Transport

Nemesis update – nearly there.

January 26, 2010 By dale

Here’s the latest. We’ve almost finished making a new lightweight rear body panel for the car. The old one was very heavy and floppy, so our guys whipped up a new one in carbon fibre. It’ll actually help us with the fitting of the charging equipment by saving the need for engineering up a bunch of structural support – for a panel that’s already too heavy.

We get a slick new carbon body, save a lot of weight (where we don’t want weight – the rear) and make the charging kit an easy install. Neat solution.

We’ve also got a new diffuser coming out of the moulds. This is the bit that sits under the rear of the car. It’s being engineered with some nifty flaps to the left and right that pull down to expose the two charging options:

Normal (13A and slow) or Abnormal (100A and fast).

With some changes to the rear lights and to the internals viewed through the rear window thrown in – this part of the car is going to be pretty slick. (more…)

4 Responses

Nemesis Update

November 17, 2009 By dale

Filed under: Transport, Wind Car

'Spanner' in use A quick update on the car front.

I had my first breakdown the other week. I went to drive away in the morning and everything was just dead. Turned out the 12v battery we use to power the control side had gone flat, and oddly enough a couple of fuses were blown. As you can see from the picture, I got the youngest member of the team on the job, with my own personal favourite ’spanner’….

And when we’d finished fooling around we called Bob and he came down and fixed it. No big drama but some useful ‘operational experience’.

Actually things have kind of ground to a halt on the Nemesis. It’s been with me since August, for what was meant to be a months worth of road testing while the Battery Management System (BMS) was finished. Three months later I’ve still got the car and we’ve not got a BMS yet. Which is disappointing to say the least. Everything else about the project has gone incredibly well, but for this – and it’s held us up for over six months now. It’s a frustration for all of us, not just me.

The car goes – it goes like hell, it’s just not ‘plug and play’ – by which I mean I can’t just plug it in to charge it. It takes a laptop and some close attention and we’re not able to charge to the full potential of the cells (for safety). So it’s “close but no cigar”. (more…)

39 Responses

Car pool with Robert Llewellyn

October 2, 2009 By paul

Filed under: Transport, Wind Car

A little while ago, Dale had the pleasure of being picked up and driven around by Robert Llewellyn for his very entertaining and simple yet clever online CarPool show. Here’s the video as published today – hope you enjoy.

17 Responses

Festival of Innovation and 500Kites

September 4, 2009 By paul

Filed under: Energy, Transport, Wind Car

Hiya Folks,

Paul here (back off my hols).

A couple of event announcements for our UK based readers. Firstly – I thought you might like to know about a public appearance of the Nemesis Wind Powered Car happening on the 12th/13th September at the Science Museum in Wroughton, Near Swindon in Wiltshire. It will be part of the family oriented Festival of Innovation. I am hoping to be there with my family on the 12th – so might see you there? It is a free event (although high carbon producing transport will be charged £5 to park).

Here’s the event page for the Festival of Innovation on Facebook.

Also – Ecotricity are hosting a kite festival to celebrate the power of the wind on the 13th September 2009.

Help us to fill the sky with kites and celebrate the power of the wind at Thistledown Environment Centre, near Nailsworth (Stroud).

Free Admission
500 kites to give away (or fly your own)
Explore 70 acres of natural environment and wildlife
Free soft drinks courtesy of bottlegreen
Professional kite demonstration

I also created a Facebook event page for the 500Kites event too.

Take it easy, and we hope to see you at one or both

Paul

6 Responses

Wind Car Update – 11 of 6

August 25, 2009 By dale

Filed under: Transport, Wind Car

^{Video production: Tim Walter Associates Limited}

Here’s our latest, probably penultimate, video update of the wind car project.

I’ve had the Nemesis (yes it finally has a name) on the road for the last few weeks and it’s been a lot of fun (unless you’re a hedge in my vicinity….:). (more…)

86 Responses

Wind Car – News Flash

July 29, 2009 By dale

Filed under: Transport, Wind Car

Nemesis at home The Nemesis arrived in Stroud this morning, finally… After all the months we’ve spent on it, this is def a bit of a watershed. I’ll have it here for a few weeks of road trials and a general shakedown. Probably for most of August.

