Red Bull Human Powered Dragster Day

[Dr Claw]

So im sitting in the middle of woodward avenue, as downtown as it gets in detroit, hijaking sombody's wireless internet signal, patiently awaiting tomarrow's Redbull Dragsterday "Human powered dragster". Its reminicent of FSAE '04 and '05 competitions, but we actually did testing, and im fully rested so i dont really know what to do this night before our competition. its an entirely unfamilar feeling, but i'll try to replicate it for '06 http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_razz.gif. Needless to say, i'll be posting of this nights parties and craziness, of the cars, the teams, and of the competition tomarrow. its gonna be another riot in downtown D-troit, but your not gonna hear much, if anything about this one on the TV. best to hear it from me http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif.

Official info: http://www.redbulldragsterday.com

For preliminary pics of our car: http://www.toolhawk64.com
click the link on the left

i'm off to take pics, and talk to the other teams. post back soon.

[Denny Trimble]

Awesome!

Anything there look like this?
http://www.dclxvi.org/chunk/meet/outside/image/drag072.jpg

http://www.dclxvi.org/chunk/meet/outside/image/drag172.jpg

from this page, scroll down a bit (http://www.dclxvi.org/chunk/meet/outside/index.html)

Too bad you can't use stored energy before the green, otherwise you'd see some real acceleration! Wouldn't that be cool, riders have 1 minute to spin up their flywheels before they get the green...

Otherwise, a regular old bicycle would win, at the risk of being boring.

[Dr Claw]

well, my camera is currently recharging so i cant really get my pics out of it until thats done, but there are two jr dragster type racers here. there are also some pretty frickin wild ones too, so it's going to be crazy today. i'll try to get a couple of each car uploaded in a few.

[markocosic]

Otherwise, a regular old bicycle would win, at the risk of being boring.

Naah - a 'sit down' bicycle with a seat-back to push against would whoop an 'ordinary' bicycle any day.

Anybody up for teh '06 FlugTag?

http://www.redbullflugtagusa.com/

[rjwoods77]

I would do a rowing machine with the obvious ratchet drive. Significantly more force can be developed.

[KevinD]

Originally posted by markocosic:
Naah - a 'sit down' bicycle with a seat-back to push against would whoop an 'ordinary' bicycle any day.

i will take this challenge...
the only time a recumbant is going to beat anything in a race is on a top speed race with plenty of time to get up to speed, no turns, and provided the recumbant has a shell as well. sure when you have a seat back to push against technically speaking you could push harder on the pedal, but with my bike, my feet are locked onto the pedal, allowing me to pull up on the pedal as well as push down on the other pedal. that means i'm no longer limited by the force of gravity on my body to which i can apply to the pedals.

[DaveC]

Yeah, "ordinary" bikes have been around for a while. A good road bike is the fastest human powered device you'll find.

[EliseS2]

Well as a ex-FSAEer and forced to finally give it up, I am doing a human powered vehicle for the ASME HPV competition.

Rob, we have thought of a stroker design like you mentioned. But really you have a massive power pulse, then a relaxation. This is not the best thing to overcome the drag. Not only that but steering become kinda difficult. Of course two riders stroking opposite eachother could work out well.

This project seems like a cakewalk compared to formula.