Who's whining? I mereley stated that the lathe is WWII surplus (refurbished by the 1998 team). The point I was trying to make is that it's not the latest and greatest, and we have worked very hard to have the privelege of an in-house lathe. Now, the mill I was whining about, it's a real pain to use without quill feed, but I am very well aware that something is better than nothing. I am also very well aware that many teams have far less than we do. Some don't even have shop space on campus. In no way was I trying to minimize their plight. All I wanted to do was disspell any rumor that UTA operates on a Ferrari budget. Sincere apologies for any feathers I may have ruffled.
On another subject, I would like some input from teams on their enthusiasm for going to SCCA Nationals, and what it would take to raise the level of enthusiasm enough to go to Nationals.The obvious downsides are cost and time. Entry is relatively expensive, it takes basically a full week of your time, and it's no fun to go to so much trouble only to get beaten (badly) by the A-mods.
The upside is that it such a pleasant change from the FSAE competition. Very little pressure, much less formal, just plain racing and hanging out. There is national exposure to be had, and SCCA is now recognizing Formula SAE separately from the A-mods. Dr. Woods has spent the past few years trying to get our own class for Nationals, but the low FSAE turnout hasn't given him enough ammunition to warrant such a change. I don't know how many teams are aware that UTA held a driving weekend open to all schools. We drove in our lot on Saturday, andthen autocrossed on Sunday. We had more than 30 drivers in our class that weekend, the largest A-mod class our division has ever seen, and if I'm not mistaken, the largest A-mod class ever in SCCA history. From a business standpoint, I would think that SCCA would want to do everything they could do to get that kind of turnout at Nationals.
Anyway, I would like to hear some feedback.
Regards,
Ken Hassler
UTA
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Richard Lewis:
Wow, you guys have mills and a lathe? (actually I'm serious) Whining about a WWII surplus lathe really is falling on deaf ears here. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]
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