Hawt Because Racecar
- Thread starter Mr. Argumentor
- Start date
Looks like CMU only does electric/hybrid. Completely different animal in our world so we don't directly compete. May be factored into worldwide results, though? I'll have to look later
Briefly looking at the results of last year at Lincoln, the EV cars drop out at a rate 2-3 times that of the ICE cars. When they score they have a fairly decent score though.
Briefly looking at the results of last year at Lincoln, the EV cars drop out at a rate 2-3 times that of the ICE cars. When they score they have a fairly decent score though.
Alrighty, let's go over this past week.
Here is a program, it has basic team info, info on the events, and other fun stuff
http://www.fsaeonline.com/content/2016_Formula_SAE_Michigan_Event_Guide.pdf
So, we finished up the car Saturday and Sunday of the 8th and 9th.
Once we had everything done, we had to: Unveil the car, Test drive the car, Pack the trailer, Drive to Michigan.
The parts I designed and had to run around and find sponsors for hold the hubs
Professional Unveil pictures:
https://rogpics.smugmug.com/USF/SAE2016Unveil/i-76x5hKh
Quick meeting after unveil
Then we went back to the shop, started to pack and try and shake down the car and see what the issues were. At this point we were planning on leaving Monday at 1:30 PM
There tends to be a lot of hurry-up and wait. One system gets an issue or has to set something up, then we all wait on them to do their thing.
At around 9 Sunday night I called it a night and headed home to pack and get some sleep as they wanted me to drive the first leg towing the trailer up.
I showed up, enough people started to get there that we could start to do some work on the car and we finally got to do a small amount of test time
Unfortunately we didn't get to do a lot of test time right then. The above picture is taken at around 3-4PM Monday afternoon (remember, we wanted to leave at 1:30 and I and everyone else had slept accordingly)
We had issues with our engine tune, as well as a couple of electrical gremlins. We worked and worked and finally got to the point where we thought we were good. Did some testing and had everything fall on it's face. That continued until about 3, at which point we decided to split the team up. We had a rental van for most of the team, and a rental truck for towing the trailer. We decided to send the trailer up, 5 of us would stay behind and get the car running as well as possible and continue from there.
At about 8PM we finally got everything where we thought we could start running it well and did testing until midnight-ish. We got the brakes bedded in, adjusted basic suspension stuff so we wouldn't immediately shred tires, and dialed in a little bit of the air-shifting system. Finally we refueled and realized the gasket on the tank wasn't sealing, so we took the car back to the shop and started to pack at maybe 12:45-1AM
Seeing as I was the one with the smallest sleep deficit (yes, you read that correctly,) I took a nap while they loaded the trailer. At about 3AM we finally got on the road.
I'll continue on tomorrow.
nukes
I Eat Buttholes Raw
So, where was I.
We left Tuesday morning at 3AM, got in Wednesday morning at 1AM. Immediately unloaded the car and started to go over everything and do our own tech inspection to ensure that the car would pass tech.
Gates opened at 8 for everyone to unload. We were about 20th in line so we got to stand around for a good while with our thumbs up our butts
Finally got into the gated area and got to unload the car and the tools. First order of business was to go around and fix issues that we had identified last night at our pre-tech inspection. We needed an extension on the firewall and to change out a lot of bolts so that they would be legal (meaning they had to show that there were two threads past the nut to show it was fully engaged with the nut)
Then we were off to tech inspection. They make you fabricate a push bar for the competition, I don't really know why. For our car it's necessary as the wings get in the way, but a non-aero car, you can push on the roll hoop just fine.
Post-tech inspection we head back to the paddock, then start adjusting stuff on the car. In the next few pictures we're adjusting toe and camber, clearancing one of the sidepods for exhaust, fixing a leaky gasket on our fuel tank, and a few other things.
As I mentioned, one of everyone's favorite past times is wandering around and looking at the other teams. We got a lot of attention from other teams this year. Primarily because of our turbo and suspension setup, although there were a decent amount of questions on the carbon fiber work
Always one person, every year that says "do we really need to bring the welder?!?"
We finished the day, then we went back to the camp and I made s'ghetti while everyone else prepped for the design portion of the competition. This is basically where we go through and make sure our engineering decisions are clear, and the judges understand what we did.
