Students Blog Oct 20 - 21

20th of October

We started today with a meeting at 8.15. Waking up Chloe was a near impossible task…We tried to wake her at 6.30, but she fell asleep again. So about 15 minutes later we tried again, only to find that she got madder and madder as we tried. Eventually we woke her, only to find that she didn't remember us waking her up, saying that she didn't say anything at all (cough...cough).

The team went down to Hidden Valley, a race track to test the car, where we worked on the car, made more friends and tested the car again. All of us got a turn at sitting in the support vehicle, and take photos of the car in action.

The Michigan team, one set to win, came to inspect the handiwork on our car. They seemed quite impressed with our efforts, and we hope they took some inspiration from us.

There are many other teams from across the world, including people from France, Germany, Turkey, Singapore, Malaysia, as well as some other Aussie teams.

We came home, made lunch for the whole team, and went swimming…twice…

The boys made dinner, and luckily, we haven't died…YET…

It was actually very nice, it was a whole tempura meal with a lot of veggies, fish and for the vegetarians, chicken and prawns yum!, yum!

Tomorrow we are going to St John's the local school, where Mrs. Morcombe is the principal (Yes, Mr. Morcombe our pricipals wife) works…then going down to the track before scrutineering on Thursday morning.

The final team members also arrived today, one being the one and only Mr Morgan, but also Trent and Tom, two more of our drivers and ex-students.

Love,
-The Solar Car Team

P.S
Thanks To Jeandre', we all have learnt some Afrikaans J


21st of October- Team Blog

Today we had a presentation of the car to the students and teachers of St John's College. This allowed the team to have a chance to sleep in, save the handful of "lucky" team members of who had to wake up at 6:30 am to roll the car into its trailer.

We arrived at the college mid morning and received a warm welcome from the staff and students. First we had a meet-and-greet in the staffroom with the principal, Mrs. Morcombe (Wife of our school's principal, Mr. Morcombe) as well as some of their staff and students. Following morning tea we displayed our solar car to the school.

We were quizzed thoroughly on our knowledge of the solar car and its various parts. They were particularly captivated by the structure of the Ayres composite panels and its incredible strength despite its lightness. A couple of the students were given the opportunity to ride in the car. One of these students was rather short and given the offer to join the team as our personal ballast. He politely declined.

In the afternoon it was back to the track for adjustments on the cars brakes and telemetry (data gathering systems). Doug is currently working on the problem with the Bluetooth connections between the team laptops and the cars systems. He's fixated on the problem and remains in high spirits but wants to, quote, "fly to Redmond, Washington and hit Bill Gates with a blunt instrument".

Love,
- The Team