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Author Topic: We're going Drag Racing at Santa Pod 23rd April 2010 !!  (Read 21876 times)

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Karl

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Re: We're going Drag Racing at Santa Pod 23rd April 2010 !!
« Reply #15 on: 24, April, 2010 - 10:15:13 »
What an excellent day out  8) We got to see a rocket car do 277mph , the Tesla got beaten down the track by an electric VW Beetle and Voodoo was mercilessly slaughtered by a speed crazed RadioMarty  :o...a meeting full of excitement and drama  ;D

Sadly the c-5000 didn't get to play. Although it is up & running, electricDave had a few safety concerns that we simply didn't have the time to deal with. As neither of us wanted to see it fail because of faults we knew about, we decided to take Challenger and Voodoo ,which provided a good opportunity to give the new metal gearbox a proper testing  :P.

Fastest C5 of the day was Challenger (no surprise there) , piloted by RadioMarty, managing 33mph while Voodoo managed 22mph piloted by Ray. Sadly the lights timed out before recording a speed for the two 12v standard C5's (Goldfinger and one of Ray's).

We experimented with trying to up Challenger to 36v but, despite a valiant and determined effort by electricDave, we couldn't get "challenger" to run properly at 36v so we put it back to 24v and carried on with some more fun on the track. All four of us has a couple of track runs each, so we had our moneys worth  :D

The A.E.R event itself was a huge amount of fun and a big thankyou must be said to the organiser for putting it all together. The Santa Pod crew were a great laugh and you can imagine the banter as the c5's lined up for their speed runs  :D.

This was our first visit to such an event and judging by the amount of fun we had I reckon we will be making a return next year , and hopefully return with some faster machinery.

As for Voodoo, it has suffered some sort of motor failure which will be investigated today. RadioMarty tasted the highs and lows of motorsport by having the fastest C5 time of the day and the dubious honour of piloting Voodoo when it died on the track. He was quite worried about Voodoo, but I'm a firm believer in the motorsport philosophy of "testing to destruction" in that if you don't break it, you're not trying hard enough  ;D  . Besides,it will give us the chance to find out what went wrong and correct it,  plus we've found a new job for Radiomarty - C5alive's official motorsport test rider  8).

Some pictures to follow;

 

 
 
« Last Edit: 24, April, 2010 - 10:17:43 by BooBoo »

Karl

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Re: We're going Drag Racing at Santa Pod 23rd April 2010 !!
« Reply #16 on: 24, April, 2010 - 10:20:48 »
My Santa Pod piccies;























Karl

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Re: We're going Drag Racing at Santa Pod 23rd April 2010 !!
« Reply #17 on: 24, April, 2010 - 10:28:16 »
..a few more piccies;



























The biggest thankyou has been saved 'til last, to Mrs RadioMarty - you are an absolute star for taking such good care of us (although I'm beginning to think feeding us so well was part of Mr RadioMarty's game plan to get the fastest time  ;D).

Team C5alive had a great day out  8)

Offline radiomarty

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Re: We're going Drag Racing at Santa Pod 23rd April 2010 !!
« Reply #18 on: 24, April, 2010 - 16:35:35 »
Wouldn't say I enjoyed but.... went back today with Matt (just got home) to see the Jet car and the electric bug. The place was mobbed with people highly recommended for a fun day out.

Karl -Gutted you worked out my plan to get the fastest time...........

Karl

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Re: We're going Drag Racing at Santa Pod 23rd April 2010 !!
« Reply #19 on: 24, April, 2010 - 17:13:05 »
Glad you enjoyed it as much as me and electricDave.

Did the tickets work out ok ?

As for Voodoo, the new metal gearbox is fine - as are all the bearings, the armature etc.

All that happened was the magnets fell off the motor casing - something that we've seen happen to standard 12v C5's  ::).

I have some spare motor casings so I'll have Voodoo back up and running at zero cost with an easy repair.

When you consider we are running 25year old vehicles at much higher speeds than they were initially intended for, I think we can safely say that Sinclair got it about right  8)  All the brakes,axles,steering etc all coped well on the day - so everyone should have confidence in their 12v c5's  :)

Offline radiomarty

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Re: We're going Drag Racing at Santa Pod 23rd April 2010 !!
« Reply #20 on: 24, April, 2010 - 17:32:19 »
So glad Voodoo is ok and the new gearbox stood up well to the pressure of the track - had a feeling from the smell it was brushes or magnets.I'll never forget that clap from the crowd as I finally pedalled past the finish line - thanks to Ray for the tow back.

