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Thread: 2015 FSAE-Australasia

  1. #21
    To clarify, the UTAS "15 week private training session" has nothing directly related to driving. It is related to fitness and weight training in the gym only, and the instructor is not a driver and he is not training us in anything outside general fitness and strength. For every hour you spend in the gym, you spend another hour showering and standing around talking about it and thinking what to eat. When the same people could be building the car it is a time resource to be considered, especially if your car is not yet rolling.

    Currently UTAS has a chassis and uprights, but no finished suspension parts so we are not rolling yet.
    University of Tasmania (UTAS)

  2. #22
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    Adam, Jonny,

    You might want to check the Rules first, but there have been Grands Prix won in the past by a driver getting out of the car and pushing it over the finish line.

    But driving is easier...

    Z

  3. #23
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    I agree with Z and Jay. Below is me re-hashing what they said in my own way...

    General:
    - GoPro/on board camera is one of the easiest ways to improve. Having Alumni/other drivers look at your driving style and give pointers is really beneficial. Parts like braking points, positioning of car into slaloms, where to power on etc. Also watching other teams (GFR onboards with Phil Arscott are the best) can give you an idea how hard you can corner in these types of cars.
    - Fitness is important. Whilst you don't need to be Michael Schumacher 2002 fit, if you want to be pulling high g's for 11km constantly without hitting cones or losing concentration then cardio, arm, shoulder, ab strength plus overall weight are the best to focus on. Especially when your suspension designer spends a month saving 200grams and then the driver decides to have a few pies before driving.
    - Simulator time, whilst not close to the real thing, can teach your mind to remember tracks and lines better than waiting till testing or comp to drive. We use LFS (if you want old FSAE-A tracks shoot me a message) but Sofia from Japan use rFactor and can get track height and camber change in there. A wheel, monitor and laptop is what we use and our new drivers have shown heaps of improvement from it.
    - Track design is dependent on what you have access to but we generally have two netball courts or a carpark of roughly the same size that we can use, along with Oakleigh go karts every now and then. For the netball courts it is a figure of 8 that goes 8m slalom into small hairpin, straight then lane change (4x4m) then into large hairpin sweeper. Each lap is about 12s which is really short but enables you to find the limits of the car on the track quickly and makes for easy setup changes. Oakleigh (which most of you have been at) is fantastic for driver training (gradient changes, higher speeds) as it is close to what comp will be.

    Accel:
    Launch, turn around, repeat. We had an auto clutch dump and auto shift for accel at last aus comp and while it may not be the quickest method it removes the inconsistency of what the driver can do. If you look at our times from last year they were all within a tenth of each other (disregard the earlier ones where it hadn't been rubbered in yet) compared to previous year where it was 0.2-0.3s difference.

    Skidpad:
    Test and test. It is hard to get consistent as the track at comp is always different to your testing site (Calder Park had quite a few bumps on it) but ensuring the drivers are in the butterzone of the cones is probably the fool proof way of doing it. We try to give feedback to the drivers after each session in terms of how close they are to the cones, how long it takes to get steady-state etc.

    Autocross/Endurance:
    From what we have found, time spent in the car is the best way. We have had professional racing drivers in our car in the past and whilst they were slightly quicker around hairpins and sweepers than our drivers they lost a lot of time through lane changes and slaloms.
    This changes from team to team but as our members usually join in their second year and stay till they complete their degree, we have usually waited until they have been on the team for a full year before getting a shot to drive/prove themselves.
    This year we had a shootout after the new team members had been on the team for 4 months. From their we share the responsibility around between all drivers. Have to find that balance between trusting new members with the car, ensuring they continue with the team and giving them time in the car.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Onto another (slightly) different topic, Calder Park said they were resurfacing the track but from their facebook photos it looked like it was only the drag strip. Anyone with more information on it?
    Ryan Ockerby
    Monash Motorsport 2012-2015

  4. #24
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    MUR are rolling.

    https://www.facebook.com/MURMotorspo...type=2&theater

    A reasonable ~77 days out.

    Z

  5. #25
    UQ EV is also driving
    UQ Racing

  6. #26
    ECU-R 2015 is officially running.

    Has been for a week or two now though
    Nathan Van Vugt

    Edith Cowan University

    Team Leader 2015 - 2016

  7. #27

  8. #28
    Quote Originally Posted by Z View Post
    Any more tips from the those who have been there, done it???
    A few -

    Quote Originally Posted by Z View Post
    More AERO!
    Supported.

    Quote Originally Posted by Z View Post
    Fit wool tufts to underside of wings and make sure they stay "attached" (ie. blowing downwind, NOT flapping).
    It's OK, and in many occasions preferable to run a wing in partial stall for maximum downforce. Think of an L/D vs AoA curve, the peak is in partial (but not full) stall.

    Remember that qualitative methods are great - tufts and a camera are easy, oil and soot viz is even better IMHO (do you know how - can explain if not).

    But quantitative data is better if you can manage it - if you've the means, run a pressure tap at least to the max suction point of the wing, a second to the max pressure point is gravy. Best to run both differential and to a common static reference - manifolded to a reference Pitot-static is ideal, you can make your own if you like, 'acquire' one from your aero lab or order through Dwyer (good quality and not expensive). Sensors... water, dye and a camera is remarkably accurate if done right, otherwise the high-response low-accuracy stuff works fine, is cheap, and can be had off Digikey with ease.

    Same goes your underfloor. Front wings again. Normalise for speed and wind, record steer. There are novel ways you can record wind angle for not a lot of cash - normalise for speed, yaw and wind and you'll find your data to be considerably more consistent.

    Develop an understanding of where your CoP is, where you set it to be, how it migrates. Crap CoP migration will compromise you faster than not having as much aero load as the next car. Try to log it! There's potential for ingenious approaches here. Once you can, try to tame it.

    Aero development is a continuum. Remember that flaps etc are trim devices, not 'more downforce' devices. Hit testing with little bits of whatever and options to tame CoP migration and increase load in that order. 'Tame' does not necessarily mean 'reduce' (think about this).

    Quote Originally Posted by Z View Post
    Slot gaps are important here.
    WE had a team last year rock up with slot gaps enough to have a three-element wing work as three wings - please know the difference, and experiment accordingly.

    Quote Originally Posted by Z View Post
    Occasionally reduce, or remove, the aero, just to remind yourselves how good it is.
    Back to back is important. Come to comp with comparative G-G plots if you can, or some qualitative measure beyond a stopwatch.

    Remember to do this across drivers. If your aero is good, new drivers should be able to sh*t themselves at how fast you need to go to generate aero load. Remember F proportionate to V^2 and all that.

    See you all at end of year maybe. Good luck all.

  9. #29
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    Auckland is nearly ready...

    https://www.facebook.com/UoAfsae/pho...type=3&theater

    But less than 7 weeks to go now. Better start burning rubber soon, bros.

    Tick ... tock ...

    Z

  10. #30
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    Only four weeks to go.

    If not rolling yet, then PANIC NOW!!!

    Tick-tick-tick...

    Z

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