Formula SAE Australasia 2008 Competition: - Updates, Pictures, Stories, and More.

[Thomas MuWe]

Congratulations to Stuttgart.
On Stuttgarts website is quoted they won Skidpad and Endurance and Fuel economy, second in Acceleration. I missed AutoX but whatever. :-)
In the Statics, they finished first in Design, second Presentation and fourth Cost.
Overall dynamics winner they are too.
What can I do?! I can just put my thumbs up and bow.....
Nice work Stuggis!!!!!

[Davo]

Congratualtions Stuttgart!

A fairly high attrition rate this year in enduro with only 3 teams completing the first endurance run although there were a few more in the second.

I suppose the biggest surprise was RMIT unfortunately failing to score at all in endurance/fuel. They were in the queue for the first run but never got out and in the second they had some engine issues early on.

UWA and Stuttgart completed both enduro's and with the times I got using my phone stopwatch they looked to be the quickest and very close.

Sophia also did well in both enduro's and were up near UWA/Stuttgart in the first enduro but couldn't quite match the pace of the other two in the second run.

Auckland had some bad luck considering they were looking good for the win at one point. They won acceleration and presentation and made the design finals along with UWA and Stuttgart (I heard Stuttgart won that with Auckland 2nd and UWA 3rd although I'm not 100% sure). They were running at the same pace as the front runners in the first enduro until they destroyed their gearbox and couldn't get it fixed for the second.

Adelaide had another strong car. They finished the second enduro and seemed to be pretty quick but received a black flag in the first one. I don't know for sure and it'd be great to hear from one of their team but I heard that it was because they officials didn't think their visibility over the dash was sufficient. Considering they were bloody quick and not hitting any cones I find that hard to believe but thats what I heard.

Woollongong had a rough time at the enduro too. The car pulled off the track in the first one, not too sure why and in the second they got another DNF which I heard was due to a suspension failure.

Deakin had another cool looking car with the engine mounted next to the driver. They broke a CV joint accelerating up the hill in the first enduro and after fixing it did exactly the same thing at the same place in the second.

Sydney Uni missed the first enduro which I think had something to do some crash damage on the practice track. They got it all put together for the second enduro but killed the clutch and couldn't finish.

Monash scored in all the events and seemed to be pretty quick in the enduro so hopefully they'll be on for a good result.

Edith Cowan uni had their first year car with the awesome Gulf paint scheme and successfully finished the second enduro so well done to them!

Thats all I can remember for now. I'm sure the teams will have more info and please correct me if anything I've said is wrong.

[Brett Neale]

Hey all,

I just flew back into Adelaide, it was interesting being a spectator this year. I haven't heard many results yet other than provisional overall rankings... From what I gathered from some guys back in Melbourne (don't quote me on third...):

1. Stuttgart
2. UWA
3. Sophia

6. Adelaide (good stuff boys!)

The first enduro was quite surprising - all teams except Stuttgart, UWA, Sophia and Swinburne all DNF'd or didn't make it to the start. A crushing exit for Auckland, I really feel for you guys after all the testing you had and how prepared you were, we were in the same boat last year and it definitely puts a downer on the weekend.

It was a bit of a weird first enduro for us, apparently our second driver was black flagged with 2 laps to go as the stewards thought he couldn't see properly out the helmet. I was skeptical at the time, but looking back over the photos it's quite easy to see why they might have thought that way.

What can I say about Stuttgart... "Impressively Simple" was the first thing that came to mind, a well-sorted car that the team knows like the back of their hand. Couple that with that legendary German efficiency, and it's easy to see why they're the most successful team going around. FTR... 5 comps this year, 3 titles, 1 second, and an almost-win at FSG. Amazing!

RMIT were on the back foot this weekend unfortunately. A broken wheel in Autocross and two engine changes for the weekend. Hopefully next year brings better luck for you guys!

I had a chat with a couple of guys from ECR, who really impressed over the weekend with their first FSAE-A. They were posting 61sec laptimes in the second enduro before running out of fuel. I can imagine good things will come from these guys in the near future.

And to the guys from Adelaide - great work guys! The car was looking superb on track, not to mention fast! 4th in Skidpad is a highlight, and using 3.5L of fuel in the second enduro was impressive for the first outing of the little Aprilia. It's been a pleasure working with you over the year and seeing the car progress. And watching Timmy's silky-smooth driving was awesome!

Anyways, I'll upload all my pics from the weekend for those who are interested.

[Brett Neale]

Righto, all my pics are here (host needs to moderate them before these links will work):

Friday - http://www.majhost.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=190880
Saturday - http://www.majhost.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=190879
Sunday - http://www.majhost.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=190878

Here's some pics in the meantime...

[MH]

Congrats to Stuttgart!! Awesome job!

BTW: is that a flat tyre on the RMIT car?

cheers,
MH
Delft University of Technology

[lozo]

Results were

1st - University of Stuttgart
2nd - University of Western Australia
3rd - Sophia University
4th - Monash University

8th - University of Auckland

Can't really remember the rest, congratulations to Edith Cowan for getting the Best Endeavour Award!


Richie Wong
University of Auckland
Electrical Team 08

[Chris Lane]

Thanks to everyone who made us feel welcome at our first FSAE competition! Despite the niggling issues, we had a ball. Really grateful for the positive feedback and encouragement on our first car from everybody including the judges, marshals, Pat, and Ron.

Thanks to RMIT for the afterparty, it was pretty mint.

My fave car there was the Sophia Car. Really well presented, and bristling with technology.

We'll be back next year with another car, and hopefully we can come away with a better result!

[Kirby]

Wow Good show everyone!

Does anyone have more information on what looks like an Electric RMIT chassis? How was it entered etc?

I haven't had a chance to speak to the guys back home...what happened to QUT?

[Davo]

The electric RMIT car wasn't entered into the event. They did some demonstration laps on the enduro track in between sessions. They had a few problems early on but at the end of the Sunday it was running really well. We timed a few of their laps and it would have been very competitive. Very strange seeing an FSAE car go silently around the track though...

[Kirby]

Originally posted by Davo:
The electric RMIT car wasn't entered into the event. They did some demonstration laps on the enduro track in between sessions. They had a few problems early on but at the end of the Sunday it was running really well. We timed a few of their laps and it would have been very competitive. Very strange seeing an FSAE car go silently around the track though...

Touche.

I think we all know why they have an electric demo car. Kudos to them for making that step first.