Late at night, in the warehouse used as a temporary maintenance workshop, the engineers of the Lorraine Agricultural and Forestry Machinery Factory were engaged in various discussions and reflections around their logging trucks. It was the night of the second day of the rematch, and during the off-road phase of the rematch, the full track car suffered a spring crack while crossing the rocky beach, which directly led to the lack of points in this stage of the test. According to the rules, each project has a chance to reapply for testing, and it is supposed that only the vehicle needs to be repaired to take on the project again, but the cautious engineers have a question: if the spring is replaced and then crosses the rocky beach at the previous speed, will the spring crack again? If they slow down to pass, they will not be able to compete for the title once they lose points, as they have not been dominant in other events before.

With many concerns, they towed the car back and conducted research overnight. After much discussion and deference, the lumberjack was able to move fast across the rocky river beach at four gears at 1,500 pounds, exceeding the extreme pressure limit of the springs they were using. Lowering the load or slowing down will result in a corresponding reduction in their score in this event. If you want to continue to compete for the title, you can either stick to the ideal score here or find a way to find a way in other disciplines.

Technically, it was not impossible to increase the load or off-road capability of the transporter, either by trying a more powerful spring, by taking out the spare chassis with torsion bars, or by taking the risk of trying again with the original configuration. Just as the engineers hesitated, a voice came from the shadows: "I have an idea, I don't know if I should talk about it...... or not"

After this period of time together, everyone has become familiar with Zuo Sen's way of speaking. Although I feel a little pretended, this world speaks by strength, and the few ideas he came up with before were very good, so everyone didn't mind this unique way of "entering".

Under the gaze of everyone, Zuo Sen sat on the table full of tools, and said unhurriedly: "The main reason why the spring is broken, in addition to the strength of the material, is that the impact is too strong. Shouldn't we start from the perspective of impact reduction and consider what else we can think of besides springs? While a temporary replacement option is possible, it also adds a lot of uncertainty. If there is a mechanical failure, wouldn't all the work done be wasted? ”

After Zuo Sen finished speaking, he looked around. The crowd did not refute, so he added: "Tracked vehicles should enhance cushioning and improve off-road ability, and the most conventional thinking is to improve the performance of the chassis, but in fact, we can also start with load wheels." I happened to measure the weight wheel we are currently using, the diameter is exactly the same as the rear wheel of the Liberty car, if we combine the rubber tires of the rear wheel to our load wheel, it will look awkward, but it can bring a certain degree of cushioning. However, this required us to modify those tires overnight to make them more suitable for the shape of the load wheels. Depending on the thickness of the tire, whether the load wheel and the track will get stuck or loose, we have to confirm this through test operation...... One night should be enough time for this. ”

After a while, the opinions were divided into two factions: one group felt that Zuosen's suggestion could be adopted, and the other group felt that this temporary modification was unreliable, and it was likely that the fetal rubber would fall off during operation, and the operation time was slightly longer, and it was possible to get stuck. Therefore, they felt that they should increase the number of springs, which was one of the backup options they had set aside, otherwise they would have to force the chassis with torsion bars, but that spare chassis was not stable enough in the previous tests and had failed many times – not because of the design, but because their material technology and testing work were not perfect enough and would take longer to debug to find the right configuration.

"Gentlemen, I have just listened to your discussion, and I think that your minds are very active. In fact, it doesn't matter whether we can win this game or not, the important thing is that we have broadened our horizons and enriched our thinking through this competition. Even if we don't win this time, we can develop a better machine through future efforts. That kind of achievement will also be very rewarding, and I can assure you of that. ”

Weiss's voice came from the door of the storeroom, and the engineers turned to each other.

The promoter of the event, the governor of Lorraine, nodded at them with a smile and slowly walked to the logging truck parked in the middle of the warehouse.

"I should take some responsibility for today's problem, because I didn't fully consider that our metal materials are not mature enough in terms of performance. For these key components, we should order better quality products from the Longmaier Group. Although our partners have already provided very good materials, considering that the factories in the free Lorraine Canal Industrial Zone have only been up and running for more than a year, we cannot expect our partners to do the best in the whole federation. We believe that sooner or later, we will be the best in the league, but that glory belongs to the future......"

Weiss said as he crouched down and took a closer look at the broken spring that had been replaced. This thing is very stout, not to mention ordinary people, even if it is a very heavy machine, it can't be crushed, but the heavy tracked vehicle is different from ordinary machines, the impact force brought by the high-speed movement under large loads is indeed more powerful than imagined, and when the manual paper calculation cannot reach the level of electronic modeling, they can not get a sufficiently accurate answer by calculating with experience and limited parameters.

"This is already the most stressful spring in the logging truck, right?" Weiss asked the chief engineer of the participating team, and the balding middle-aged man nodded quickly.

"Yes, it's already the best spring of the same size in the whole of Lorraine, so it's impossible for us to think of a single spring in a short period of time."

