Formula Student 2012

[Michael Royce]

Just a short note to let you know that, if things go as planned, we will have a book available at Silverstone later this week entitled “Learn and Compete, A Primer for Formula SAE, Formula Student and Formula Hybrid Teams”. It is being published by Soheila and William Kimberley of Race Car Graphics (RaceTech Magazine). The book has 26 chapters with contributions by 14 friends that Suzanne and I believe to be among the most knowledgeable on the many aspects of Formula. The topics covered are just about everything from “The Basics” by David Gould to “The Design Event” by Pat Clarke. Other contributors who are often on this Forum are Doug Milliken and Edward Kasprzak of Milliken Research. While the book was targeted at newer teams, we believe there is also a significant amount of material that would make it a beneficial acquisition for the more established teams. Dan Jones, the Formula Student representative on the Rules Committee, who co-authored the chapter on “The Frame, SEF and SES” with me, has read the whole book and has commented that “I only wish it had been available when I competed.”

There is a full page ad for the book in the programme.

See you at Silverstone on Thursday morning.

[Owen Thomas]

For anyone wondering (like I was), looks to be available here: http://www.racetechmag.com/store/product.php?id=244

At less than $50 shipped to North America...

[MH]

Will we see an acceleration time below 3 sec for the first time?? Doesn't seem impossible

regards,
Miki Hegedus
Delft University of Technology
2001-2008

[Thrainer]

Maybe if they make it 75 yards again. Below 4s on a wet track will be impressive, too.

I'm curious about the new track section they are using this year. Practise area seems to have potential.

[JulianH]

Acceleration below 3s is (hopefully) impossible, even for the Delft car.

I think a 3,4 or a 3,5 should be in the range of the car if the conditions are good, but everything else won't be possible.

0 to 100 below 3s yes, but not more.

[Michael Royce]

Owen, Thanks for the picture! $50? It is $30 (US), 20 pounds or 25 Euros, plus P & P. We will be seeing the Kimberleys (the publishers) on Thursday, and will see if we can either get a good idea of the normal P & P to North America or see if we can set up some sort of system for the US and Canadian teams to cut down the P & P costs. By the way, all the authors/contributors are doing this pro bono, so the price is basically to cover the publishing and printing costs.

[Fantomas]

You could also think about releasing it as an eBook or PDF, so that it is accessible in countries which are not properly covered by the planned ways of traditional distribution.
India for example comes to my mind.

Fantomas

[Michael Royce]

Fantomas,
Yes, why not. Suzanne has talked about an e-book version. We see no real reason why not once the Kimberleys have covered their publishing costs.

[Fantomas]

Michael,
I did not mean that you should give away the digital version for free. There are ways of selling and protecting digital content.
However, it would of course be very nice, if it becomes accessible for free once the publishing costs are covered. Though I still prefer reading a book instead of reading on an eBook reader or on screen. At least the smell of fresh printed paper is missing.

It would be great, if you could sell the printed version via Amazon.

Fantomas

[Michael Royce]

We will see what we can do. One of the objectives was to make it as readily available to as many students as possible.

The past 6 months has been rather hectic as Suzanne and I only got the real go-ahead from Soheila and William Kimberley at the IMIS Safety & Technical Conference last December. All the contributing authors have really done an outstanding job. A couple who initially agreed to help out with chapters had to pass due to their own workload and the very short timeframe.