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!

Few of our team members (Alex, Mike, and Ryan) spent their spring break at Boston Boatworks and Symmetrix’s sites working on the development of the new carbon fiber composite monocoque. This video shows the 5-axis CNC machine, at Symmetrix’s site in Bristol RI, cutting away to create a foam plug of the body.

Highlighting some beautiful work done on our in-house Hurco CNC machining center.

Teamwork is a vital aspect of any project. Supermileage allows students to participate in real engineering scenarios, interacting with other groups to ensure system integration.

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)

Special shout-out to Montague Machine in Turners Falls, Massachusetts (montaguemachine.com) for donating and center-boring a nice piece of cast iron for the team. We are hard at work over winter break machining this into a new sleeve for our Briggs & Stratton #smv engine. Thanks for the support!

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

We had a great time on WMUA 91.1 FM with OLIO media yesterday! Thank you to everyone that tuned in. We’ll let you know when it’s put online!