Crushing crashing and breaking in school

Popsicle stick chassis are glued in this jig which allows both frame rails to be made at same time. The wood has car wax applied to the surfaces to allow the rails to be removed easier after they have dried. The two blocks allow weights to press down on the joints until glue has set. (HTF Motorsports photo)

Once the two side rails have the glue set up, they are removed and installed in the chassis jig. Missing in the left photo is the cardboard bottom that is supposed to be installed first followed by chassis rails. Cross members are glued in place along pre-marked locations. The fuel cell bay is where the LEGO block is located. Directly in front of fuel cell is a crush zone, then driver’s compartment followed by powerplant bay.  The chassis then has weights added to hold it flat and true. A chassis fresh from the jig is on the right. This is what the STEM students start with. (HTF Motorsports photo)

Equipped with welders (hot glue guns) students fabricated their design for the balsa wood roll cage. Manse Shaw, left and Aaron Saucier both from Caribou referred to the roll cage design handout in front of them for construction. Their cage held 18 pounds. (HTF Motorsports photo)

Left to right, Nathan Morrow, Limestone and Matt Gahagan, Caribou, put the finishing touches on their chassis prior to testing. The white granite slab served as their surface plate during construction. Their roll cage held 37 pounds. (HTF Motorsports)

Once the chassis models were built, they were re-weighed to determine the % of weight increase and re-twisted to determine if chassis stiffness increased with a well-built roll cage. Kameron Rackler, Caribou, and team mate in center, Kaleb Poitras, Limestone, under the supervision of CTE Exploratory Instructor Chris DeMerchant on right. The small gray box is a digital inclinometer which is used to determine 6 degrees of twist. At 6 degrees Kameron reads the spring scale to determine force. In the background Ty Hunter and Ian Russell both Caribou students put the finishing touches on their chassis. (HTF Motorsports photo)

What Poitras and Rackler did not know was that during the initial torsion (twist) test, the front crossmember cracked. Thus, the lower second torsion reading. (HTF Motorsports photo)

With roll cage tubing limited to two lengths of tubing (balsa wood), teams needed to carefully think out the construction. As in the real-world teams did not have unlimited resources. With 13 pounds crushing their roll cage, Emily Gallagher left, Caribou, Sidney Smith, Mapleton, and Tait Margeson, Westmanland, teamed up for this contest. (HTF Motorsports photo)

To crush the team’s roll cage six granite tiles were added atop a wooden base which sat atop the roll cage. Each tile weighed 6 pounds and the wooden base weighed 1 pound. Only one team held six tiles. (HTF Motorsports photo)

Hunter Emery, Limestone, and Jason Ulrich, Washburn, trial fitting the front powerplant compartment. The LEGO powerplant had to be removable without cutting the roll cage. Emery and Ulrich tried a five- post model, see next photo for results. (HTF Motorsports photo)

With one granite block and the wooden block the roll cage held 7 pounds until collapse. The collapses were viewed on video and post-crush “autopsy”. (HTF Motorsports photo)

Cameron Labreck, Limestone, and team-mate Jason Garner, Caribou, with their chassis before testing. Their chassis held 7 pound above minimum requirement. (HTF Motorsports photo)

Brody Anderson on left from Caribou was one of the only students with actual racing experience. He helps his father work on their Honda autocross racer. They compete in the Cumberland Motor Club Mega Autocross at Loring the first weekend in August annually. Working with Anderson was Christain St. Peter also from Caribou. (HTF Motorsports photo)

With their roll cage holding 19 pounds the team of Trevor Boucher, Caribou, and Andrew Rossignol, Woodland, finished tied for second in weight capacity. (HTF Motorsports photo)

Part of the pre-build process was discussion of “Adding Lightness”. Included was a demonstration of hollow core Racebolts vs conventional bolts. Hunter Emery, Limestone, and Chloee Chisholm, Caribou, determined the weight of the hollow high strength Racebolt and a similar size conventional type high strength bolt. Typical Racebolts were 1/2 of the weight of conventional bolts. (HTF Motorsports photo)