Karts are the shit.We partnered with Andersen RacePark in Palmetto. They're going to help us with driver training, choosing the drivers, suspension tuning, and all sorts of other related things.
As a getting-to-know you, they invited us down for a 75 lap endurance race. Everyone was divided into ten two-person teams, given some brief safety stuff and a 30 minute practise session.
Almost everyone spun out once or twice, there was bumping and rubbing to try and push people out of the way. I ran one of the guys straight into the barrier. It was great.
My team-mate and I came in 8th, but our times were nice and consistent
Karts are the shit.
IDK if you'll ever get time, but take that thing autocrossing.
The school I used to go to did the Baja which was neat, nowhere near the money for FSAE though.
You seen that rally Toyota restrictor cheat before?I think I've mentioned that we have to run a restrictor for comp. We have traditionally had a full aluminum one made with the appropriate geometries and such to ensure max flow. This sucks up a lot of our manufacturing/machining budget from our sponsors.
This year we hit upon the idea of making a solid center section and bonding carbon fiber ends to the aluminum piece. Now instead of having our machinists attempt to make a piece 8-10 inches long with a wall thickness of 80 thou we can have them churn out two or three that are only a couple inches, go down to 40 thou, and include the dall slot which gives us a little bit of flow through black magic.
No pockets! #wrongthreadLol yeah I've already got one pinch today. Going to get another magnet soon, then it'll happen more frequently.
http://crasstalk.com/2011/03/cheatins-still-winnin-the-story-of-toyota-racings-best-cheat-ever/There are several ways to cheat with the intake system, unfortunately the restrictor and associated parts are pretty much the main thing the judges look for.
Its a weird competition in some ways. All the tech inspectors and scrutineers are volunteers. You honestly don't know if the person(s) you get has their head on straight or up their ass.
My first year we got told that we had to have a chain guard on our car. We looked at the guy, said "We have a chain guard. Its a large and very obvious one, right there."
"No no no, you need one for the front of the chain."
"Since when?"
"Uhh... Rule has been in place for... 4 years? Says you need something to prevent chain from hitting driver in case it comes loose."
"How come we haven't been told this before? How come previous people accepted the fact that the engine case, fuel tank, firewall, etc etc etc were enough?"
", but you need a chain guard."
So we made one. They then passed us. Most teams leave two or three small things for the inspectors to find, makes em happy and you know what they are going in.
Wanna review the rules and see if anything sticks out?
Http://students.sae.org/cds/formulaseries/rules/2015-16_fsae_rules.pdf
FSAE is chain drive? You guys go against Pitt or CMU?