Race Weekend 2

It was a long weekend at Snetterton, with lots of mechanical issues on the car, spotty rain all weekend, and the usual biting wind too.  The British GT and F3 cars were fun to watch though.  One of these times I'll finally remember to bring chapstick too.  And maybe get better about bringing the camera as well. 

Testing on Friday was slowed down by a broken axle, though we didn't miss any track time.  We did avoid having to drive 3ish hours to the factory to pick up a new one though when they finally found a spare one in the truck.  That was a straightforward fix, but the uncertainty meant we didn't get to try any different setups on the car.

Qualifying on Saturday was going well, and Jamie was in 4th until the last lap when one of the other drivers was a bit aggressive and t-boned the car going into a hairpin.  The other driver had totalled his car during the last race, so I think he might be not the best driver, though he is pretty quick.  The same a-frame that failed before was clearly bent this time, along with the Watts link, and the Caterham guys said part of the hub should be replaced too.  Another part, the DeDion tube was hopefully straight... So we swapped all of those new parts on, and put the string gauge on and it was obvious that the DeDion was actually bent.  Then we took everything back apart and putting the DeDion next to a new one, it was clearly bent as well.  All this work made for a late night, but not too bad, we were only working until about 11:30. 

The first race on Sunday was going well, but something was clearly not right, as we were 2 seconds off the times set in qualifying.  Jamie did well to finish 7th, though he was clearly slower than everyone else around him.  We got the car back and started looking into what had changed, and if there was still something bent in the rear.  Eventually we found that a rear sway bar link had fallen off at some point on the way to the grid!  So the car was understeering massively and that explains what was wrong!  We got that sorted out and then spent the afternoon walking around the F3 and GT garages and watching some racing.  The crowd was pretty big compared to a lot that I've seen.

But then the last race ended on the first lap when he got t-boned again, this time on the other side!  We'll see if all the pieces we replaced are damaged again.  He will need another exhaust now, which is not a cheap part, and now has 2 bent rear wheels that are apparently not available at the moment.  So a frustrating weekend, but it was enjoyable overall, the time really does fly at the track.

Today I'm doing some background research for my thesis, and hoping to meet with my supervisor too.  Other than that I'm starting to make some lists of teams I want to apply for jobs with.  Wish me luck with that!

I did hear from Jane that they are on the ferry to the Orkney Islands this morning, and the sun is apparently at least partially out for them too.

Poster

I know Jessica has sent our leaflet around to a few of you - but for the rest, or if you haven't seen it, here is our winning poster design!  If you click on it and then click again to zoom you can probably see everything much better.

Dad and Jane successfully found my house this morning, though a bit late after getting turned around a few times.  Her phone is working with the sim card they bought at Tesco as well.  It was good to see them for a quick lunch before they continued north towards Scotland. It's going to be a super early morning tomorrow, as we have to get to Snetterton - 1.5-2 hrs away - by 7 or 730 because the first Caterham test session is at 9.  

We Won the Best Poster Prize!

Disappointed to not win the best presentation, but we did win the best poster!  It will be featured in Racecar Engineering, and we get a free year subscription as well :)  Celebrating being done with a bbq (cookout really) and pub quiz at the Social Club on campus.  Looking forward to seeing Dad and Jane tomorrow for lunch as well.  Then Snetterton for R300 race #2 this weekend.

Kinda the good life right now :)

Academic Presentation

Our academic presentation and 'oral exam' was yesterday morning, and I have to say it went pretty well.  Definitely less of an exam than I was anticipating, and we had reasonable answers for all of their questions.  Of course they wanted more detail on a bunch of things, but I don't really know how they truly expected that, given only 20 minutes to present.  More detail on anything would've meant leaving other bits out completely, which I'm sure they would not have liked.

Today is practicing for the industry presentation tomorrow, which we are leading off at 10 am.  More specifically, I'm leading it off entirely!

It was a late night on campus last night with the group trying to get some 3d models rendered and into animations for the presentation tomorrow.  I was here late enough that I watched the first couple innings of the Twins vs Red Sox game live!  We do still have some polishing to do on the presentation too though, hope we can finish that quickly :)  Totally off-subject, but that meant I ate at the Chinese restaurant on campus, where I ordered a rice noodle dish, and for the second time in the UK - either they don't understand my pronunciation of rice, or rice noodles are completely different here.  I was expecting the vermicelli like clearish ones, and instead got a fatter, egg/regular pasta looking noodle.

