The Morning Show cont...

Here is the interview thanks to the ABC/FOX station out in Dayton,OH. Enjoy.

Wes

The Morning Show

Hey kids! Welcome back to another school year filled with bondo fumes, fiberglass particles stuck in shirts, and electrical mishaps. Now that I have been back on campus I was able to access our SAE Supermileage pictures from June and put them below. The summer was good for Cedarville Supermileage and allowed us to get our name out to the media which resulted on a few news articles, exotic car show invites, and an interview with the ABC station in Dayton, OH which is coming up Sept 4th. Next thing you know we'll be on Good Morning America...Anywho we are all really stoked about that and the things to come this year mileage wise. Enjoy the pictures from SAE!

Team Co-Captain
Wes Muntz
wmuntz@cedarville.edu

SAE Supermileage

I recently returned from six fun weeks at Officer Candidate School for the Marine Corps so needless to say I've been a little behind on the updates. Here is an article published by our public relations department talking about our 2nd place finish at SAE Supermileage.

Wes Muntz

June 29, 2007

Cedarville, Ohio — With gas prices on the rise, the pressure to find alternative fuels and improve fuel economy just keeps increasing. To encourage creative research on these issues, the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) held its 28th Annual SAE International Supermileage® competition June 7-8 to see which engineering students could come up with the best “supermileage” on their self-designed and self-built vehicles.

Ready for the challenge, 10 Cedarville engineering students and their advisor, Dr. Larry Zavodney, designed and built two sleek cars, made to run frugally on regular automotive gasoline.

At the Eaton Corporation Marshall Proving Grounds in Marshall, Mich., Cedarville’s Gold Lightning II took second place with 1,240 miles per gallon. To put this into perspective, the car could have driven to California on less than two gallons of gas.

The competition included 32 schools from the U.S., Canada, India, and Bahrain. Schools such as Rose-Hulman (1,541 mpg), UCLA (832 mpg), and the University of Dayton (188 mpg) competed.

There and back again.

So the Eco-Marathon has come and gone and Cedarville had their best showing of cars ever. We were able to break and re-break the the school record a few times on Saturday. I must say our cars were the stars of the show with many onlookers and only a few jealous critizers. Overall Cedarville put the most runs on the board and GL2 never broke down once. We calculated that we drove GL2 alone for over 100 miles in the matter of a few days without a single problem. Talk about reliability. In case you are looking for stats, GL2 took 4th with 1135.3 mpg, GL1 got 7th with 897.9 mpg and "Slipstream" took 9th with 732.8 mpg and only one complete run.

Wes

Vegas Baby!

Our team has finally left the shop for the first time in months and we have hit the road. Right now we are staying in Las Vegas at Alan's house. As far as working goes we are just doing some wet sanding and buffing on the bodies to make em look pretty. Last night we were able to head out to the strip and check out the sights and shows. We went to the Exotic Car shop and the first thing we did was check the orange peel in the paint jobs. Supermileage has thoroughly messed us up. We can't even enjoy looking at freaking sweet cars anymore without being critical. As a random fact last night I dreamed about the Eco-Marathon. That's when you know you are obsessed...
Later,

Wes

So close, but so far away...

Here are some recent pictures. We had some test runs in Lowe's parking lot and things went very well. It was freezing cold out, but only the petcock on the fuel bottle broke so we were pretty happy.

Burning the Midnight Oil

It's 3:00 a.m. and almost everyone on our team is here in the shop. So far it's looking like it will be our second all-nighter in a row. We are trying to get GL1 ready to strap down in the trailer for our test runs at Kil-Kare Race Track in the morning. Dustin is almost done with his exhaust pipes and Nate is trying desperately to fix GL1's computer. Dr. Z just put on the clear coat for the front and rear body panels. FYI, we are leaving for California in less than 27 hours. Booyah. I am tired.

-Wes

Some random doings over the last few hours.

A quickie: Tubeless tires = frustration and impossible. We have done some advanced tuning of our Carbs on the cars and have begun the finishing stages of body work . The wiring of GL1 is almost complete. A few minor pieces need to be welded to make our cars totally functional in race type situations. Earl needs sleep, badly. Some of us need to find professors that realize Supermileage is more important than classes (ha ha). Our cars are looking wicked sweet.

