EV Development by River Raiders
River Raiders Win
Rod, Jamie and Wayne win the open (C class) race and Yuassa class in Roadbot 3 to take the 2012 ITC Global EV Challenge trophy.
Roadbot 3 was consistently the fastest car on the track, even lapping it’s stablemate Roadbot 4. Roadbot 3 had a big efficiency advantage over the 4 wheel car so we could travel a lot faster for the average 10 amp power we were targeting. In the end Roadbot 3 had used only about 80% of its battery capacity, so we could have pushed a lot harder.
Does this prove 4 wheel cars are less efficient than 3 wheel cars? While the cars had identical bodies, batteries, motor and controllers, we feel that there were some drive train losses in the Roadbot 4 that could be eliminated and we could increase the efficiency to get a lot closer to Roadbot 3, although with the extra wind and tyre drag of the fourth wheel and the extra weight of the fourth wheel, axels and diff, it will never be as efficient. On a tight circuit the improved handling cornering might be able to make up for reduced efficiency, but for efficiency races, the question is…. ”Confirmed”
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The first road test was passed on the gravel around the sheds. The ground clearance didn’t suit the gravel, but it was enough to demonstrate everything is working as designed.
A test on the concrete floor of the shed proved that the steering geometry was working well after being adjusted to increase the ackerman angle after there was some scrubbing with the first attempt.
The car body has now had a coat of primer and is ready for its first real test on the skid pan at the RAC driver training centre in Perth later this month.