"A backup solution for springs was theoretically possible, but I remember being reminded that the hardest thing to do with double springs was to distribute the pressure equally. If the pressure is focused on one or the other, there is a chance of a malfunction. Without waiting for the chief engineer to give an affirmative reply, Weiss turned directly to the new young engineer, Zuosen, and said to him: "Your suggestion is meritorious, but on a machine of this weight, it is almost certain that the makeshift combination will have problems due to insufficient fit." But your idea is to find a good direction for us, starting with the load wheel to increase the cushioning performance. In this regard, I have a hand - a helper from the Star Group. They are very experienced in this area, to be precise, from the battlefield maintenance of flight units. They can quickly add adhesive construction to our load wheels, which is a little less strong than regular products, but can still handle short impacts. Therefore, my suggestion is to use a set of load wheels to be treated with adhesive technology, and only for this one test project to install and use, and continue to use the original load wheels for other projects, which should be able to solve our immediate needs. ”

With that, Weiss kept his head down and paced back and forth beside the two logging trucks, and then said, "It's not enough to solve this problem. Because from what we know so far, the cars in the race have already scored very high points, almost every event is one or two points more than us. That means we need to get at least two perfect scores in two categories. ”

Following Weiss's line of thought, whether to use small load wheels to impact the full score of speed, or use large load wheels to challenge the full score of the load, or try to climb the project, the engineers have different opinions. The small warehouse suddenly looked like a lively market.

The crowd discussed for a while, and Weiss did not rush them, but continued to pace back and forth. This transporter can forcibly add weight to more than 2000 or even 2500 pounds, the body should be able to withstand it, but during operation, the engine is likely to have problems. Although they still have a spare one, these two engines have cost a considerable price, and whether there is no need to risk a cylinder burst to challenge the results is a node that needs to be carefully decided. As for the impact speed, they are already on par with the Laureus team in road and off-road technology, and in addition to the machine concerns, there are also safety concerns. In the event of a driving accident, it can lead to damage to their transporter and driver, affecting the rest of the race. Thinking of this, Weiss couldn't help but secretly blame himself for why he set the framework of the design so high-end. Although the details of the scoring were discussed by the experts under his main framework, it had a great deal to do with his grasp of the general direction, and after the scoring system was decided, even if he was the initiator of the organizer, he could not violate the principle of fairness and justice to forcibly revise it. Otherwise, such a tournament will lose the credibility it deserves.

After a long discussion, the voice in the warehouse finally slowed down. The engineers were in a dilemma again, and at that moment, the voice came from the corner again: "I have an idea, I don't know if I should say it...... or not."

All eyes were focused on Zuo Sen's body at once, he was a little embarrassed, and lowered his head and touched his nose.

"We've already got all the normal scores, and I think we should challenge the extra points. While it feels like these plus points are hard to accomplish, it's not completely out of the question. ”

The plus points that the experts have come up with are not very difficult to complete, and they are very, very difficult to complete. It even feels like nitpicking. In fact, if you can get these extra points, it does mean that the entries are of a very high standard – and Weiss agrees with these points because he wants to serve as a benchmark, after all, he envisions that such competitions should be held every year or two years. This bonus point is a bellwether for the design ideas of the next entry.

The first of the three plus points is to pass through a complex S-curve within a time limit. This requires a strong level of handling on the part of the participating vehicles. In their previous tests, it was difficult for even a seasoned driver to complete this section of the road in a normal wheeled vehicle, let alone a bulky tracked or agricultural wheeled vehicle. The second bonus is that the vehicles are required to reach an instantaneous speed of 160 miles per hour, which is almost the initial flight speed of an airplane, which is a very difficult challenge for agricultural machinery for today's cars and trucks, which is possible in the extremely unloaded state. The third plus point, the ultimate requirement for stability, or a fun project, requires a water cup that is not fixed in the car, and the water cup cannot be poured during off-roading, and the water spilled cannot be more than half. With the performance of various vehicles at present, not to mention agricultural and forestry machinery vehicles, even high-end cars cannot do this. Therefore, 30 points in these three bonus items has become a kind of goal that can only be looked up to for the contestants.

The practice of bonus points has already been announced, and everyone present is very clear that the reason why everyone does not mention it is because they feel that there is no possibility of scoring points. There have been a few attempts in the past, but none of them have been able to achieve it.

So, Weiss threw the question to Zuosen: "If you have any specific ideas, you might as well tell them and listen to them." ”

"I envisioned a possibility." "If we remove all the extra parts of the transporter, leaving only the engine, the transmission, the suspension and the necessary external frame, the weight can be reduced to the extreme, which means that the maneuverability can theoretically be achieved." We only kept the minimum amount of fuel we needed in the tank, and then went on a crazy sprint, and the 160 mph limit was not impossible. ”

"It's one of the extra challenges that we can try, and the other one, I personally recommend trying until the last minute on the last day because it's a little loophole in the rules...... Everyone knows about it and has the potential to take advantage of it. I think someone here should know what a balancer is, to be precise, a Margaret balancer. It was invented by the great engineer of the last century to keep the plane stable when the carrier is bumped to a certain extent. In this case, with this gadget, it is possible for us to score the third plus point. Of course, this last option may be a bit controversial. If someone used the Margaret balancer in advance, the panel of judges could declare the vulnerability invalid, and when we were the last to use it and no one used it before, the governor's influence should be able to rule that it was valid. ”

The focus of attention immediately focused on Weiss, who was the organizer, not the referee. The judges will have their own ideas, but as Zuosen said, he can exert a certain amount of influence. This is a loophole in the rules, whether to choose an absolutely fair and just choice or choose to take care of one's own team, just like the two ends of the scale, it is impossible to have both.