We are still leaving at 6:00 a.m. on Friday. We bought new battaries for our cars.
~DUSTIN

The Last Weekend

Well, our last weekend of construction has came and gone. We now have about 3 days left to have our car completely ready. Last night Earl and Alan stayed till 6 a.m. getting the primer on the new car and doing other necessary things. Here are some pictures from friday and saturday.

Wes

Crunch Time

As much as we try and avoid it every year we are always in a rush to finish our car. This is what we did Tuesday night:

3-27-07 Tuesday
Earl finished making the aluminum arms for the front canopy hinge around 1:00. Earl, Dustin, and Alan worked on wheel shields at like 5:30. Alan got in the car while Earl and Dustin held the canopy/ring on the car. Alan caught his foot on the right side of the car body while getting out. It cracked a little, but was easily repaired later, despite Earl’s concern. Earl had an intramural racquetball game from 7-8, losing in two games. Then, he went back to the shop. He and Dr. Z. worked on finishing up the clasp joint between the canopy ring and body. Z cleaned the excess epoxy out of the slots with his circular saw, and sanded and repaired a spot with bondo. Around 12:30, they put the canopy ring on and epoxied in the final strip onto the rign, with it in place on the car. Then, they stayed until 2:15am working on the cardboard template Earl made the day before for the shelf that the hinge and trunk strut will attach to.

Test Driving!

Last weekend we worked hard and were able to get GL2 outside and running on her own power. Here is a video of Alan driving in the parking lot with Dustin's modified engine. In other news the canopy is mounted, the front end is almost able hinge on and off, and our computer is here. Now we just have to figure out how it works.

10 days till we leave! Remember when it was 20 days and I said 10 is half of 20 and 10 is not very many days...well, that day has come and no one is laughing anymore.

-Wes

politics and crunch time

We have very little time left until we leave for California. Just check the countdowner on the right to see exact days left. Yesterday Wes ordered the car computer which cost $700. We got approval from our advisor so that was good but unbenoniced to Wes he needed the Dean of Engineering's approval on a purchase that large. what a kicker. in other news we almost got Gold Lightning 2 running under her own power but before we could start it we got kicked out of the Projects Lab. darn you campus safety...

14 Days left!

So thanks to Dustin our blog is saved...anyway here are some pictures of recent activity here on the Cedarville University Supermileage Team:

Gold Lightning 2 with new drivetrain

GL 1 with her new paint job

GL 2 from the front with steering

So I Dustin saved our blog!!!! Wes had it temporarily shut down but I battled Google to the death and brought it back to life!!! So all are eternally grateful to me for my mad skills.

oh crap month...

20 days left till we leave. 10 is half of 20, and 10 is not very many days...

those are great words of wisdom from Wes Muntz.

Gold Lightning 1 shirt

Here our t-shirt design for GL 1.

22 days left...

3-12-07 Monday

Earl and Nate Roy took the new canopy off the shelf, and set the old canopy on top of it, matching up the marks Earl and Alan had made back at the beginning of the semester. They traced the outline of the old canopy onto the new one, adding and extra 1¾ inches all the way around. Earl set up the canopy outside the ENS garage door (the door to Dave’s shop) and started cutting the canopy out of the flange. Wes came back from Michigan, and helped cut some too. Alan came around 5:30, and we all went to Chucks at 6:15. Later on, Earl worked on getting the nasty decal residue off the body of Gold Lighting…Lindsey came by and had Alan fix her bike. Earl and Alan put the canopy in the new car (GL2) with Wes inside, and it fit very well. They marked it, and cut around the edge of the canopy to leave 1½ inches protruding below the body line, to do the fiberglass mounting with. Earl and Wes had a near-catastrophe with the canopy half-falling off the table, but the day was saved because the canopy wasn’t hurt or scratched.

3-13-07 Tuesday

Earl went home to eat at 5:20, and came back to work. Wes and Nate M. showed up, and started waxing the canopy with mold-release. Nate worked on the new brakelight some, and they all three worked for a long time to figure out how to hang the car upside down to do the initial canopy-mounting. After two failed attempts with the present setup, they brought the engine hoist over from Formula, and were able to successfully hang the car upside down and get the canopy in. It looked great, and everyone left around 10:35pm. The glassing hadn’t begun yet, but everything was pretty much ready to go.