We left Tuesday morning at 3AM, got in Wednesday morning at 1AM. Immediately unloaded the car and started to go over everything and do our own tech inspection to ensure that the car would pass tech.
Gates opened at 8 for everyone to unload. We were about 20th in line so we got to stand around for a good while with our thumbs up our butts
Finally got into the gated area and got to unload the car and the tools. First order of business was to go around and fix issues that we had identified last night at our pre-tech inspection. We needed an extension on the firewall and to change out a lot of bolts so that they would be legal (meaning they had to show that there were two threads past the nut to show it was fully engaged with the nut)
Then we were off to tech inspection. They make you fabricate a push bar for the competition, I don't really know why. For our car it's necessary as the wings get in the way, but a non-aero car, you can push on the roll hoop just fine.
Post-tech inspection we head back to the paddock, then start adjusting stuff on the car. In the next few pictures we're adjusting toe and camber, clearancing one of the sidepods for exhaust, fixing a leaky gasket on our fuel tank, and a few other things.
As I mentioned, one of everyone's favorite past times is wandering around and looking at the other teams. We got a lot of attention from other teams this year. Primarily because of our turbo and suspension setup, although there were a decent amount of questions on the carbon fiber work
Always one person, every year that says "do we really need to bring the welder?!?"
We finished the day, then we went back to the camp and I made s'ghetti while everyone else prepped for the design portion of the competition. This is basically where we go through and make sure our engineering decisions are clear, and the judges understand what we did.
Following day, the first thing we did was come in and fix the fuel tank leak. The previous day we had identified it and what we needed to fix it with, but we needed to dry it out first, so we emptied it and let it dry overnight at camp.
Once we did this, we got the car put back together and pushed it to the scales. They take a reading of the car with and without driver, as well as the weight distribution. You always want to set up for this properly because the sticker goes on your car for all the world to see.
The next thing we did was driver egress. Here every driver is signed off on how fast they can exit the car. You have five seconds to go from fully strapped in to outside of the car on two feet.
Next we went to fueling.
After fuel we went to the tilt test, here they tilt you to 45 degrees to simulate a 1-G force turn. At this point the car should not leak. Then they go to a 60 degree angle to ensure that the car will not lift tires and potentially flip at a near 2G turn. This test is pretty outdated as it was outlined in the mid-90s when cars were hovering around 1.1G max turns. With better tires, better tech, even bad teams are seeing close to 2 G forces.
Unfortunately, the tilt test is easy to do, so it stays.
With passing the tilt test you get a sticker to show that you've passed. Stickers are a pretty big deal. At one point of the third day of competition there were only 70ish teams that had passed all four tech inspections. The field of competitors at the start of the first day numbered close to 130. Ultimately the amount of teams that got a placement in all four dynamic events was around 60 teams.
Then we tried to pass sound. Somehow we got a huge amount of resonance in the car. We've never seen it before. Personally I think it had to do (somewhat) with the lack of damping in the aero package. Traditionally we use a high density foam with a width of maybe 1/2-3/4", this year we developed carbon fiber inserts that are about half the weight of our foam inserts. It works on the bench, but you put it into real life and shit gets weird.
On the dyno we got a reliable 103-105 dBc (measured half a meter from the exhaust tip, at a 45 degree angle from the tip. If you have multiple tips, you must measure at every tip.) however when put the engine in the car the resonance gave us about 114 dBc. The goal is 110 dBc.
Eventually we just broke out the welder and made FrankenMuffler.
Before we did that, though, we had to go to Design. We had judges from Ford, Space X, Bosch, and several others.
Then we went to fabricate FrankenMuffler. Basically we had a single Ducati muffler (from a 900?) and we just added a second one to it.
During that, one of the teams we've had a good relationship with in the past came over and asked for help welding. To me, helping other teams is one of the high points of the competition. It helps when (like these guys) the team is so far above or below us that we know helping them isn't going to hurt us.
Finally, the day ended with the driver's meeting and a shitload of rain. Because of the rain, non-drivers hung out in the lobby. Some people took the opportunity to sleep, some people then took the opportunity to take selfies with those that were snoring
Once we did this, we got the car put back together and pushed it to the scales. They take a reading of the car with and without driver, as well as the weight distribution. You always want to set up for this properly because the sticker goes on your car for all the world to see.
