MOMENTUM - November 2023 - 9

STUDENT GENERATION
Go4-23e competing in endurance.
The design strategy from the 2022 EV to the 2023 EV was
completely reinvented. The goal of the 2022 EV was to build a
system that we understood. The goal of the 2023 EV was to
bring a driving car to competition. With the groundwork we
laid in 2022, I felt that bringing a driving car to competition
was very possible-we just had to be smart about it.
REUSE, RESOURCE, REDESIGN
Something that we struggled with in previous years was
resourcing issues between Gopher Motorsports' EV and
internal combustion car. There never seemed to be enough
designers, time, or resources to finish everything by
competition. Especially with our EV's poor performance in
2022, I knew getting people involved would be a struggle. To
mitigate those issues, the 2023 EV focused its redesign efforts
on the specific systems which caused last year's car to fail. In
that way, I could maximize reuse and minimize designer
resources. The systems that needed the biggest redesign were
the accumulator and the BMS. The accumulator needed to be
easier to manufacture and service, the BMS needed to better
interface with our system, and the drivetrain needed to support
the load from our motor. All other redesigns were smaller and
done with the purpose of better manufacturing or
accommodating the larger redesigns. Redesigns were a
focused effort, and this contributed to our success later down
the road.
The accumulator was redesigned to be smaller so it could
slide in and out of the frame easier. The battery cell
configuration was changed to decrease the length of the
accumulator by 6 inches. The accumulator shape also changed
MOMENTUM
Ben Abbot, Sam Poli, and Calvin Molitor assembling the accumulator.
Sophia Clark in the car after completing endurance.
November 2023 9
Alex Tong
Alex Tong
Alex Tong
MOMENTUM - November 2023

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