Spring Break!

So some of us here on the Cedarville Supermileage team are staying over break to work on our car. Things have been progressing well, we are still a little behind but in reach of the Eco-Marathon. Here are some pictures of what we have been doing.

From GL2 March '07

From GL2 March '07

From GL2 March '07

From GL2 March '07

From GL2 March '07

From GL2 March '07

From GL2 March '07

The End of Febuary

2-27-07 Tuesday
After working for someone at the Hive from 11am-3pm, Earl went to the Projects building and cut the bowties in the floor of GL2 so the front wheels could turn. Earl rode his bike to Dr. Z’s house and picked up the pressure-pot gun that Z left on his front porch, and cleaned it with acetone back at school. Mr. K. came by, and they made plans to shoot the car with Duratec Wednesday at 1:00 or so. Alan came back around 7pm, and he and Nate M. finished up the rod for the front steering. Alan and Nate M. were moaning about how cramped they were in the new car, because of how the front steering is all up in your butt, and the thickness of the rollbar and helmet force your head down really low. All minor concerns for Earl, since he can’t really fit in the car anyway.

2-28-07 Wednesday
Earl and Aaron Briggs met up in the Projects building and started setting up the hot water heater and kiddie pool in the back corner of the Projects, by the surface grinder, but Mr. K told them to move up to the big garage door entrance, for some reason. Right in the middle of all Formula’s stuff. Earl got a call from Dale Bennett from Mor/Ryde at 11, and at 3, about working for them. The maintenance people disconnected the air compressor around 1pm, and were in the process of moving the tank underneath the mezzanine. So much for shooting the car with Duratec. One road block after another...

The Engine Team.

Since we here on the body/chassis team are a bit disconnected from the engine team Wes asked Nate Roy to create a bit of a summary of the engine work thus far. Here it is:

Well, we have the engine block cut in half and last night I sanded the two halves of the engine block so that they mate without significant wobble.

From GL2 Engine

From GL2 Engine

The block is ready for some aligning pins and bolts and then some final machining to square everything up. Dustin and Trent started to machine a new flywheel for a ring gear and starter. Also, Dustin chopped up and then trimmed a Briggs crankshaft for the crank sleeve. Matt and Ryan worked on designing a faceplate and made some mounting brackets for the flywheel side bearing support they machined last week. We mounted the Briggs stocker (a.k.a "old faithful") back in GL1 and she is now roadworthy.

Nate Roy

2/23-24/07

2-23-07 Friday
When Earl’s weekly senior design meeting was supposed to start, Dr. Z. came in the room and said come to his office quickly. The boxes from Shell were in, and Earl checked out the tires. After the senior design meeting, Earl took one of the boxes over to the Projects, where we all opened it. After working 4-6, Earl went back to the Projects. Trent started tearing down a stock engine for test-driving the new car (hopefully soon) and he and Dustin put the flywheel on the lathe to turn it down and fit a ring gear on it for the starter motor. Wes was fooling around with the front steering, and Alan finished milling holes into the plates for the new steering connection. Nate McLeese finished welding the tabs for his new rear brake, and installed new, longer cables for both the throttle (so the engine wouldn’t rev when going around a sharp left turn) and his new rear brake. He’d gone to K&G earlier with the new tire, and they told him to use an inner tube or use that glue stuff to seal the tire to the rim. Earl got the stock engine back out for Gold Lightning, and put the clutch on after looking for the bolt. Then him, Wes, and Nate M. put the stock engine back in Gold Lightning, and bolted the engine down so the chain was tight. Mcleese modified the exhaust pipe from the ’05 edition of Gold Lightning, to make a permanent one. The pipe exits the body in the same slot as the rear wheel. Nate Roy was working on Solidworks and engine stuff; Earl left at midnight, and Nate M. left even later, cuz he was finishing the exhaust pipe.



