Take a closer look at the design details behind the Team Bentley Greenpower Car.
Design
The design has been completed on Catia V5, which all the latest Bentley Models are also designed on, featuring a shape similar to that of our 2004 Goodwood soapbox racer we should be nice and aerodynamic with a frontal area of around 0.2 m2 and a drag co-efficient around 0.3.
Paint schemes for the car are being developed within Bentley's styling studio and initial concepts are displayed below.
Body
The car will use carbon fibre as its main chassis material, both light and strong this will help to keep the car competitive, The team Bentley Greenpower apprentices have produced a test “mule” which will then have moulds taken from before being finished at SPA’s composite manufacturing facility.
Suspension
Our car will have 10mm of travel on each wheel, This will be achieved on the Team Bentley car using carbon fibre beams under tension, These will be custom built from a mould we have specified to allow the carbon beam to flex the correct amount for our front/rear weight split. Hubs and kingpin mounts will be designed and produced at Bentley Motors.
We will be utilising a rack and pinion system imported from America and modified on-site. Steering arms will be an aerodynamic carbon fibre shape.
Drivetrain/nuVinci
Greenpower Regulations stipulate that a 24v motor and two-12v Battery’s must be used, we will be using both an electronically variable speed control and a gear change system, however these components are secret at this time!
We will be using an 08MY ATC NuVinci hub, "The NuVinci hub is a small and compact Continuously Variable Transmission which allows the electric motor to spin at its most optimum RPM. This allows the vehicle to accelerate faster, have a higher sustainable top speed and better range with the same battery capacity."
Wheels/Tyres
We will be custom building a set of carbon fibre wheels, surprisingly difficult to manufacture they have nearly been finished and will be around 900g each corner. Michelin have kindly supplied some very good low resistance tyres for our racing.
Electronics
The car will feature a “Bentley” dashboard, this will be linked to both the motor controller and the nuVinci drivetrain via a "P-LANet ECU" to give us optimum use of 2 12v batteries.
During testing and practice runs we will use a Race Technology DL-1 data logging system, allowing full GPS mapping. We will also be able to measure wheel speed, motor RPM and temperature.
We will be using a wireless modem to send values from the data logger to our laptop.
The Radiometrix TDi2 is a 433MHz ISM band low power wireless data modem. It combines the TDL2A radio module with all necessary interface circuitry (RS232 level shifter, supply regulator, indicators) and connectors (9 pin D type, SMA aerial jack, power header) to provide an easy to use medium range (typ. 200m) 9600 baud communication link.
Brakes
The car will use Hope's Mini Pro System, which will be linked internally to our drive-wheel, this will operate using a custom-made lightweight disc-brake, the car will also utilise an electronic reverse-polarity brake and will feature an electronic parking brake.
Interior
The car will feature a Bentley leather seat and 4-point harness, we have designed a custom steering wheel that will be in-line with the Bentley brand. The car will also feature its own dashboard linked to the electronics systems.
