Finished Product + Testing Footage

The team has been doing some serious testing and tuning. Camber, castor, and toe have been nearly optimized and the shocks have been tuned to handle rough terrain. We did not receive our CVT tuning kit and we had to modify the parts included with the CVT. It is shifting decently but not as responsive as we would like.

Big, big thanks going out to Jeff and Virgil Elings for their support on the Baja project.


Here is a video with 3 more in the testing section below.

 

FINALLY!!!

Ahdi catching some air over some treacherous logs

Assembly

CVT Backing plate

CVT cover and air circulation fan installed and ready to be plumbed

One of Spencer's custom uprights machined by Andy Weinberg

We achieved the steering Ackerman we were looking for after we added more caster.

Tail light and reverse alarm up top with the engine kill switch to the right.

3-Link rear suspension

Cockpit with dash board

Installing braking system while modifying the upper shock mounts. Look at that 12 volt accessory outlet!

Night driving is not a problem

Testing
These are a compilation of high speed videos we used to tune the suspension.

Staggered Log Suspension Test

Zach going over the staggered logs

Terry too

The CV boots always seemed really stressed out and one finally popped off.

The remedy was to cut the small clip on the shaft and move the boot to the next recess. They work much better now.

We went out for a full mock run on private property. The tools and spare parts are loaded in the trailer.

The course took roughly 4'30" per lap. We went up the hill on the right, over a few ridges, dropped down an extremely steep incline to the valley, and returned on the lower road.

 

 

Race trailer and tow rig

Working in the race trailer.

March - April Updates

Welcome to UCSB Racing's website. We compete June 4th-7th in Illinois and we are working overtime to get this finished for testing and tuning. This is a big update, so kick it into high gear and hold on.

Does this spark your interest? Kyle is testing out his freshly welded swing-arms while Zach is welding on suspension mounting tabs.

The chassis at 57 pounds with engine mount and no mounting tabs.

A few additional members were added to support lateral suspension forces. The suspension mounting tabs are tacked in as well.

Dean, Matt, and Tucker establishing the correct locations for seat belt mounts.

Ahdi's laser cut steering rack mount. It fit beautifully.

Steering column is supported by sealed bearings.

Lower steering column and a peek at the brake system

Transaxle shifter cable and mounting

Custom shifter with authentic Paul Silva hand painted lettering

Dean removing some material from the transaxle so it will fit in the frame

Our brake is sourced from a Jeep wrangler and came in a plastic housing which wasn't necessary for our purposes.

We weighed the housing and made some steel mounts that were much lighter and slimmer

Zach getting creative with his welding positions

Terry and Ahdi battling with the firewall

The first piece of the body paneling and belly pan

Take a minute to watch the time lapse video of the fiberglass work.

Tim is the head composite specialist. Here he is cutting the panels into separate pieces.

Callie Barker is our head seamstress and is making the safety harness holes larger in our seat cover

Here is the cover with a larger hole

OH... and here is Ahdi testing out the cover at spring insight

Tucker modeling for the nice people

Wheel adapters to convert from the Gravely Trekker hub bolt pattern to a standard Polaris size

Our goal when designing the rear suspension was to idealize camber and toe. This is very easy with A-arm/H-arm suspension systems but proved to be extremely challenging for a 3-Link semi-trailing arm suspension. We tuned the radius arm lengths and mounting positions for 20-30 hours using Solidworks. The ideal geometry must take camber, toe, track width change, and drive shaft plunge into account.

3-Link swing arm rear suspension

With a wheel in place (before we got the wheel adapters)

Brake rotor mounting. The Gravely Trekker hub was drilled and tapped using a rotary table and the inside of the factory Polaris rotors had to be lathed outward a bit.

Upper control arm caster adjustment spacers

Gas pedal is mounted. The throttle cable and return spring rest between the two chassis tubes out of harms way.

Throttle cable mount

We need raised racing numbers and the carbon fiber should give us at least 5 more horsepower

It gets really hard to keep track of things on a team of 10

Dean is on the job