Grant in Action: Electric Car

Written by Will Lenardson, Class of 2019 – Member of Electric Car Team “The Dirty Dozen”

When we first drove across the raceway in Lime Rock park, I thanked YEF. It was an incredible sight with fast cars shooting down the outside track and a large cluster of awkward students who designed and built an electric car with the goal to do the most laps in one hour. 

This all started months ago with a presentation from Mr. Pitman. He talked about the electric car, the building process, and the race. It intrigued my friends and I immediately because we are aIl very engineering minded. This is the same group of friends I spend most of my time with, whether that be at my house or in Mr. Pitman’s room working on our robot preparing for the next robotics competition.

I had a great time designing the car and laying out its electrical system, but we had some goof ups. We installed the motor backwards (hint: it wouldn’t run) and we broke the drivetrain chain over and over again. It was all great and I had a lot of fun fixing the problems we had and so did my squad. The car itself was cramped and it really better suited someone of Peter Dinklage’s physical stature, but it was incredibly fun.

But the crown jewel of this experience was driving the car in the race. With the electric cars from all over humming in unison, the constant passing of cars and the dodging of deep cracks on the track, it was a day full of action and suspense and quite probably the most exciting day in motor sports history, at least in our eyes.