Nemesis at home 2 The car has come a long way in the last few weeks since the first test drive. The last few days have been especially hectic (for the team, not me). It got its MOT last Friday, had a Tracker fitted yesterday and we taxed it today – you wouldn’t believe how hard it was to find insurance… Anyway it’s road legal now. And sat outside my house.

It’s not totally user friendly though. The charging system is the last big thing needing to be finished, the guys are working on that while I road test the car. So recharging is a bit of a manual process, to say the least – balancing the individual cell charges and the like. (more…)

34 Responses

The Wind Car – Epsiode 10 of 6

June 23, 2009 By dale

Filed under: Transport, Wind Car

^{Video production: Tim Walter Associates Limited}

Is it a Nemesis?

It finally happened. Last Monday on a windswept old airfield in Norfolk, we got the wind car out of the workshop and took it for its first spin on tarmac.

Not entirely without a little drama mind you – the car barely being able to climb the transporter loading ramp at full throttle was a challenging start to the day… but we quickly enough adjusted the bugs out of that and it flew, really flew. (more…)

55 Responses

The Wind Car – Episode 9 of 6

May 26, 2009 By dale

Filed under: Transport, Wind Car

^{Video production: Tim Walter Associates Limited}

This months highlights are;

Meeting the Sun’s environment correspondent – yes seriously. They’ve not had one very long but they do have one and he is serious about it – and:

That amazing machine at Leeds University – the one that looks like it belongs on a Sci Fi film, in fact I’m sure I’ve seen versions of it, recreating humans from DNA samples… In our case we used to make a ‘gear lever assembly’.

As you’ll see here we’re getting close to the end game now, in fact I’m ready to predict that episode 10 of 6 will see me driving the Wind Car for the first time… ! (more…)

38 Responses

The Wind Car – Episode 8 of 6

April 17, 2009 By dale

Filed under: Transport, Wind Car

^{Video production: Tim Walter Associates Limited}

Here’s our latest video. The big focus of this episode is design and, as you’ll see, it’s definitely taking shape.

I’m off to Norfolk next week to meet the Sun, they love the idea BTW, and nail down a few questions on detail (with the A team).

Couple more weeks after that I hope we might be having our first test drive, perhaps in episode 9 of 6 – but let’s see….

Some really cool names keep coming in. Though I’m back to thinking maybe zero. But as somebody said here, I reckon I’ll need to see the finished thing and drive it – then I’ll know its name.

There’s been a lot of electric car stuff in the news lately, particularly today with the Government’s announcement of a £5k bung to EV buyers and other initiatives.

The thing that excites me most of all though is the fact that the government has come out and said we all need to be driving electric cars, they even use terms like ‘green revolution’ these days – that’s just amazing, so far from where we’ve been.

It makes me think the changes we need to make are all the more likely. We know the technology exists or will exist and we know we need to live sustainably – now we seem to have political will behind us.

Just need to re invent capitalism to be orientated to social and environmental outcomes rather than monetary ones – and we’re there…..

Cheers.

26 Responses

The Wind Car – Episode 7 of 6

April 1, 2009 By dale

Filed under: Transport, Wind Car

^{Video production: Tim Walter Associates Limited}

Here’s the latest episode of our Wind Car series, clearly we’re running behind the original plan, with episode 7 of 6…

But hey ho, I don’t suppose the wheel was invented in a day – to mix metaphors a little. (more…)

39 Responses

Transport

Nemesis update – nearly there.

Nemesis Update

Car pool with Robert Llewellyn

Festival of Innovation and 500Kites

Wind Car Update – 11 of 6

Wind Car – News Flash

The Wind Car – Epsiode 10 of 6

Is it a Nemesis?

The Wind Car – Episode 9 of 6

The Wind Car – Episode 8 of 6

The Wind Car – Episode 7 of 6

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