Managed to get a pass out on the way home yesterday which got us in today which was great - many thanks mate for that- bring on next year - more volts....more speed........more suntan lotion - I look like a Swan Vesta.
« Last Edit: 24, April, 2010 - 17:55:48 by radiomarty »

Karl

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Re: We're going Drag Racing at Santa Pod 23rd April 2010 !!
« Reply #21 on: 24, April, 2010 - 18:02:47 »
I think the most pleasant surprise of the day is the reliability of Challenger, it has done the Test Hill at Brooklands, the Speed Trial at Mercedes Benz World, the track session at Brooklands and now several runs at Santa Pod with no drama - took it all in its stride   8)

ElectricDave certainly knows his stuff  :)

And no, Challenger is not up for sale  ;D

Offline radiomarty

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Re: We're going Drag Racing at Santa Pod 23rd April 2010 !!
« Reply #22 on: 24, April, 2010 - 18:14:12 »
Challenger really is a very good vehicle as yesterday proved - Dave is a very clever chap but very modest with it - I know the C5 grin very well but when you pilot Challenger it turns into a full blown laugh  8) 8) 8) 8)

Offline radiomarty

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Re: We're going Drag Racing at Santa Pod 23rd April 2010 !!
« Reply #23 on: 25, April, 2010 - 08:17:42 »
Worked out some times for Ray's C5 and Goldfinger from the print out at 330ft as follows :

Ray's C5 -12.24 mph
Goldfinger -13.2 mph

Not bad for a standing start !!!

Karl

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Re: We're going Drag Racing at Santa Pod 23rd April 2010 !!
« Reply #24 on: 25, April, 2010 - 09:13:37 »
Worked out some times for Ray's C5 and Goldfinger from the print out at 330ft as follows :

Ray's C5 -12.24 mph
Goldfinger -13.2 mph

Not bad for a standing start !!!

Those are good times in that 25 years after construction they are still performing very close to their designed speed .

It also shows the 24v kit is giving a respectable boost in power ,with Voodoo coming in at 22mph.

Although our main aim in attending AER was purely to have some fun and promote the c5's 25th anniversary, we also learnt quite a lot.

Hopefully the event will be held again next year and we can make a return visit - even better prepared. I saw electricDave yesterday and he is already working on some alterations for both Challenger and the  c-5000  :o , looks like we've caught the AER bug really bad  ;D

c515mph

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Re: We're going Drag Racing at Santa Pod 23rd April 2010 !!
« Reply #25 on: 25, April, 2010 - 12:59:19 »
Thanks all for a great day at Santa Pod.
The first run I had in my standard unmodified c5 nearly killed me.Trying to beat Marty off the line with some vigorous pedalling,at my age,was a bit much.But driving Challenger down the track at 30mph,made up for that by far.It felt like I was doing about 60  :D.
Thanks all.
« Last Edit: 25, April, 2010 - 13:03:46 by c515mph »

Karl

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Re: We're going Drag Racing at Santa Pod 23rd April 2010 !!
« Reply #26 on: 25, April, 2010 - 13:05:58 »
.....But driving Challenger down the track at 30mph,made up for that by far.It felt like I was doing about 60  :D.
Thanks all.

You are most welcome mate, glad you enjoyed it - and thanks for coming along  8)

We all seem to be up for a return trip, maybe a few more c5's will join us next time  ;)

Offline radiomarty

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Re: We're going Drag Racing at Santa Pod 23rd April 2010 !!
« Reply #27 on: 25, April, 2010 - 13:52:40 »
Glad you enjoyed it Ray - mate I was in a bad way after that first race too !Hence the sneaking Goldfinger in to the boot and 'borrowing' challanger .Great to see you there.

Offline Retro Andy

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Re: We're going Drag Racing at Santa Pod 23rd April 2010 !!
« Reply #28 on: 25, April, 2010 - 20:36:16 »
What and who's is the C5 with the alloy wheels is ?

Retro Andy

Karl

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Re: We're going Drag Racing at Santa Pod 23rd April 2010 !!
« Reply #29 on: 25, April, 2010 - 21:37:08 »
What and who's is the C5 with the alloy wheels is ?

Retro Andy

That c5 belonged to these guys;


Team: Richard Collins
Driver: Richard Pallister
   

Electric BMX, Electric Go Kart, Electric Scooter and Electric C5


They are listed on the AER team list (click on the link page one of this topic). Sadly I didn't get much chance to chat, they were really busy trying to get their go-kart running in time for the event. They didn't enter their c5 in the end which is a shame as I reckon it would have been quite quick - it had a larger motor and disc brakes front and rear, so had some real potential.