Last week, we used wood to make a mockup of the canoe of our solar car. The canoe is the part of our car where the driver will sit, and it got it’s name from the shape of it’s underside.

The mockup will be used to make sure the canoe is big enough to fit everything that needs to go inside it, before we actually make the body of our car. By everything, I mean the driver, acceleration pedal, brake pedal, steering wheel, steering column, roll cage, power switches, radios, driver seat, harnesses, vents, and more.

It is also useful as a design aid, and will help us determine the best places to put things in the canoe so the driver can use them (relatively) easily. For example, I’ll be taking a look at the mockup this weekend to figure out where the best place to put the driver’s ventilation inlet is.