Christmas time has come and gone and the Formula team is back hard at work for another semester. With the winter term known as the “build season”, members are finding themselves hard at work in the shop. Manufacturing in all sections began in January in order to reduce some of the work load before midterms. One of the largest milestones was finishing the modifications to the chassis plugs and having them sent to Carlson Engineered Composites for molds to be made.

Design and testing of different options for the required, frontal impact structure was in full swing throughout January and February due to the data submission date being March 1st. New designs were theorized and analyzed to attempt to integrate the impact structure with the cosmetic nose cover to try to simplify the design and reduce the weight of the unit.

With design being complete months ago, final manufacturing of components has been the major focus with special attention paid to the ever decreasing amount of time before leaving for our first competition. Purchased parts and material have been flooding through the shop doors with deliveries almost daily.

While all sections are advancing in build, a few have made some notable progress; the largest and perhaps the more notable being the lay up of the carbon composite chassis. The structural equivalency forms were approved so the midterm break yielded no rest for the Polar Bear Racing Formula team with the completion of the chassis being the top priority. Many members showed up every day to contribute their part to the lay up process. Transferring the knowledge to the new members as well as new ideas were put in place to ensure the accuracy and quality of the process ranging from new lay up techniques, material, templates and above all else, taking the time to do quality work. The chassis has since been cured and the molds returned to the team. Touch ups and mounting locations are being finalized currently.

Lately the focus has been centred around the chassis and it has been stealing some of the action away from the underlying tasks being completed in each section, such as construction of the header, steering wheel, seat, A arms, hubs, and throttle body to name a few.

The engine section has also reached a few milestones lately with the splitting of the block for a modified transmission and shift drum to be installed. The engine section appreciates the new teardown table and everyone has agreed it makes the shop floor significantly less slippery.

As members count the days until competition the team continues to move forward at a rate not yet seen by Polar Bear Racing. This is giving the members extra confidence and energy to finish the car and get it rolling and testing earlier than any previous year.