I am told by someone on a Formula SAE team that the Formula SAE courses are
tighter and "slower" than Solo II courses. Since the primary reason to
build a Formula SAE car is to run on a Formula SAE course, it makes little
sense to design the car to use wings.
On the other hand, when designing a car for A-Modified use on Solo II
courses, it would be silly to design a car without a wing or two.
The purpose of entering a car in A-Modified at Solo II events is to learn
more about the car and more about being a team. Changing the specs of the
car in a futile effort to catch national-caliber A-Modified cars is a
counter-productive exercise considering the primary purpose of the Formula
SAE car.
Personally, I'd like to see a Solo II class for Formula SAE cars. It would
work fine if we could slap around the lawyers so the schools would sell the
cars off when they had outlived their two-year Formula SAE limit. That
would seem to make more sense to me than having them as moot autocrosser
prototypes but never actually selling them for that purpose. I'd sure
rather have one of these than a kart.
Phil Ethier Saint Paul Minnesota USA
Lotus Europa, VW Quantum Syncro, Chev Suburban
LOON, TCVWC, MAC
pethier@isd.net http://www.visi.com/mac/
From: eah6@daimlerchrysler.com <eah6@daimlerchrysler.com>
>Actually, if you look at the top teams from the past few years, wings were
the
>exception, not the norm. Fairly large wings are required to generate any
useful
>downforce at these speeds and the wings usually end up mounted above the
driver.
>Not good for the CG. Our analysis showed that tunnels would probably be the
most
>effective for creating downforce, but due to lack of time, money, and
expertise,
>we did not pursue it any further.
>
>With the exception of FSAE cars, I have never seen any A-Mod cars run (in
>Ontario), so I have no idea how competitive they are. Has anybody seen the
UTA
>or Cornell cars run at an event? They have consistently finished in the top
>three at the FSAE competition over the past few years.
>
>Ed.
>'96 University of Waterloo FSAE
>
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