FSAE-A 2011

[NickFavazzo]

UWA just back from a few days in at the Collie Motorplex, ran in the new engine before doing a big end other than that the car went well. We got plenty of work done on the mid-sem break.

Bit of driver training in the older cars also, it was a good trip for the newer members, several days driving away from home.

[Macros]

Auckland are busy testing new components on the 2010 car.
The new chassis is a few weeks away still but the good news is that the powertrain package that we've been making the last few years is proving itself to be more reliable.
No more exploding gearboxes or alternator brushes.

[Rex Chan]

Since people are giving team status updates, I'll do the same for Melbourne Uni:

The main members for the 2011 chassis have all been welded up, so the chassis guys are "done". Pictures on my facebook (http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...1825.559588035) and videos on my YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezqsm...el_video_title). Currently waiting for suspension + all other chassis tabs to come back from laser cutting.
Engine dyno getting closer to being done. Actually, tomorrow we're going to spend a few hours and hopefully finish off the wiring.

On the engine side, we've got our exhaust bends bent up, getting picked up tomorrow, and need to be cut, jigged on chassis + around suspension a-arms, then welded before we can get a 2011 engine tune. All parts for 2011 intake are ready, except injector holders, but we can use the 2010 one until the (identical) new parts arrive. So the aim is to make sure no dyno issues this week, and maybe tuning the 2011 system next week or so.

On the 2010 car front, we took it out a fair bit over the semester break to get the 2011 drivers trained up. We tried to go out every wed/thursday for 4 weeks, and made most of those days, although missed a few due to broken wheel centers and rain. The track we test at (Silhouette Karts in Somerton) is a right handed track, so even though we cone it up, the front left wheel gets highly loaded under braking/turning. On one of the first holiday test days, the front left wheel center broke 3 out of 6 spokes. We replaced both front wheels, and checked all the others. However, at the next day, we found cracking along the back of many of the spokes on left hand wheels. This reduced us to our last set of wheels (always mounted with wets, so lightly used and lightly loaded when used), though we are making more thanks to CH Tooling, who are casting magnesium wheel centers for us. We strongly suspect the wheels were incorrectly designed, as the 2011 guys are highly skeptical of some of the forces applied in the FEA analysis (designed + made in 2009, so there's a lesson to be careful when using old, student designed parts). This also meant that rain forced us to use slicks, so now all drivers have experience in the wet on slicks. It wasn't pretty, and we won't be doing any more driving like that.

One of the issues with having FSAE as a 4th year final project is that nearly all drivers have to be trained in that year, then graduate. Therefore, the more driving they get in last year's car, the better, since the current year's car is always late/breaking/needs setup before comp. It also doesn't help that we don't have space to keep 2 cars, so as the 2011 car gets built, we'll dismantle the 2010 to make space. Oh well, I'm just happy that "my" car had a longer life than many FSAE cars.

[Jon Oneill]

UTSM is a little behind, but still going well. Chassis is all tacked up and awaiting final welding.
Machining is under-way, and should be done soon.
All our laser cutting will be in soon, and ready for attachment to the chassis.
Bodywork moulds will be going together soon.
Powertrain production is going well, and we're looking good to get the engine on the dyno.

Apart from that, we're focusing on developing the 2010 car, and our drivers. We've found a lot of speed through engine & suspension changes on the test track, and as our new car is evolutionary, we will be able to apply all the knowledge to the 2011 car once its done.

Our drivers are getting faster too. Our main issue last year was our lack of driver training, so this year we've really focused on building some depth in that area.

Once we have 2 cars on track, we should also be able to train drivers very quickly. We're looking forward to December.

It seems a lot of teams are running 2010 cars this year.

[MartyB]

Monash is going well. After setting a very aggressive timeline in November last year, and not enjoying any holidays over the summer break, we drove our 2011 car yesterday.

It was a surprisingly issue-free day. No components broke, and apart from a few bolts loosening, it ran reliably all day. Got to love carbureted engines! The engine guys are still getting the efi tune going on the dyno while we run carbureted.

We still have a long way to go as many of the components are either still to go on (wings, arbs, etc) or have temporary parts on them (radiators, fuel tank, efi, etc). We decided that testing time was key to remaining competitive with a clean sheet redesign. Even if it was only running on carby, we can start testing suspension components and getting the setup going.

We have plenty of photos, and a few videos from yesterday and the weeks leading up to it. It's all up on our facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/...port/185745901446670

We have wind tunnel testing from today til Sunday, so the aero guys will not be getting much sleep over the next four days, and we wont be able to take the car out on track til Monday. The plan is to pressure tap the undertray at some stage and do some on track validation.

We're also hoping to put a lot more effort into the static events this year, because we should have more free time for them this year with our current timeline.

Which teams are running 2010 cars do you know?

[NickFavazzo]

We are technically running 2010 again although we have massive changes to what we already have, just the same tub really so it doesnt pass the new chassis rule, even if we have new kinematics

[Rex Chan]

Re: martyB - according to ADFAs facebook and website, they wil be running the 2010 car again. UQ seem to have their 2011 car running already, so must have started design last year, and manufacture early this year. UNSW/Redback Racing are changing lots of parts on their 2010 car, so maybe not really the same car.

[Chapo]

ADFA is running 2010 again at this comp, it has had a few modifications to pass the FSUK interpretations of the rules but mostly the same car.

[Joji]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by MartyB:
Monash is going well. After setting a very aggressive timeline in November last year, and not enjoying any holidays over the summer break, we drove our 2011 car yesterday.

It was a surprisingly issue-free day. No components broke, and apart from a few bolts loosening, it ran reliably all day. Got to love carbureted engines! The engine guys are still getting the efi tune going on the dyno while we run carbureted.

We still have a long way to go as many of the components are either still to go on (wings, arbs, etc) or have temporary parts on them (radiators, fuel tank, efi, etc). We decided that testing time was key to remaining competitive with a clean sheet redesign. Even if it was only running on carby, we can start testing suspension components and getting the setup going.

We have plenty of photos, and a few videos from yesterday and the weeks leading up to it. It's all up on our facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/...port/185745901446670

We have wind tunnel testing from today til Sunday, so the aero guys will not be getting much sleep over the next four days, and we wont be able to take the car out on track til Monday. The plan is to pressure tap the undertray at some stage and do some on track validation.

We're also hoping to put a lot more effort into the static events this year, because we should have more free time for them this year with our current timeline.

Which teams are running 2010 cars do you know? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Wow! this is an ideal for every fsae team, right? Great work, i am impressed. Wish you guys best of luck.

[Chris B]

UQ's in a similar position to UWA, but we've opted to develop what we had rather than make whole sale changes to it. 2012 design is nearing completion, which is good. we're happy with where we're at.