The next thing we did was driver egress. Here every driver is signed off on how fast they can exit the car. You have five seconds to go from fully strapped in to outside of the car on two feet.
Next we went to fueling.
After fuel we went to the tilt test, here they tilt you to 45 degrees to simulate a 1-G force turn. At this point the car should not leak. Then they go to a 60 degree angle to ensure that the car will not lift tires and potentially flip at a near 2G turn. This test is pretty outdated as it was outlined in the mid-90s when cars were hovering around 1.1G max turns. With better tires, better tech, even bad teams are seeing close to 2 G forces.
Unfortunately, the tilt test is easy to do, so it stays.
With passing the tilt test you get a sticker to show that you've passed. Stickers are a pretty big deal. At one point of the third day of competition there were only 70ish teams that had passed all four tech inspections. The field of competitors at the start of the first day numbered close to 130. Ultimately the amount of teams that got a placement in all four dynamic events was around 60 teams.
Then we tried to pass sound. Somehow we got a huge amount of resonance in the car. We've never seen it before. Personally I think it had to do (somewhat) with the lack of damping in the aero package. Traditionally we use a high density foam with a width of maybe 1/2-3/4", this year we developed carbon fiber inserts that are about half the weight of our foam inserts. It works on the bench, but you put it into real life and shit gets weird.
On the dyno we got a reliable 103-105 dBc (measured half a meter from the exhaust tip, at a 45 degree angle from the tip. If you have multiple tips, you must measure at every tip.) however when put the engine in the car the resonance gave us about 114 dBc. The goal is 110 dBc.
Eventually we just broke out the welder and made FrankenMuffler.
Before we did that, though, we had to go to Design. We had judges from Ford, Space X, Bosch, and several others.
Then we went to fabricate FrankenMuffler. Basically we had a single Ducati muffler (from a 900?) and we just added a second one to it.
During that, one of the teams we've had a good relationship with in the past came over and asked for help welding. To me, helping other teams is one of the high points of the competition. It helps when (like these guys) the team is so far above or below us that we know helping them isn't going to hurt us.
Finally, the day ended with the driver's meeting and a shitload of rain. Because of the rain, non-drivers hung out in the lobby. Some people took the opportunity to sleep, some people then took the opportunity to take selfies with those that were snoring
Next morning we started her up and checked out sound.
-Or-
Yeah bro, we vape.
Sound results at our paddock were good, so we pushed it to the testing area and passed immediately.
This gained us another sticker.
We were able to go over to brake test. Here you accelerate to about 30 MPH, then you have to lock up all 4 wheels within about a 20 foot distance. We passed the first time. As is tradition, you get a Ring Pop when you pass the first time.
Immediately afterwards we headed over to Acceleration. Here you have to accelerate as hard as you can for 75 meters. This year they put us in the Pit row for NASCAR, which was neat.
Our best time was a 4.442 second run. The best I personally saw for the day was Auburn with 4.106
Unfortunately, at accel we got a little screwed
So it was time to replace the tires. During this time we got called for free pizza from Honda
Then it was off to skidpad. Two right hand circles with a transition into two left hand circles. Each direction is averaged.
From there we got the blessings from Santa to move on to AutoCross.
I moved on down to the photography area. Almost as soon as I got there Clarkson University shit themselves. They ended up knocking a hole in their engine (CBR 600, I think) and spread oil across the entire damn track
They then spread kitty litter all over everywhere to soak it up. Kitty litter is slick, as evidenced by this.
We got through half of one run of AutoX and had an aero issue. We ended up fixing it and getting a time in about 5 minutes before the shut down the track.
(Below is a rough composite pic. Anyone want to make a better one?)
They arranged a group photo
And we were again done for the day
-Or-
Yeah bro, we vape.
Sound results at our paddock were good, so we pushed it to the testing area and passed immediately.
This gained us another sticker.
We were able to go over to brake test. Here you accelerate to about 30 MPH, then you have to lock up all 4 wheels within about a 20 foot distance. We passed the first time. As is tradition, you get a Ring Pop when you pass the first time.
Immediately afterwards we headed over to Acceleration. Here you have to accelerate as hard as you can for 75 meters. This year they put us in the Pit row for NASCAR, which was neat.
