Second stage: Shaping the nose and building the chassis

As I told last week, we were planning to shape the main body. And so we did!

The car’s nose:

We started from a raw shaping (blocks of polystyrene foam glued together on the car’s skeleton), then we sanded the blocks to have the best cowling (according to our computed drawings).

Raw shaping in polystyrene foam

Nose’s cowling

The chassis:

The time has come to define what will be the main rollbar of the chassis. To do so, we focused on where the strength will be the most important.
That is why we selected four slices to be the main rollbars of the car.

Main rollbars

We then took the correct slices from the 3D drawing and cut through plywood (with a computed drilling machine) the slices so we have a pattern to weld the bars.

And so the welding has started! We were able to weld the 2 last rollbars of the chassis.

Last rollbar

The wheel pants:

The last interesting point of last week was the fact we also started to make the wheel pants. From drawing to the foam shape, we carried on making patterns for the main body!

Wheel pant blueprint

The Roadie’s main body construction! (Part 1)

First stage: the skeleton and the skin

We just passed through a red-letter week. After lots of preparation, the main body of our car starts to look decent!

First, to make the body properly, we had to design the pattern of the entire body to shape it.
The first stage in this project was to model the roadie, with 3D CAD design software and thanks to the specifications. When finished, we were able to get a 3D representation of the whole car.

Our job was then to build the car’s skeleton in raw wood, to be able to make the main body!
On the picture below, you can see a transversal view of the car with orthogonal boards of wood that will act as the ribs of the body to give the three dimensional outline.
Here is what we got: the main silhouette and several ribs!

Roadie’s skeleton

We were then able to stick polystyrene foam at the nose, and began to shape it roughly, waiting for the rest of the body to be built.

Nose shaping

In fact, in order to finish the shaping of the nose, we first made the important ribs of the car to support the transversal rods that will stand for the frame in the middle (see picture behind).
This is supposed to help us when finalizing the shaping of the nose by using the body curves to have the most accurate nose curves in extension.
It also allowed us to make the first fiberglass skin of the main body.

Main body

At this stage, it really looks more like a boat than a car !

Next stage : The real shaping!!!

Specifications of the car

Who are we?

To stay at the top of techniques and technologies, Hughes engineering has hired three interns, coming from the most prestigious French graduate school of aeronautical engineering, the ISAE.
With three years of aeronautics studies and an internship of 11 months with Airbus France last year, the three of us are really fit for this project (more about us).
The impact our civilization has on the ecology of the earth and the effects of global warming are of an increasing concern, leading us to consider other ways we can contribute to change our society’s way of living.
Cars affect climate change in several ways, so we have decided to come to Australia to focus on contributing to finding a solution to this well-known issue.

That is why we arrived at the beginning of march and started to consider this case!

What are the roadie’s specifications?

Let us enter the thick of things and detail a little more what we are going to do with the roadie.

Here you will find the specification of our car :



With all these figures, we were able to design the first views of the car. And here it is !

A short introduction

What is Australian Lightwing?


The Australian LightWing are two and four seat Light Sport Aircraft designed and manufactured by the Hughes Group of Companies, in northern New South Wales, in Australia.
Since 1985, The Hughes Group of Companies has produced over one hundred and seventy-five two seat, high-wing, Light Sport Aircraft. They are owned by some of Australia's smartest property owners, flying schools and aviation enthusiasts.
The Hughes Group of Companies now presents their first low wing two and four place Light Sport Aircraft- The Australian LightWing SPEED (SP-2000). For more details, go to: www.lightwing.com.au



What are we doing here?

Perhaps because the car number per inhabitants in Australia is the highest in the world, The Hughes Group, recently started to feel concerned about global warming.
Everybody knows cars have a strong impact on the environment and lots of car manufacturers have worked on several new eco-concepts but there is only a few of them who have focused on electrical solutions.
Howard Hughes, Hughes Group’s boss, rightly think it is one of the best solutions!



Why an electric car?

Last improvements of new batteries’ performance and safety shows that the electrical cars will be one of the main solutions for the future in terms of climate protection. Some car manufacturers have started to convert common cars into electrical cars but here, we have another point of view. Indeed, electrical car’s constraints are different from fossil energy car’s constraints.
That is why, taking the bull by the horns, we have already started to design from nothing and keep our minds wide open to design a new kind of vehicle using electrical energy.



It is the Roadie!