Today, we came to an agreement on driver’s seat size. Regardless of how wide a driver’s back-side may be, the space allocated has been designated as seventeen inches. This will mean edits to the current model in which Dan measured fourteen inches for his own derrière. Mind you, today’s measurements are also based off of Dan, who proves to remain the largest of those we tested.
The mock-up in today’s photo also includes roll-bar design. We were able to agree on having the driver egress out the front of the roll-bars rather than up between them as this would allow a smaller bubble on the car, thereby improving aerodynamics. Or at least, that’s Dan’s rationale. Experienced drivers simply agree that this is by far the easier method of egress, and we have seen the discomfort that could be experienced were we to imitate Michigan’s design.
With this method of egress, we have two preferred options for how the bubble will open up. Agreeing that the bubble should remain attached, and simply hinge open instead of coming clear off as our previous design does, that hinge can either be located behind the bubble or to the side. Having the hinge on the left side (from the driver’s point of view) would allow the driver to egress onto the side of the road (not into the road). We would also be able to include the solar cells on the right side of the bubble as part of the bubble door, so that drivers wouldn’t have to worry about damaging cells upon egress. Upon discussion with Sparky Johnny, this is a viable option, so long as we keep in mind that checks should be run periodically to ensure the functionality of those cells on the bubble door. We don’t want to find out that we haven’t been collecting power from those cells. (This happened to another team.)
We also had the idea to include handles for the driver to grab onto to aid in pulling oneself up out of the seat. Ten seconds seems like a fair amount of time, but with a five-point harness, steering wheel, and bubble to detach, time is tight, too.