Our best time was a 4.442 second run. The best I personally saw for the day was Auburn with 4.106
Unfortunately, at accel we got a little screwed
So it was time to replace the tires. During this time we got called for free pizza from Honda
Then it was off to skidpad. Two right hand circles with a transition into two left hand circles. Each direction is averaged.
From there we got the blessings from Santa to move on to AutoCross.
I moved on down to the photography area. Almost as soon as I got there Clarkson University shit themselves. They ended up knocking a hole in their engine (CBR 600, I think) and spread oil across the entire damn track
They then spread kitty litter all over everywhere to soak it up. Kitty litter is slick, as evidenced by this.
We got through half of one run of AutoX and had an aero issue. We ended up fixing it and getting a time in about 5 minutes before the shut down the track.
(Below is a rough composite pic. Anyone want to make a better one?)
They arranged a group photo
And we were again done for the day
So, then there was endurance. Endurance is a 22 kilometer race, split between two drivers with a three minute pause between drivers. Most teams fail here because they haven't tested enough, their car wasn't charging their battery, heat soak killed the battery, or some other issue. It is rare for there to be a 50% completion rate amongst teams competing in Endurance, although this year was the first year to ever get above 50%
Your score in AutoX determines your placement in the run order for endurance. Score crappily and you get to run first, meaning less testing time and prep time. We got a run time that was in the early afternoon, which is fairly good.
There is no direct wheel-to-wheel racing here. When one team is running slow, they get waved into a separate passing area to allow the faster team to pass them.
You can sort of see the passing lanes in the background here. The long straight sections of cones. There are three or four passing sections on the track.
As we started I started to see clouds rolling in
And then, on our last lap for our first driver, the bottom fell out of the clouds. Rain, hail, horribleness
We pulled into our driver swap, talked to the officials and asked if we could swap to rain tires (which we should be allowed to do) but they said that the track was not "wet" yet so we couldn't do it without a penalty. There were maybe three or four teams that got fucked over like this.
So, we started throwing rooster tails 15 feet into the air on a "damp" track
It's hard to see here, but this is a car spinning due to slicks on a wet surface. We saw this a lot.
The first ever collision of two cars happened. Georgia Tech, University of Michigan-Dearborn, and some third team were approaching the passing lane. GT got flagged to allow the third team to pass, the third team passed GT, and U of M-D tried to pass as well, unfortunately GT came out of the passing zone at the same time and they both collided. GT was called out of the event, U of M-D got to finish (for some reason)
There was a lot of bad officiating this competition.
GT's broken wing
U of M-D's broken parts
Then it was done except for the parties afterwards, and a trip to the wind tunnel.
Your score in AutoX determines your placement in the run order for endurance. Score crappily and you get to run first, meaning less testing time and prep time. We got a run time that was in the early afternoon, which is fairly good.
There is no direct wheel-to-wheel racing here. When one team is running slow, they get waved into a separate passing area to allow the faster team to pass them.
You can sort of see the passing lanes in the background here. The long straight sections of cones. There are three or four passing sections on the track.
As we started I started to see clouds rolling in
And then, on our last lap for our first driver, the bottom fell out of the clouds. Rain, hail, horribleness
We pulled into our driver swap, talked to the officials and asked if we could swap to rain tires (which we should be allowed to do) but they said that the track was not "wet" yet so we couldn't do it without a penalty. There were maybe three or four teams that got fucked over like this.
So, we started throwing rooster tails 15 feet into the air on a "damp" track
It's hard to see here, but this is a car spinning due to slicks on a wet surface. We saw this a lot.
The first ever collision of two cars happened. Georgia Tech, University of Michigan-Dearborn, and some third team were approaching the passing lane. GT got flagged to allow the third team to pass, the third team passed GT, and U of M-D tried to pass as well, unfortunately GT came out of the passing zone at the same time and they both collided. GT was called out of the event, U of M-D got to finish (for some reason)
There was a lot of bad officiating this competition.
GT's broken wing
U of M-D's broken parts
Then it was done except for the parties afterwards, and a trip to the wind tunnel.
nukes
I Eat Buttholes Raw
I dont see any pics of having to race with a wild panther.
When do you get promoted to Ricky Bobby?
When do you get promoted to Ricky Bobby?
nukes
I Eat Buttholes Raw
Speaking of racecars, Charlotte Motor Speedway is covered in rain.
Dis not good for this week's races.
Dis not good for this week's races.