I was recently able to pickup two Formula SAE chassis's, with carbon fiber body panels. I'm wondering if these hold much value ? Are there any classes outside of FSAE where someone could use these to build a car? Or more so just for open track days/ auto crosses?
thanks
As a former FSAE member, for the average FSAE car the greatest value in them is usually with the team members that built them, next in line is someone that wants an autocross car and isn't afraid of what some (sometimes) talented amateur engineers can do.
A couple of them have set world records for various things (0-100-0km/hr, electric is/was held by an electric team) but even they would not be worth much outside FSAE.
Problem is the rules don't let you go outside FSAE that well, and safety is generally not a concern for the builders (not wheel to wheel racing)
They kick ass at autocross, though.
They're not even good for open track days. Autox only.
They would make good autocross cars. If you can fit a sports racer style body you might be able to use them for track days.
Our old FSAE chassis usually ended up stripped of anything usable and then left out back of the building for facilities maintenance to haul to the scrap pile. Unless you have complete suspension (control arms, uprights, hubs, calipers that fit, etc); unfortunately a bare FSAE chassis is worth even less than the cost of the tubing used to build it.
Yes, they're "just" autocross cars. But they're faster than anything this side of an AM car when setup properly. A bare chassis isn't worth much unless you can complete it, but I would love to have one of those cars someday.
Honestly your better off building an Amod car using off the shelf uprights and drivetrain. Use ATV parts if you want to be super light. There is a reason you don't (often) see these thing getting much use after competition (Yes I know several of you will be alumns and talk about how wrong I am and how many trouble free hours of use the cars get). Almost all of the FSAE cars use very custom, weight optimized drivetrains and suspensions. Rebuilding them when they break is very expensive because you have to either produce it exactly the same way of reengineer it. Because they are so weight optimized they generally don't respond well to long term use without just wearing out.
The UofI program when I was involved themselves couldnt cost justify keeping more then 3 of the cars running, and once an expensive part broke it was done. We had 1 super old car that was 120 lbs heavier then the new ones and everything was fabricated steel and that one ran forever. One of the previous year cars was scrapped about 3 months after competition because it needed new uprights.
Also if you don't get the suspension you have to redesign it and the chassis generally is only designed to take loads at the nodes it was designed to use. The steel chassis are airplane tube thin and don't respond well to loading outside of nodes.
They are really cool and ~80 HP in a 450lb car is a riot. And they are pretty easy on tires. I'm sure if you found the right one you could have a good reliable fun Autox toy.
nocones said:Honestly your better off building an Amod car using off the shelf uprights and drivetrain. Use ATV parts if you want to be super light. There is a reason you don't (often) see these thing getting much use after competition (Yes I know several of you will be alumns and talk about how wrong I am and how many trouble free hours of use the cars get). Almost all of the FSAE cars use very custom, weight optimized drivetrains and suspensions.
FSAE alum here currently running an old car as an autocross toy with another alum. I'm not going to disagree with any of your points.
If you don't have fun wrenching on it, there are better options to go fast around cones. If you do, it's a win win though.
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