The day started early with a collective breakfast again. The excitement was high, but the nerves started to rise a bit as well. We had our first scrutineering event: the mechanical inspection. Since we’ve never done a scrutineering before, we didn’t fully know what to expect. A bit before 9, five team members went to the dynamic area where the scrutineers were waiting for us.
The inspection started with a pre-inspection where the tires and driver were checked. After this our seating, framework, the body and the firewall were analyzed. We learned a lot of things from this, for example that the seating needs to be removable. Also, all the cables within the firewall needs to be shielded. This means that the individual wires are wrapped in a shielding material that prevents the cable from malfunctioning due to electromagnetic interference (EMI).
The next part of the car to be inspected was our cooling system. Here we learned for example that not everything was correctly positively locked. Positively locking means that once something is fastened, it won’t loosen from vibrations. Lastly the suspension and steering were checked.
It was a long three hours, but overall, it went really well and we gained a lot of information and received some useful general tips which we can put to good use. After the inspection and discussing a plan of action, there was a small lunch break. When everyone rested for a bit, the plan was set into action and the mechanical sub team got to work to immediately process the feedback we got. Then later we can go for a second round of scrutineering where they check everything we’ve changed.
While a part of the team was working, the rest of the team at the camping made all the tents storm proof, as there was a big storm ahead of us and we need to protect all our equipment. Later in the evening when the storm hit us, we were glad we had prepared. The clouds turned into a dark gray, the winded picked up quickly and the rain started to pour. We were able to think fast and our teamwork was once again put to the test. Together we held down our big tent and got all our electronics inside.
Later when the storm started to calm down again, we saw and realized the damage it had caused to the whole terrain. Luckily only the outside of one small tent was damaged and most importantly everyone was safe. After the storm was over, we were allowed to go back to the campsite and packed our stuff inside the tents again to get a good night’s sleep.
