KARO II

After coming 3rd in NSW, my brother and I knew that this result was no where near as good enough as we needed it to be to be on the podium in the nationals. We gathered all the information from all the runs of KARO and gathered that the car was not consistent and was very unstable. We wanted to concentrate mostly on stability rather than other aspects for KARO II.

We saw that our wheels were very wobbly and that our guide pegs, being just bearings, were not spinning as well as they should. We then decided to buy some axle retainers and nylon wheels from RI Gear in Victoria as they were of great quality. New guide wheels were also purchased which were of higher quality. Learning from our mistake at the state event when we wet the maximizer, we decided to use a ‘double switch’, which was a switch which was soldered onto the maximizer and then mounted on the outside of the car. This meant that to tune the maximizer, the solar array did not have to be removed; neither was the maximizer going to be exposed. We went with the same 4-wheeled 'box' design, except we curved the front for aerodynamics. We decided to build it with a PVC base and a corfu body, as it was more feasible and easier to work with rather than carbon fibre. We bought a new 12-watt BP Solar panel for the car and we were on our way. The car was finished with a carbon fibre vinyl for that nice touch!

As we unpacked our tools at the racing venue, the weather was quite overcast, but with some sights of sunlight. We saw many inspirational designs and some competitors that we new were the people to beat at first sight. On Friday practice day, the day before qualifying, the track was set up, and seeing we were one of the few people there, we thought it be a good time for testing. We didn't have any ballast in the car yet, so our car was running 17's around the track until suddenly, the sun shone out and we did one last run for the day. We managed to record an unofficial time of 15.8 and around the next corner; the car flipped, crashed and snapped both of our right hand side axles. It was silly of us to run without ballast, as the car was running above one kilogram below regulation weight, but that is where our inexperience comes into play.

We had no spare axles, so we rushed to the nearest hobby shop to buy some. Quickly dissembling the car, changing axles, reassembling the car took a whole day because of other problems such as the guide wheel mounts and the body being a bit battered. We managed to get our car ready just in time for qualifying. Our best time out of three qualifying runs was 27 seconds under 40%, so we were very happy with that achievement.

Race day came, and all we wanted to do was at least win one race, as our school, All Saints Grammar’s record placing at the nationals was outside the top 16. Our first heat was against Daedalus, with us winning the first two races and we ran around screaming with joy as we won a race. People stared and laughed at us, some were confused, but we were very excited! We lost our next heat to tough competitors, but the rest of the day was devoted to supporting other teams and our NSW state pride. We loved the experience and couldn't wait until the next year, with a million designs roaming through our head. Final results came in and we finished 12th in Australia so we were elated with that result.

A huge thanks to our sponsors PRE Race Engines and ASV Computing for their support.