Finally... in Texas

Close to 13 hours after we left Columbia, we're finally in Fort Worth, Texas, and working on some of the final parts of Tigergen I. The car itself is set outside the hotel at the base of the trailer with some flood lights. There always seem to be a million different things for us to be doing before registering tomorrow morning (work zones near Purcell, Oklahoma, held us up for almost an hour and we missed the registration time this evening). It all works out, though, since we can still register and check in before tomorrow morning's team meeting.

The drive out here was definitely something. Our "Lead" van, the van that normally travels in front of the car, met up with us in Wichita, Kansas, after picking up our observer (a team member's mom). Our observer will eventually join up with another team in the competition to monitor the team and make sure they are all following the rules.

After lunch in Wichita, we practiced driving in Caravan formation. We had our truck and trailer fill in for Tigergen (which, technically, was there-- just in the trailer). Behind the trailer was the "Chase" van, which essentially makes sure that no outside traffic comes up behind the car. Also in the Chase will be our second driver (or first, if it's in the afternoon) and Andrew, our Head Electrical Engineer, who will be watching over Tigergen's telemetry system.

The race itself starts on Sunday, July 13, in Plano, Texas, so if you're in the area, definitely stop by.

Also, the 14 to 15 of July, we will be in Neosho, Mo. If you are in the area, you should definitely stop by and check out the car. We'll be at Crowder College. This week I will for sure have internet access, so if you email me (s.elizabeth.scully@gmail.com), I can get you more information when I have it!

As I write now (I'm on dinner duty), a lot of different projects are going on outside. The door hinges weren't place quite right, so now we're fixing those now. Also, we're working on fixing some electrical things that don't meet regulations, like making a kevlar shield for the DC/DC Converter. We're also attaching the battery box to the frame. Mostly it's just all the little things that we could do here without much difficulty.

Our biggest challenges coming up, though, will be scrutineering and qualifying. Scruntineering will start tomorrow morning after our team meeting and continue until Wednesday. Then Wednesday through Friday will be spent qualifying. The beginning part of the week will be spent with race officials making sure our car is fit enough to drive. We get a list of stuff of things we need to fix, and we'll need to fix it before qualifying.

At qualifying, we'll have to again pass certain tests before we're cleared to race. Drivers will have to be able to escape from the car in under 10 seconds and complete a u-turn, figure eight and slalom course. This may be a challenge since we just attached the body to the frame for real this morning, and we have yet to really test drive it with the body on. Sure, we've driven the frame multiple times, but that isn't always the same. In the end, we'll need at least four drivers approved, so two drivers can drive each race.

But that's still days away and we have to get through scrutineering first. More updates will come later this week though!