So what took you out of endurance?

[Eric Wort]

For us, it was a connection to the fan relay that fell off. I was apparently hitting it with my knee everytime I was on or off the gas. We made about 5 laps before we overheated and they pulled us off the track.

Its always the little stuff.

Eric Wort
UIUC Formula SAE

[Eric Wort]

For us, it was a connection to the fan relay that fell off. I was apparently hitting it with my knee everytime I was on or off the gas. We made about 5 laps before we overheated and they pulled us off the track.

Its always the little stuff.

Eric Wort
UIUC Formula SAE

[Denny Trimble]

University of Washington: 1st driver spun on Lap 8ish, in the fast 45 near the paddock. Hit cones at about 40 with the right sidepod, which broke the mounting tab. Driver restarted, completed his laps with the sidepod loose (flapping a little bit, dragging on the ground sometimes) but retained.

The car went into the driver change, not sure if they inspected it or not, and they sent us back out. 8 more laps later, the meatball was flown and we were pulled into the tech box, ending our run.

Other enduro-enders I've heard:
Ohio State: hit a cone downed by another team, broke a camber-control bolt, continued driving but were black-flagged.

UTA: blew a coolant overflow hose off a fitting.

Texas A&M: broken throttle cable early on

UVic: a very exciting rear spindle failure

On a related note, UMC broke a halfshaft at the R&T Challenge! the very next time they ran the car after endurance Good timing!

University of Washington Formula SAE ('98, '99, '03)

[Lyn Labahn UW-Madison]

UW-Madison:

We had a problem with our shifting system that began to manifest in the acceleration runs. So we had to go over some of the wiring before endurance and all seemed well. Pulling up to the line to take off, the driver could no get the car into gear so one of my team mates just reached down on thet engine and threw her in gear. Out on the track the car would not leave 1st gear so we did 6 or 7 laps screaming down the straights at 15k or so before the engine gave up the ghost over at the south end of the track. A big plume of smoke and a fireball gave the crowd quite a thrill. We had punched two holes in the engine block, one the size of a fist. Not the finish that we were hoping for, we really wanted to back up our three previous years of strong finishes. It was a strange year for many schools that usually do so well, Ohio State, Cornell, UTA, Texas A&M come to mind.

2002/2003 Team Leader
Best overall average finish of the new millenium

[Eric Wort]

Since you were in Washington's paddock, I bet you saw us smashing that relay connector with a hammer on Sunday, followed shortly by the meeting with a propane torch.

Edit: took out information about Wisconsin as they posted it while I was typing

Eric Wort
UIUC Formula SAE

[Denny Trimble]

Eric, I missed that, but I'll make sure we post video of our upcoming cone damage tolerance testing

University of Washington Formula SAE ('98, '99, '03)

[Markymark]

Eric,

We had a similar problem on our enduro event... The car started missing badly.
Thought it was fuel starvation, but it ended out being.... A loose battery pole, with 3 laps to go.

A big dissapointment and also a good lesson.

Marc Ethier
Polythecnique of Montreal #30

[Chris Maher]

UCF only made it 5 or so laps before the right front shoulder bolt backed itself (shearing the safety wire) out of the upright disconnecting the lower a-arm from the upright.

Chris Maher
Secretary,
University of Central Florida,
Society of Automotive Engineers
info@ucfmotorsports.com
www.ucfmotorsports.com

[Tony]

Kettering's car did 4 laps before the shift cable broke, leaving us in first gear for the folloinwg 18 laps.. And believe it or not, we finished it (but with no points, and fuel economy was, well, non-existent.)

Solid linkage next year, we're thinking.

[Dan Gurick]

Two laps in and we were black flagged with the left side of our body coming loose.

Dan Gurick
Formula RPI