Wundowie and the EV Challenge. This is basically a secondary-school competition to produce a battery-powered vehicle with the greatest range. The students had put a lot of effort into their creations and the talk in the pits sounded like any other race meeting. However the “cars” were mostly built out of bicycle wheels, alloy tubes and plastic seats. Melville High School did however front up with a fleet of monocoque machines made from wood! Competitors did laps of the kart track in almost complete silence. Some were quite fast and the drivers had to shift their weight in the corners to keep them on 3 wheels. Others were… hmm, what is the word, “leisurely”, “relaxed”, “desperately slow”! But, even at 20 km/h, there was often a fight to get exactly the right line through the corners. More than once someone had the car in front “shut the gate”.
Craig Bradtke organised an impromptu committee “podium” photo. Tony Armstong wasn’t with us, so Greg O’Brien, previous Treasurer, got to grab the #3 spot. Myself [Geoff Jagoe] at #2 and El Presidente, Barrie Nelson at #1.
Our job was to man the flag marshal positions and judge the quality of engineering. Unfortunately I had to leave before the judging so others will have to fill in the detail on that.
Thanks to Greg O and Greg O for organising the club run and to the EV Challenge organisers for the invitation.
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