Brakes and more!

As some may know, the team is transitioning away from the SAE Supermileage Competition, and beginning to enroll in the Shell Eco-Marathon. One of the major rules changed that comes with this transition regards the vehicle’s brakes!

We have a dedicated brakes team this semester, focused on redesigning the brakes to comply with Shell’s rulebook. Previously, the vehicle was equipped with a single cable-operated bicycle brake that acted directly on the rear wheel, actuated by a hand lever. This is the system that our drivetrain and body were designed around. Shell’s rules require both front and rear brakes. These brakes must be hydraulic calipers acting on brake rotors, with separate pedal actuation and hand lever actuation. A big design change for us!

We’ve been hard at work removing the old brake assemblies, and upgrading with parts that we were able to purchase, thanks to our Minutefund Supporters!

Here are the old brake pedals being cut away from the body, these pedals were glued in place using an industrial strength glue right before this year’s competition. Cutting the pedals of was the easiest option.

And here are our new pedals, mocked up in the vehicle. The mounting for these pedals will be designed to be adjustable to accomodate multiple drivers of different heights.

And this is our current redesign of our vehicle’s manual clutch! We have modified our drive-side clutch plate with mounting points for a motorcycle brake rotor. Almost ready for the CNC!

Summer ’22 SAE Supermileage Competition

This past summer the UMass Supermileage Vehicle Team participated in the finale SAE SUpermileage competition! Just a couple images from our competiton can be found below, complete gallery will be posted soon! We made a really good push but in the end we were not able to complete a run due to engine failures. But we’re not giving up! This may have been the last SAE Supermileage competition, but we’re looking to continue our work in the Shell Eco-Marathon starting this Spring! Stay tuned for updates and follow our Instagram @umass_smv.

Fall ’21/Spring ’22 UMass SMV Team Group Photo

Running Leaner

The engine dyno and EFI has been putting in the hours tuning prepping our modified Briggs and Stratton units. Next step: getting everything on the car and going for a hoon!

 

(Older Honda engine shown here)

MinuteFund is up, get involved now!

Our MinuteFund is up and running, along with a video about the team!! We are very excited about it and we hope you are too. As you may know, our team is almost entirely funded by donations. Help us represent UMass Amherst and University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Engineering at the Society of Automotive Engineers supermileage competition! To donate and/or view the video, just follow the link below. Don’t forget to share to help us get the word out!
https://minutefund.umass.edu/project/3192