2-24-07 Saturday
Wes and Nate M. headed over to the shop after lunch around 11:30 to finish the connecting rod on the GL2 steering. After about a half hour or so they were finished and Wes planned on heading back to do some homework but he stayed. Earl and Trenton showed up around 12:30ish and then the four of them prepped Gold Lightning 1 for a test run later that afternoon. Nate hooked up his break light and Wes replaced a tire and put fog-x on the canopy. Earl and Trenton attached the body and once that was all done, but had to un-bolt the front body because they forgot to put the wheels on before fastening the body. Then, they had to unbolt the body again so Nate M. could trim the right wheel slot so the wheel wouldn’t rub it anymore. Earl drove the car from the Projects, up bridge street, the back way to campus. Nate M. had brought his ear buds for our cell phones, but it was hard to hear inside the car with the motor running. Driving around the campus was eventful, to say the least. The entire car was very reliable even in the 37 degree temperatures and 12 mph winds. Nothing broke, and the engine started and ran very well…a far cry from the old days of Gold Lightning in May ‘05, when Earl and Alan worked for weeks to get the car drivable for 100 feet without something breaking. Once when Nate was driving we got stopped at the big speed bump by the SSC when some band concert got out. Needless to say we were stuck in heavy traffic for quite a while and got a lot of stares. Eventually we made it back to the shop with a few drops of Iso-octane to spare. Everyone was satisfied with the reliability and a bit cold, but at least we have a car to drive… Everyone left around 4:30. Earl did some more bondo and sanding on the plug a little later, around 8pm.

2-22-07

2-22-07 Thursday
Earl did some more wet sanding on the new car in the morning, and came to the conclusion that we need to spray the entire back half of the car with Duratec, and sand it down. After two weeks of sanding, there were still plenty of bad spots in the body. Earl went to Dr. Z’s office and asked him if he could bring his pressure gun in, so Dr. Kinsinger could spray the Duratec while Z is on his sweet cruise. Later that night Alan and Wes were in the shop working on the back half of the chassis. They were able to successfully align the back tire with the engine mounts in about an hour. After that Alan tried to find some pieces of sheet metal to make the front steering connecting rod. Once that quest was over he made a model of the pieces out of cardboard and plans to make the real ones tomorrow afternoon. As a bonus i'm throwing in a picture our our t-shirt design. you're welcome.

From GL2 Feb 07

2.16-20.07

2-16-07 Friday
Alan wanted to have the new car rolling by 5pm, which was the meeting time. Earl marked slots to be cut for the front wheels, and Nate M. went to a store for helicoils for our rear hub. Dr. Z. had a meeting with both our team and the senior design team at 5pm. Earl wasn’t there because he was working at the Hive, but apparently, Dr. Z. wants to leave on Friday, April 6 to go to the Eco-Marathon in California. And everyone agreed to the terms that if a vehicle isn’t ready by then, that it will get left behind (ie, the senior design team). So if we really leave on Friday, we’ll have like 3 days to goof off in Vegas, to go to Hoover Dam, and also go to the beach in Los Angeles. booya. Earl went with Alan in the EMS truck as Alan drove over to the SSC for CedarMania, and told him about the meeting. At the Projects, Nate Roy took the engine out back of the Projects and tried to start it. It was very cold. The engine did not start, and didn’t sound like it was even close to it. Nate is pretty sure that the cam gear on the crankshaft slipped, and the piston may have struck the valves. Earl and Trent did the shoe-shine-style sanding over the rear section of the car, using sanding belt that we cut open. It took out any bumpy spots. Nate M. made new spacer tubes for the front steering after making the steering level with that digital smart-level. Earl did extensive sanding on the Duratec, trying to get the rear of the car to look good for our paint job. Dustin Winchester took the head off the engine, and found that the valves were in fact bent. Everyone left around 11:20 or so. Earlier in the week, Wes found the orange color of the 2007 Lamborghini Murceilago on PPG’s website, and Dr. Z. later told Earl that Performance Paint could duplicate it for us. That would be to re-pain Gold Lightning, and we’ll have Dr. Z. do our decals for us.

From GL2 Feb 07

2-17-07 Saturday
Engineering Day…after talking to all the visitors, Dr. Z. came over and put some double-stick tape on Solar Splash’s long sanding block, and wet-sanded some of the rear section on the new car, to show Earl how great a tool it is for taking out waves in the body. The sanding Earl and Trent had done of Friday got rid of bumps if you ran your hand up and down over the top of the car, but not side-to-side. Dr. Z. said the side-to-side bumps are the ones that would show up in a paint job, not the up-and-down ones. Good stuff to know.

