B-Teams

[Nam Tran]

I was recently approached by some current students at my alma mater about the logistics of starting a B-Team at the university. At first, I tried to get them away from the idea since it's tough enough to build just ONE running car a year, but they did provide some compelling arguments to start a second team.

Michigan registration is full and this school's primary team would compete in FSAE-West. You can't enter two cars in the same competition so that leaves FS-UK/Europe and FSAE-Asia.

My question for you guys is can you see any logistical problems in doing this? Are there potential rule infringements? Obviously, costs skyrocket and you have a much smaller talent-pool to draw from so you'd be short on resources. They are pretty adamant about doing this and right now I'm just trying to play devil's advocate. Your thoughts please...

[Nam Tran]

I was recently approached by some current students at my alma mater about the logistics of starting a B-Team at the university. At first, I tried to get them away from the idea since it's tough enough to build just ONE running car a year, but they did provide some compelling arguments to start a second team.

Michigan registration is full and this school's primary team would compete in FSAE-West. You can't enter two cars in the same competition so that leaves FS-UK/Europe and FSAE-Asia.

My question for you guys is can you see any logistical problems in doing this? Are there potential rule infringements? Obviously, costs skyrocket and you have a much smaller talent-pool to draw from so you'd be short on resources. They are pretty adamant about doing this and right now I'm just trying to play devil's advocate. Your thoughts please...

[Jersey Tom]

Your sponsoring/funding/talent pool issues should be enough to shut this one down.

[js10coastr]

How would you justify two different designs to the judges? Why did one team go one way while the the b-team went another?

You might want to check the rule book... I thought there might have been something against entering two cars from the same uni.

[JR @ CFS]

Here at Chalmers, the team enters one car in FS UK and one in FSAE-West, using the prior years car in the FSAEW. The remaining members of the team from the previous year take care of the project, but gain no credit towards their degree. It is simply for fun...that weeds out the hangers on pretty quickly! As for money...good question! It is up to the second team to lay out a budget, justify why it should happen and then beg borrow and steal to get the money...but of course, the current years team gets priority

[flavorPacket]

hang on. you guys at chalmers get school credit for FSAE?

[/threadjack]

[Kirk Feldkamp]

I mean no disrespect, but based on UC Irvine's performance at FSAE West I'd recommend getting one car together and working before making two teams out of the available talent. Granted it looked like way too many cooks in the kitchen, but there has to be a better way to manage the program so that all those people can contribute. Keep it simple.

-Kirk

[JR @ CFS]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by flavorPacket:
hang on. you guys at chalmers get school credit for FSAE?

[/threadjack] </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Also at my previous University. We are all part of a scheme call CDIO (www.cdio.org) It can lead to problems with people there simply for the sake of getting the points, but so far so good

[Nam Tran]

Just to clarify, I am not and will not be involved with the group in question, they're merely coming to me for what seems like a blessing.

turbotwig, no offense taken. In fact it was one of the points that I brought up first.

Let's assume that money isn't an issue (it's always an issue, but let's just assume it isn't). Can 5 dedicated guys build an FSAE car and get all of the paperwork done? It seems like on every team of 25 I've been on, there were only about 5 or 6 dedicated people anyways. These kids certainly have more motorsports and engineering experience coming into the project than my teams ever did. Can they do it and will they learn?

In terms of rules, it's not a covered topic. I'm certainly not saying that if it's not in the rules, it is allowed, just that I don't think it's covered since the scenario has not come up. Rule 2.2.3.3 seems to only apply to FSAE and FSAE-West (one vehicle per university per competition) so it doesn't seem to impact the idea of a B-Team. In any classification, a B-car would be classified as a first-year vehicle since it would have a completely new frame (unless we're talking about F1 and Super Aguri). I don't see why it would be disallowed, but I'm going to tell them to e-mail the rules committees anyways just to make sure.

I'm still not sure how they're going to fund this thing. For the most part, our/their cars have been self-funded anyways, but now you have a lot less wallets to pay for it.

Thanks for the feedback. I welcome more.

[drivetrainUW-Platt]

we have done it with five...and my gpa shows... you need more ppl to do all the small jobs, or it just beats the crap outa the senior members that should be working on the complicated issues