Formula Student tech

I'm the advisor for a Cinderella FSAE team and go to the one of the US competitions nearly every year.  As mentioned before, the range of cars and budgets is significant.  This year at the first Michigan Competition (there are two in Michigan this year, May and June), the high-end cars weren't as high-end or groundbreaking as usual.  Covid has clearly taken its toll on nearly every team and most of the high-end/high-dollar European teams have not come back to the US.

If you know anything about the competition, passing tech is a big deal and this May about 20 out of 100 teams didn't pass.  Finishing the 22Km endurance event is also a big deal, and as usual only about 50% of the cars finished.  To generalize, the hi-end cars often don't finish because some little thing breaks (or sometimes a big thing like an A-arm) because they spent too much time innovating and not enough time testing/developing.  The less-experienced teams' cars also tend to break because of learning curve and testing issues.  The successful cars range from simple/crude to high-end and it's usually because of testing but sometimes just luck.  It was fun this year when a first year team brought an 800lb car with Miata hubs, brakes, diff, etc., passed tech, and finished every event including the endurance event.  The lightest cars are in the 350lb range for context.   

I know a lot of you are FSAE alumni and understand the value of a good FSAE experience and how top team performers do well when they join the workforce.  There are also a lot of college students who don't get good grades but their FSAE experience more than makes up for grades to certain employers and it's great to see them get a fair shake.  A lot of HR departments don't understand the value of FSAE, so if you can help your HR dept understand, you'll likely get some better employees.  Of course, there are poseur students who put FSAE on their resumes, but they fall flat pretty quickly at an interview when asked what they designed or what they did on the team.

Anyway, I could go on about the value of FSAE but you're probably already bored. So, one more thing:  My Cinderella team has done pretty well in competitions not because of our resources or number of members (both small), but because it's surrounded by about 5-7 mentors every year that range from pro drivers to GTP-designer veterans to Roush tuners to diesel injector tuners to grassroots autocrossers to machinists and more.  Many of those mentors came to the team through my GRM contacts.  You could be a mentor for a team near you, and thanks to Zoom, you can even do some remote mentoring.

This may sound like another canoe, but the TL;DR is FSAE is cool and you should get involved if you can.

TheBerrynator said:

In reply to kb58 :

The other trick was to pack the exhaust with steel wool right before tech inspection. Quiets down the car nicely for tech, but by endurance seemingly half the cars were much louder for some reason....

In 2021 at the Michigan competition, at least two teams got caught doing that, got sent back to tech, and got penalties.  Just like Smokey Yunick, everyone is trying something, but they don't always get away with it.

In reply to ProDarwin :

It is. I try not to think about it too much. 

Wouldn't the $2000 challenge be as close as it is to this? 

FSAE was a full time job for me, on top of my part time internship and full time student. I don't think many adults of working age would be down to do something like that. Closest you could get outside the challenge would be something like Global Time Attack. 

Carl Heideman said:

...There are also a lot of college students who don't get good grades but their FSAE experience more than makes up for grades to certain employers and it's great to see them get a fair shake...

Sadly - or thankfully - I graduated just before FSAE started. I say that because knowing myself, I'd put ALL my time into that program and get failing grades in everything else for the duration. It's just as well, because in hindsight, having a stable career as an electrical engineer worked out better (for me) than being on a race team with a sketchy future (everyone I know has stories of "when I was on a race team, always in a past tense, but I'm off topic now).

hunter47 said:

In reply to ProDarwin :

Wouldn't the $2000 challenge be as close as it is to this? 

100%

Look at Gumby's car, or nocones, hell look at my work with the LS4.9 head.  People here are doing FSAE levels of sketch and awesome.  We just don't have massive budgets behind us.

Mr_Asa said:

hunter47 said:

In reply to ProDarwin :

Wouldn't the $2000 challenge be as close as it is to this? 

100%

Look at Gumby's car, or nocones, hell look at my work with the LS4.9 head.  People here are doing FSAE levels of sketch and awesome.  We just don't have massive budgets behind us.

i like to think my awesome to sketch ratio has gone up as i have aged.

Luis002P said:

My post was deleted, I contacted an admin and the issues were resolved, thanks to him. No, I want to ask one more time - can I get help from these people?? I really need support with the SAE design...

Not enough information to provide a meaningful reply. What kind of help? Which people?

Luis002P said:

My post was deleted, I contacted an admin and the issues were resolved, thanks to him. No, I want to ask one more time - can I get help from those people?? I need support with SAE design... I am a future auto engineer and sometimes I have insufficient information to do some theoretical and practical tasks. However, my curiosity led me to search and [paid essay canoeing] to find affordable essays for sale. These papers help me learn daily and become better at designing automobiles. In addition to the help I get from writing experts, I complete my assignments within the deadlines, so my grade is always satisfactory. In general, I would be very grateful to receive additional support from someone who has a great knowledge of SAE. Maybe I will have an easier way to succeed and get the gist sooner. In short, being a technology student is hard, but exciting.

Louis002P is definitely a canoeist.