June 29 Team Meeting

Dear reader, we owe you an apology. We haven’t posted blogs for the last two or three meetings — we’ve just been so busy keeping this build moving that documentation took a back seat. We’re sorry for the radio silence, and we’re going to do better heading into the final stretch.

Monday was one of those days where you could feel the finish line getting closer. With less than two weeks until we load up and head to Texas Motor Speedway for scrutineering — and then hit the road for a 700-mile race — the team split into focused groups and knocked out a serious amount of work across the car, the array, and the electronics.

Fabrication: Closing Out the Chassis

Alex spent the day finishing what we’re calling the “bits and bobs” — all the small welds that needed to be done properly before the car can be considered structurally complete. The roll bar is now fully welded, and the steering system got its final weld-up as well. These are the kinds of tasks that don’t make for flashy photos but absolutely matter when you’re driving at speed on public roads.

Charles had a productive day on two fronts. First, he swapped out the brake rotor bolts for flathead versions, which gave us significantly more clearance between the rotors and the caliper brackets — a small change with a big impact on how confidently we can run the braking system. He also fabricated and welded all of the mounts for the five-point harness, meaning the seat and harness can go in tomorrow. That’s a major milestone: once the driver is strapped in, this starts feeling like a real race car.

Crouton tackled the upper strut mounts, replacing the hardware with Grade 8 threaded rod and block nuts — then did the same for the steering rack mounting. Everything got Loctite. No excuses at scrutineering.

Rhiley had one of the more varied days on the build. He mounted the new plexiglass electronics board, drilling and bolting it into place. He also got the plasma cutter back online after we burned through a 60-amp consumable — swapped in an 80-amp tip and got it cutting again. On the chassis, he removed the rear suspension spikes — overhangs left over from the fitment process that we never trimmed — and welded a flat steel skid bar in their place. The idea is simple: if we hit debris on the road, the car glances off instead of getting snagged. He also addressed our ride height issue, which was giving us something uncomfortably close to a Carolina squat. Nobody wants that. He dialed the front springs down to their minimum rate, and the car should sit much more level now.

Winnie and Nina floated between teams all day as needed, and spent time going through the Solar Car Challenge rules with the checklist to make sure we’re in compliance across the board. Winnie also teamed up with Nathuli to help move solar cell strips — a job that requires at least four people per strip and zero margin for error.

Array: Testing, Laying, and Coating

Kieren, Matthew, Penguin, Gino, and Ryan spent the day focused entirely on the array. The freshly encapsulated cell strips were taken outside one at a time for sun testing, then brought back inside and laid face-up on the array frame. Each strip of 19 cells takes at least four people to move safely — they’re fragile, they’re large, and one wrong flex can crack a cell. Nathuli was an invaluable part of that process, helping coordinate the movement of strips and making sure nothing got damaged in transit. She also spent time getting all of our sponsor designs uploaded into Ninja Prints so we can get the trailer wrapped and branded before we leave for Texas.

At the end of the day, Mr. Bowen stayed late so we could finish the cell placement, and then I sprayed conformal coating over the top of the entire array — fully encapsulating the cells for protection. Before heading out, I made sure all the doors were secured and briefed the custodians directly: nothing goes on top of the array, and nobody enters that room. Those cells represent weeks of work and we’re not leaving anything to chance.

Electronics: Telemetry and the Steering Wheel Saga

Gino worked independently on the telemetry system and got the Arduino soldered up and mounted into a protective case. That’s a big step toward having a complete, protected electronics package ready for the car.

Kieren also completed his latest iteration of the driver information system steering wheel cover — printed in ABS, as always. We’ve been through a few versions at this point. The running joke is that he’s going to single-handedly exhaust our ABS filament supply before we settle on a final design. But that’s engineering: you iterate until it’s right.

Looking Ahead

Seat and harness go in tomorrow. Array cells are down and coated. The chassis is essentially welded out. We’re heading to Texas Motor Speedway in less than two weeks for scrutineering — and then we race 700 miles. We’re close.