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1st December 2020

Virtual Car Team Week 32: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas for CAUC!! 

 With the 1st of December falling on a Tuesday AND Greenpower running a 3D Christmas CAD Challenge, we couldn't help but spend Virtual CAUC getting into the festive spirit. (.....although who am I kidding, we really don't need any excuse to start feeling Christmassy!!!!!)  

However, before we got started (and whilst waiting for the remaining team members to log on!) we had to ask the most important question of December 2020....what advent calendar to you have?! Top of the list, and a clear favourite amongst the team was Lindt, closely followed by the old faithful Cadbury's dairy milk and even a Thornton's one! 

advent calender chat 350

 Having answered all the critical questions, we thought we had better get started with the 3D CAD challenge. 

For those that hadn't seen the challenge advertised, we went onto the Greenpower website to have a read through of the rules and decide whether to design a whole kit car or a themed component. 

competition rules 350

The decision was unanimous - we fancied turning our hand to designing a kit car. 

Pinching an image of a bare Kit Car, next came the hard part! Attempting to decide what design to do the bodywork. Everything and anything remotely festive was thrown into the ring; Christmas Pudding, a Manger, Rudolph, the Polar Express, Turkey and the Coco-Cola truck to name a few.

kit car model 350

To settle the debate once and for all, we created a poll with the most popular ideas suggested....

poll to decided 350

Clearly talking about chocolate advent calendars at the beginning of the call had made us hungry, as the winners of the poll were all food related (Turkey and Christmas Pudding)!!! Laughing at the focus on food. we suddenly came up with a new idea...why not combine the two and come up with a Christmas Dinner themed Kit Car? Genius! (Even if we do say so ourselves!) 

Running through what's on our Christmas dinner, each team member took it in turns to draw it onto the car. 

Starting with Brussel Sprouts for wheels, Cranberry Sauce as a break light and carrots for the side panels. 

christmas dinner car work in progress 350

Moving on, we had Pigs in Blankets for the back brace, Candy Canes forming the roll bar, Knife and Fork seatbelt, Presents as batteries, Crackers for the steering wheel, a Turkey head rest, Mince Pie wing mirrors and roast potatoes for the front bonnet. 

To complete the design, we have hired Mrs Clause as driver, who will release a party popper once we've crossed the finish line! 

finished design 350

Satisfied that we couldn't possibly fit any more on our Christmas Dinner, we considered the design complete!! 

All we've got to do now is draw it up on Solid Edge!!!

.....Wonder how the aerodynamics would compare to our new car if we tested it in OpenFoam!!!! 

 

That brings us to the end of another Zoom call. We've got a very exciting call next week - so make sure you check back to see what we got up to!