Toby and Alec look on as the SRZero is scrutinised

Today was a big day for the project so far: the Radical SRZero, the car we have worked so hard on in the past 7 months, was due to be assessed for road worthiness. A test called IVA (Individual Vehicle Approval) had to be passed. All cars that are not mass produced series type approved models have to go through this process to make sure they do not pose danger on the streets of the UK – and believe me the government takes road safety seriously! We went through the whole of the 261 page manual many times but could always find little things that needed to be changed or adjusted to conform to the regulations. Even Radical Sportscars who have done the IVA test with plenty of their cars said the test is not as trivial as one might think. Many have to go back a second or even third time to pass the test and this is something our already tight deadline in building the car in 7 months could not afford…

So up we got at 4am to travel to the Norwich test centre for an 8am start, having hardly slept thinking about all the little details on the car that could potentially cause us to fail. This was a first for all of the engineers on the team – we had built working EVs before but getting one road legal was new territory…

We unload her from the trailer and since we got there a tad early we thought we might as well give her a spin around the car park until we noticed that the gear kept flipping back into neutral randomly….uhoh, Murphy’s law was upon us we thought….first thing you do obviously, is to blame the software engineer – they can never justify that changes they have made to the code hasn’t caused the problem So, we got Alec to change back to the old car software – a version we knew had worked…they do say never change something that works…but the old software version didn’t help and the worries continued until someone clambered head first into the cockpit and surfaced again with a loose connector So that was that and we proceeded into the test centre already thinking we had used up quite a bit of our ration of bad luck…

There were 4 hours allocated for the test, and the first hour went pretty quickly. The examiner went around and ticked things off and wrote things down. Pretty standard really, until we got to adjusting the headlamps…now on a Radical you can’t just adjust it comfortably from the cockpit you have to get in behind the lights and wrestle them into position and make sure they stay there! Anyway now we’re sure that we won’t be blinding oncoming cars or maybe we should to give us that extra bit of visibility on the road…hmm….

There were a few other hiccups on the way all sorted out in good time…We had to recalibrate the speedo a few times because apparently our indicated speed was out by a fair bit until we realised that the independent rollers we were testing on weren’t turning at the same speed because of our split rear axle configuration…Then on it went to the brake tests – foot and hand brake. Now, you would think that such a high performance race car chassis would pass that with flying colours…well not exactly: the foot brake test went relatively smoothly – we passed first time achieving the absolute minimum of deceleration required. But the hand brake test took us about 10 attempts to pass! The examiner would run his test, we would fail, go back into the workshop tinker with it slightly and then try again….Somehow we just couldn’t get the calipers to tighten and give the right braking force…In the end we tried everything conceivably possible on the handbrake line and we managed to sort it out after about an hour…those were nervous times since the 4h deadline was fast approaching. At one point we thought the examiner enjoyed driving it around the yard so much he was just playing with us but at last the final box was ticked and we had passed all the required tests – an immense sense of relief all round!

It was an absolutely ecstatic feeling – the car we had built to become the longest range EV in the world was finally passed fit for the road and that in 7 months!! A monster effort on behalf of the engineering team and one we can really be proud of.

Personally, I never thought that the IVA test would mean so much to the project but today I have realised that it was not only not a walk in the park but also means a huge amount to getting the SR-Zero out onto the streets and helping us achieve our goal in changing public perceptions on EVs.

Today has really been a rite of passage for the project and a day I will never forget!

No photos today – our minds were elsewhere but rest assured the day was captured on video camera and a new webisode will appear soon at: www.racinggreenendurance.com/videos.php

So, it was in this extremely buoyant and optimistic mood that Toby, Clemens and myself found ourselves up at Radical waiting/hoping for the second motor and motor controller to arrive. Suddenly, a TNT delivery van rolls past the open factory door, and comes to a loud stop. We rush outside into the blinding sunlight with visions of the car finally driving with both motors, and a fully completed car running through our heads! It was then that I pulled out my phone and recorded the following video: Fake Arrival of Motor and MC 2

As can be seen in the above video, said components did not arrive, and so it was with an anticlimax to end all anticlimaxes resting on our shoulders that we walked back into the factory. But fear not, gentle readers, our spirits were not entirely crushed as we then decided to down tools, put on the bodywork, and go for a quick drive in the setting sun.

What amazes us every time is how well the car just works! It starts like any other car, minus the noise of course, and pulls away with confidence and power (and that’s just with one motor!). Driving with the sun on our faces and the wind in our hair put the disappointment of a few hours earlier completely out of our minds!

Tomorrow should actually see the arrival of the motor and controller!

And now for a couple of pics from the last few weeks:

Great news…Radical Sportscars have upgraded us from an SR3 to an SR8 rolling chassis and bodywork! And if you hadn’t heard already, the SR8 is the fastest track car in the world! (see http://www.radicalsportscars.com/news/international-news/2009/09/03/the-n-rburgring-story-part-one).

This is quite amazing for us as it is a stronger chassis with more space in the rear for our batteries and motors, and the bodywork is more suited to our needs. As such, this upgrade is music to our engineers’ ears!

Considering that a brand new SR8 costs up to £120,000, and adding to this the huge amount of time and effort that Radical employees are putting into making RGE a success, this takes our entire project-wide sponsorship tally to over £200,000 of in-kind support. As always, our continued thanks go out to all our sponsors.

Cheers,

Alex