Competition was in Pontiac Michigan. Its actually very complicated. We
might as well work on Formula 1 cars if we had the knowledge they expect
in the design event.
Building a new car is a must. There were actually several things that the
judges felt we had done wrong but it was almost purely thier opinion. I
was already drawing the new chassis in our trip back. The suspension
pickups will probably be mostly unchanged but will possibly change the
design. New lighter uprights will be made possibly magnesium as opposed to
our cast 356 T-6 aluminum ones from this year.
Part of our success this year and our future success is due to the local
SCCA and other auto-x sanctioning bodies. Even though its supposed to be a
engineering event many of the points are based on driving and thats where
we really shined. Next year and over summer we plan on competiting with
and testing the car at as many local events as possible. This and the
ground work our team layed this last year should place us higher next year.
Ian
> Where did the competition take place? I didn't realize the SAE tests
were so
> complicated. Congrats on finishing...always a plus. :) Do you envision
> building another car for 03, or taking pieces of this and incorporating
them
> into the new car? Does there need to be a new car every year? I guess,
like
> the cars are class projects each year.
> --Pat K
>
> ----------
> >From: iagreen@ucdavis.edu
> >To: ba-autox@autox.team.net
> >Subject: UCD Formula SAE
> >Date: Thu, May 23, 2002, 12:55 PM
> >
>
> > Some of you have shown some interest in our team so I figured I'll send
> > out the results.
> >
> > We finished 36th out of the 125 schools that showed up. Also the
highest
> > ranking california school. We know wwe would have done better but with
the
> > circumstances the way they were that wasn't bad.
> > This was also our third chassis and practically nothing had been
carried
> > over from the previous cars to to very lacking design.
> >
> > When we arrived the car had still not been fully assembled and the only
> > driving that had been done was by me just to make sure the brakes
worked.
> > This meant lots of work in our trailer (thanks Geoff) for the first
couple
> > days. The first events of the competition are the "static" events
where we
> > go over our design, cost analysis, and marketing presentations. We
didn't
> > do too good here since getting the car through tech was our first
concern
> > and we didn't have a chance to sit down and review our calculations or
> > prepare the presentations. After that day most of us had been up for
three
> > days and the delierium of some of the team urged us to get some sleep.
All
> > that was left was do the alignment and get through tech. The plan was
get
> > up at 4:00 am and be in tech line at 7:00 am.
> >
> > The second day started the dynamic events we missed our alarm
clock/wake
> > up call or whatever it was we set or forgot to set. We got to the site
> > about 7:30 and took the car striaght to tech with no sort of alignment
> > done. After haggling and negotiating our way through the first two
parts
> > of tech we got held up at the brake test. Even though all four wheels
> > would lock up (the brake test requirement) the car pulled to one side
and
> > they wouldn't let us pass. We went back to our trailer quickly set the
toe
> > and rebleed the brakelines and went back and passed the test fine.
> >
> > But we had to be in line for the acceleration and skidpad events by
10:30
> > and we didn't get through tech till about noon. From there we had to
go to
> > the autocross event. Me and my co-driver (Courtney Waters, NASA/Fiat
club
> > fame) decided to take the car out on the test track (were theres only
> > enough room to do donuts) since neither of us had really driven the
car.
> > Both of us put down excellent times on the autocross despite no
experience
> > in the car and no sort of setup or even good alignment on the car.
Luckily
> > Court managed to put down a 81 scratch (fastest was a 75) which got us
> > 31st in the autocross and a 31st place start in the endurance event.
> >
> > The next day was the endurance event and not having any test time
before
> > the event we decided not to screw with the set up since the car was
> > surprisingly forgiving and handled pretty good. We ran good in the
> > endurance but had a few set backs/lessons for next year. The seat pad
> > hadn't been made for me and Court so we were sitting on the seat frame
> > which wasn't especially comfortable. I had to sit in the car ready to
go
> > for about an hour and so I was getting sore before we even go out on
> > track. This resulted in me being extremely fatigued after about 8 or 9
> > laps of the 11 lap segment I had to drive. Spending most of last year
in
> > front of a computer doing calculations and analysis instead of going to
> > the gym didn't help that much either. When Court took over to drive the
> > second half of the endurance event it started raining so his first few
> > laps were wet. Then we found out that our gas tank didn't have enough
> > baffling so that coming out of hard corners caused the engine to
sputter.
> > But we finished the event without any real problems.
> >
> > Well sorry for the long story. Theres more but I think thats the
exciting
> > parts. Now we get to enjoy "testing" the car and ofcourse its time to
> > build the 2003 car. We'll probably be out at the next Sac event and as
> > many of the SFR events as we can trailer it to.
> >
> >
> > Ian Green
> > Team Leader
> > Formula SAE
> > University of California, Davis
> > http://mae.ucdavis.edu/~fsae
> > CSCC,SFR STS 99
> > 1997 Honda Civic CX
> > www.geocities.com/stscxr
>
Ian Green
Team Leader
Formula SAE
University of California, Davis
http://mae.ucdavis.edu/~fsae
CSCC,SFR STS 99
1997 Honda Civic CX
www.geocities.com/stscxr
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