It's insane to think about this, but (hopefully) by this time tomorrow evening, we'll already be on our way to Texas.

These last couple days (and nights... and mornings...) have been long; many nights went well into the morning to get things on Tigergen I in condition to drive. Yesterday was spent in a scramble to get the body to a point where we can attach the frame to it, to epoxy in the windows and windshield, to double and triple check everything on the frame, to do a million more things that we can't even remember at this point. The vinyls were put on the trailer; we started accumulating all the supplies we'll need on the road.

We even took the frame out around 9 p.m. to begin getting the race drivers comfortable with driving long distances.

The Missourian shared our story Thursday, as did KOMU.

Today was just a blur of packing, working, more packing and more working. We have a telemetry system now, as well as attached blinkers and tail lights.

But right now, we're putting the frame in the body!

It seems that to be the phrase of the day. All day we had issues with the brake and throttle systems. Last night we discovered that the accelerator pedal could stick and that, as it was wired, the brake system wouldn't override it. So, we had planned to fix that and the leak in the brake lines this morning.

Well, that wasn't the case.

We spent all afternoon working on it, and for a little while we had everything working (although the brake lines still leaked).

We took the car outside, flipped on the motor and discovered that the motor would run, but the wheel wouldn't turn. So now we're working on finishing that. We had planned to go out to Mizzou Arena's parking lot to drive this afternoon (now this evening), but that's looking more and more unlikely.

Hopefully I'll have better news later this evening.

Just last night, we drove the Tigergen I frame with a nearly complete braking and steering system. Garrett, Head Mechanical Engineer, drove around the Engineering Building West parking lot for three minutes or so-- before the light rain became a hazard to our electrical system.

But it's an exciting accomplishment- especially since we have only a week before we pack up and head to Texas.

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And even greater news, guys! I finally was prepared and had the nice(r) camera to capture the exhilarating moment. So check it out!

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mizzou_hydrogen/2616875457/" title="IMG_7528 by Mizzou Hydrogen, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3060/2616875457_5ac9e2a29d.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="IMG_7528" /></a>

That and Flickr, of course!

Much to our dismay, we won't have the car done this evening to drive. We had hoped by this time- or at least close enough to it- to have the brakes and steering completed. But the shop ended up closing early on us today- at 3 p.m. instead of 5 p.m. like usual- and we had about another half hour on the steering knuckles until they were finished and a little longer to finish a little piece on a lathe. But we move on.

Last night was definitely an interesting one. We spent most of yesterday preparing the car for driving, which was more difficult than it sounds. We had to attach the suspension, the tires, brake discs and a lot more fun little pieces that I can't even remember. We finished most of our necessary welding, so that meant we could finally start wiring the car.

That took some time-- a lot of wire cutting, soldering, testing and twisting-- and we "purged" the hydrogen tank. Essentially, we were cleaning all the air out of the tank using Nitrogen. We filled and purged the tank twice and then took the entire frame outside to the trailer.

We filled the tank using a cascade system. It sounds complicated, but it's surprisingly simple. Inside the trailer we can carry three massive metal tanks that is filled with compressed hydrogen gas. They're all connected with a system we designed.

When the cascade system's nozzle is attached to the tank on the frame, hydrogen is drawn out of one of the tanks in the trailer. As the pressure in tank 1 decreases, hydrogen from tank 2 is moved back to tank 1 to increase the pressure again. The same repeats when the pressure in tank 2 decreases with tank 3. (That's not too complicated, huh?)

And when I say drive, I should probably elaborate a little more about what we accomplished. The frame itself had no brakes and no steering control; what we did was turn on the entire power system, then the fuel cells, then the motor on a rear tire, and let her drive! The motor made a loud whirling noise. The noise, though, should lessen some as we further refine the car. The car moved slowly, and if we wanted to turn, we had to grab onto the uprights and physically turn them ourselves.

So, while it's a little disappointing we won't be driving anymore tonight, we'll be working hard the rest of this week to get the car fully drivable this weekend.

Oh- and soon we shall have Tigergen's body back! I'll post more details on that when it gets closer to returning. It will be gold with a black chevron on the front and two black stripes following the body's lines back to the tail. It'll look pretty awesome.

With just under a month until we arrive in Plano, Texas, for scruntineering and the beginning of NASC, we've been making some major headway towards finishing Tigergen I. She now has a body, and all that is left is to cut the windows and the door and paint it. Hopefully the body will be sent out Monday.

The frame is in the final stages of completion as well. Students still in Columbia have been working all day to finish the brakes and steering. Soon we will have our DC/DC board back as well; we needed to send it out for a little bit of tweaking. When we get that back, we will be able to begin testing the car without the body and get our drivers familiar with how it drives. I hope to have some video of the those first tests, and they'll be posted on our new race blog at:

http://tigergen.blogspot.com/

There you will find more information on the team as we drive through the race!