The first test measured the amount of time it takes for two people to remove the whole body, just the front piece, and just the tail piece. It’s important that the body can be removed quickly, in case something such as a flat tire occurs. The only way to access the tires is to remove the front or tail piece (depending on whether the front tires or rear tire needs to be changed). To do this test, each person used a pair of needle-nose pliers so that they could remove the clips easier. The time started when the two team members began to remove the piece(s) and ended once the piece(s) were set on the ground next to the vehicle. The data table below provides the recorded data from this test.
The second test measured if the carbon fiber could withstand various impacts. To do this, a 10 lb. weight was dropped from several heights above the panel. The video on the left shows the weight dropping from a height of 18 inches. This equated to approximately 20.35 joules of energy. The panel was raised 2.5 inches off the ground in order to allow it to deflect. The data from the test is included in the table below.
Initially, given the panel's rigidity, it was expected that if the carbon fiber was to deflect more than 1 inch then it would have snapped. This was proven to be untrue considering it deflected ~1.25 inches and did not fail. It did appear that the panel would not have survived a load much greater than 10 pounds from the height of 18 inches.