2-18-08 Sunday
Projects building closed. Boo hoo.

2-19-07 Monday
Earl got to the shop around 6:30, and wet-sanded most of the car again, this time with the long, flexible block from Solar Splash. It made the job go a lot faster because it covered a lot more area. Earl wanted to make the body as smooth as possible so the paint job would look good. And since the steering and rear chassis weren’t ready yet, he had time to do the bodywork before cutting off the rear section and ring for the canopy. The wet-sanding exposed about a dozen low spots, so Earl did some spots of Duratec, and left around 9:20pm. Hopefully the bodywork will be done soon…the nose is still needing work done, and Earl really doesn’t like the prospect of doing it.

From GL2 Feb 07

2-20-07 Tuesday
In the morning, 11:30-12:30, Earl did some sanding on the duratec he’d spotted on the night before, before working at the Hive at 1, subbing for somebody. After the Liberia team meeting was ended by a fire alarm at 6, Earl continued working on sanding. Dr. Z. came over, and talked to Earl about cutting the ring for the canopy, and how to strengthen the ring. He also told Earl to keep wet-sanding so no shiny stuff shows (mainly in the front). So, Earl used 120 grit paper to sand the front half of the car, and the bottom radius all the way around. The heavier sandpaper will take out any waves faster. Nate McLeese was working on measuring for a longer throttle cable for Gold Lightning, and working on how to mount the new brake handle, required for the Eco-Marathon. Dustin was tearing down the engine, and found that the cam gear was very loose on the crankshaft. That is what caused the timing to get off, and the piston to hit the valves. Just what they thought.

1-8-07

Thursday
Around 7:30 – 8:00 Nate M., Dustin, Nate Roy, Earl, Wes, and Matt showed up in the EPL to finally separate the mold from the body. First we moved the mold to our bay and started unbolting to two halves. The University Photographer Scott Huck was supposed to show up to make us famous, but after waiting about 15 minutes for him we finally just tried to pull the mold apart regardless if he was there or not. One side separated fairly quickly but we had some trouble the right half. We believe that the tape on the seam attached to the mold was causing the body to stay firmly attached. After an hour of struggle, pounding, flipping, and shaking Alan stopped by to check our progress. Dustin was able to get a hold of a bit of tape and started to peal the edge off. Once most of the tape was removed, the body slid right out but not with out some severe static shock action towards some of our team members. After the body was weighed and set on our table Mr. K came over and admired our work and told us that it was the closest thing a man could do to compare to giving birth. Nearing 10:30ish we all dispersed.

From GL2 Feb 07

monday and tuesday updates

2-5-07 Monday
Earl glassed the bottom of the rollbar into the mold (on top of the WebCore) in the morning, to keep it in place for glassing the sides. In the evening, Earl made foam ramps to go between the rollbar and side wall of the body, so the glass could lay down at a 45 angle. He glued them onto the inside body wall.


2-6-07 Tuesday
In the morning, Earl glassed the right side of the rollbar onto the body.the Epoxy resin was really hard to get into the chop-strand mat, and really messy. Shell sent an email out, announcing the updates to its website. Registration for the Eco-Marathon was over, and the Technical Kit with the Michelin radial tires, decals, oil, and spark plugs will be sent out this week. Travel kits too. Earl and Alan both replied to the “share your story” link, hoping to get interviews and PR stuff at the race. Somehow, British Colombia didn’t register for the Eco-Marathon. Weird.

Weekend Updates

Here are some pictures from this weekend. we were finishing the web core, roll bar, brake/ignition lights, and getting the front and rear stearing assemblies ready to bolt in.

Weekend Updates

This has nothing to do with Supermileage/Eco-marathon but frankly I could care less. Dustin and I went to the Detroit Auto Show last weekend and here are some pictures for you guys.

Detroit Auto Show

A New Year...

updates over the break...

seatbelts, resin for the roll bar, and brake lights are here.

all the junk for our brake system has been ordered as of today (aka disks, levers, line...)

future work days will be as follows: tues 3 till dinner or dinner till when ever we stop.

friday 4 till 10ish