Well we have made it to Denmark and all is going well so far. The trip across was uneventful and all credit needs to be given to both those who organised the trip and to the team themselves who just get on with things with a complete minimum of fuss.
The hire cars performed perfectly - the recently resprayed and heavily tinted VW Transporter being used to carry most of the team lends a suitable air of rock stardom to the whole event.
Today is the first day of racing and we, like all the other teams, are currently putting the finishing touches on our vehicle. We are the only 2-turbine fully electric vehicle. Looking around I also believe we are the only truly multinational team, and possibly the only one with a female driver. No matter what happens over the next few days we are already the winners in our class! :)
Winds permitting, our first race today will be against Flensburg, whose vehicle looks remarkably like a tricycle with a desk fan mounted on the front, and Spirit of Amsterdam 2. Spirit of Amsterdam 1 (which we are racing immediately afterwards) won in 2009 so we are hoping to get a psychological advantage by showing the Dutch how it should be done right from the beginning! (To be honest the Spirit of Amsterdam vehicles do look very slick, but then again, looks aren't everything...)
We've had very few mishaps so far. The VW Transporter was still in the panel shop when we went to collect it on Wednesday morning but that didn't hold us up for long.
A slightly more worrying occurrence was the sudden appearance of smoke from one of the controllers when the motors were tested yesterday. This is being rectified as I write this and it doesn't seem to be catastrophic. However, if any more smoke comes out of the vehicle I think Dave will have to practice his Danish in one of the local electronics shops, which could be amusing to say the least.
The vehicle is attracting a lot of interest from the other teams. Dave's presentation last night generated a few laughs from the audience, especially when he named "plywood" and "millions of cable ties" in the list of materials. One thing I can say with absolute certainty is that everyone will remember the University of Bristol's entry - and I think she is already gaining a place in people's hearts.
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