Vmax The carbon car

© Adam Pigott / Spacesuit Collections

At the end of the 2022 season we planned to build a new car and decided on making a carbon fibre chassis.

We named the new car Vmax as a play on the V as the Roman numeral for 5 and this being the 5th generation of car from Chainreactiongp and max for maximum and together Vmax maximum velocity.

The design soon got complicated as we would need a mould and to make a mould we would first need to make a plug.

With a bit of thinking we came up with a timber plug and then set about casting the car chassis, we understood that the main structural element was the bit between the wheels which carried all the weight.

The carbon cloth was laid up and and resin applied, then a core of recycled PET foam was added and then more layers of carbon. We decided to add a layer of Kevlar to give a toughness to the structure.

a further complication came when we needed to fix the axles, roll bar and motor mount to the chassis and found the carbon lacked the strength for bolting things to it, so we added aluminium fixing points within the core.

we decided to have a carbon steering wheel with flappy paddles for the torque demand and for braking

The build was difficult and beyond our skill set but with perseverance and determination we succeeded in getting the car built and racing.

Silverstone 2019 International Final

 

 

 

 

Scrutineering found some irregularities creating the need for carbon fibre grinding and cutting.

In practice the car was not giving the lap times we were expecting? Laptop says batteries under preformed.

Qualifying, new batteries car was back with lap times where we expected, but a long pit stop dropped us from 24th to 32nd out of 100 runners

Final Race. On the grid for ages then lights out and nothing, car didn’t move an inch? Back the garage we found the motor had moved and jammed, a few adjustments and we were back in the race but lost 25minutes and still managed to finish 81st so we were pleased in the circumstances.

Qualifying to race and Racing at Silverstone in a car we made from scratch was a fantastic experience and one we are looking forward to again in 2020.

 

Top Gear

Always an exciting race at the BBC Top Gear track at Dunsfold. 103 cars on track in practice made it very eventful.

race 1 we were again running in top 10 but had a spin and finished 11th

race 2 we were sat in the heat on the start finish line for ages and then failed to start with a Broken throttle, we were back in the race after 22 minutes and and finished 36th from 75 cars so well chuffed.

Bedford Heat 2019

Lovely sunny day, both team principals on marshalling duty when over the radio came the news that “Car has no power” flat batteries? New batteries installed and out on track for practice.

The short lap and relative speed differentials and some terrible driving by some cars made for exciting racing.

we kept up with the lead pack and finished 6th qualifying us for the international final.

 

 

As you may know, Chainreaction GP. are an official partner of “This Girl Can.” A national campaign that encourages girls of all shapes, sizes and ages to get into sports. We race in the f24 electric race car in the Greenpower series. Our race car is named Lydia, After a a much loved previous team member. Poppy, our newest team member has become the team ambassador for This Girl Can and hoping to be a roll model to inspire girls to take part in our sport or be active in any sport.

I am Poppy Trudgian, our team’s ambassador for This Girl Can. At first, I wasn’t sure about racing, but now I am part of it, I am so glad I did. It’s an incredible feeling: the thrill of sitting in the drivers seat, with your helmet on, racing around a track against 74 other teams, and it’s an even better feeling when you get a good result. This is why I am encouraging all girls, of all shapes, sizes and ages to get into racing. This Girl Can with Chain Reaction GP

Great trouble free racing giving us our best result yet 10th in race two with a mileage of 38.2 miles and 5 of the cars in front are championship winners.

We have since found that the rear tracking is out and shredding tyres and also we found a fault in the software. So more to come we think.

New look

A fresh new look for the car at Combe albeit  a familiar retro look, we are hoping that the success of the MP4/4 will rub off.

Apparently our nose is not legal and we have month to rectify it, deemed to stiff.

Two races that we felt like we struggled at with a 9th place and 11th place.

1. Back to Goodwood for the season opener car running well in race one which was very chaotic being stopped a number of times but we finished 5th. We gambled on race two being equally chaotic and ran a higher gear but found the race was not effected by any incident and we struggled to keep up the pace and finished 13th.

Copyright © Spacesuit Media Ltd 2019. All rights reserved.

Copyright © Spacesuit Media Ltd 2019. All rights reserved.

Copyright © Spacesuit Media Ltd 2019. All rights reserved.

Copyright © Spacesuit Media Ltd 2019. All rights reserved.

Fire in the Hole

Following a winter program of upgrades for the car, new aero and light weight rear end, the team headed off to the famous Goodwood motor circuit for official testing. Scrutineering went well and all set for the track. Car ran well for 3 laps and then stopped with a small fire in the electronics. Day over but that’s what a test is for!

We we’re unable to establish the cause and have rebuilt the circuit board.

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