Thanks
Luck is not on my side this week though. I've been discussing the progress with my sponsor, Atomic Carbon.
The car has been showing very good performance on low-bite. However, there were hints that it's stability on astroturf needed some work. On carpet it's an insane thing to drive, and the biggest improvement was the use of narrow tires on driven axles - which as it stands now is not legal in EFRA or BRCA regulations.
It has to be tested whether the performance improvements are down to the actual narrower tire or the much improved suspension geometry. Either way, the car's current performance on high bite surfaces is not impressive, and it's design will stray further away from any existing car to make it work on high bite surfaces.
With limited resources at Atomic Carbon and the project heading further away from their core business - Making Carbon Upgrade parts and Conversions for High-bite Surfaces - the decision was made to stop financial support on the FWD Buggy project.
It's a bit of a setback - especially with an updated design of the DEX210FF nearly completed - but it's an understandable decision. It's been great working together and I'm not sure the project would have got off the ground without them! However, the project is of less relevance for their business, and in the end their sponsorship should be an investment, not a money pit (that's my job
).
So what's next? Well, for now I'll carry on without a sponsorship. Despite the smaller funds, I've got big plans: First of all, I'm going to finish the updated design of the DEX210FF.
Secondly, involving the public has played a big role in the project and has worked very well so far, so I will continue this. I intend to sell several prototypes to those people interested to form a test panel for the development of the buggy. This will help gather more data, and it means the car can be tested and updated for surfaces and tracks I don't normally drive on.
If you're interested to join in on testing the FWD Buggy, you can contact me through a PM.