Finally

Managed to sleep until 815 this morning.  It felt really good.  We did get a pretty heavy but quick shower last night, well at least what I heard was quick, maybe I slept through more of it though.

It feels so good to have submitted our group report and poster yesterday.  We still have work to do on our presentations though.  I'm actually pretty happy with how our project turns out.  While it was going it just always felt like there was more to do and that at the end it would wind up feeling very incomplete, but I don't really feel that way now.  I mean, yea, there would be a lot more specific design on the car to be done, but I really think we've covered the necessary parts.  I know I'm biased, but I think our poster looks fantastic.  I don't have the final PDF, but I'll track it down and try and post it so you guys can see.

After we turned it in at 2:30 we went for a late lunch at Pizza Hut, which did really hit the spot, and filled me up enough that I didn't eat dinner.  We split 3 larges between 5 people, and I got a salad bar trip too.  Then we went back and discussed the presentations a little bit and then celebrated with a few beers and some chess outdoors at a pub down the road from campus.

This morning I've just returned from a trip to the bakery in town for a loaf of bread, freshly baked and sliced.  I'm looking forward to trying it for lunch.  It was only 90 pence, very cheap!  I'm watching the 3rd Turkish GP practice session right now, and then I'm going for a run, hopefully the ground isn't too wet from the shower last night.

Back to Work

At least for a few days of hard work to finish our report and poster.  Then we'll have most of the day Friday and the weekend to finish up our academic presentation for Monday morning.  I don't think it's going to be quite as hectic a week as I was anticipating after last week.  We've done a pretty good job as a team, minus one guy - who we didn't tell when our meeting was yesterday, and he never asked or attempted to find us all day long.  I am about fed up with staring at words on a computer screen though, so I will be really glad to finish up editing the report tomorrow morning!

I just saw on the BBC that it was a record high average temperature here for April.  There are apparently some wildfires spread around too because of the lack of rain, no word on records for that though.

I am looking forward to next weekend after our industrial presentation.  Dad and Jane are coming over, and the next Caterham weekend is at Snetterton too.

Ok, well I should go catch the bus, I'm really liking being so close to the stop now, makes mornings much less hectic.  Though it doesn't really save me any sleep, a few minutes I suppose.

Hiya

A little English greeting for you all!  In case you haven't seen the pictures that Jess put together of her trip, here is the link https://picasaweb.google.com/113518507283786281962.  London was really fun yesterday, even better because the weather turned out great, after a forecast of heavy storms that I had seen earlier in the week.  I took advantage of it to walk up the Monument, 311 stairs, and enjoy the view.

 So the weather doesn't look so great from that picture, but it was! I then decided to walk over to Borough Market and wound up eating lunch there too, as it would just be a shame to pass up all of the great food you can get there.  I decided on a Catalan Stew, which was a nice spicy sausage stew served over mashed potatoes.

There were a number of Tube delays and services that were not running, which made getting to my next stop for the Brodies Beer fest a little tougher.  I did finally get there though, and enjoyed the walking too.  I was in Leyton, which was really residential, and a very ethnic area too.  It reminded me a little bit of parts of DC actually.  The pub was doing a hog roast - not quite a pig picking, but as close as can be expected!

I did get a small tour of their brewery, which is located next door to the pub.  A very small operation, kind of amazing that they can keep the pub stocked from the size of their facility!

I ended the night back by Tower Bridge for a free tasting of some beers at the Draft House, and then went to Dean Swift for some dinner - which was a tasty herb crusted salmon.

A very good day, even after missing my stop on the train home and then having to get a taxi home because there were no more buses.

This morning I've been working on our report still and debating whether I want to take the bus to do a little shopping at Sainsburys this afternoon.  Although it is 60 and sunny, so maybe I'll ride my bike over there.  That kind of depends on how much I need to buy though, as it's too long of a bike ride if I'm carrying more than one bag I think.

My laptop screen has died again too, but at least it's working with my monitor.  Hopefully I can get it serviced when I come home on May 24th.  It's funny that I'm coming home right in between Dad and Jane visiting and then Jeremy coming over for Le Mans, but I'm really looking forward to it.  Just a little over 3 weeks away!