FSAE Michigan

We just got back from competition and I noticed a few GRM shirts around the place. I was never able to talk to anyone wearing one due to time or being anti-social but wondered if anyone from the board was there.

My team, RIT #66, had a good week of it, with only minor problems and a strong showing. The usual FSAE madness of late nights, grassroots fabrication and questionable highway driving was all there. We also had our rental truck take a break on the way home, discovering that the fuel gauge has a tolerance greater than 1/4 tank.

Anyone else have some good stories from competition or other FSAE shenanigans?

for FSAE 1991, our tow vehicle (our faculty advisor's pickup) puked trans fluid all over the exhaust going up I-70 West into Breezewood, causing a nice little fire to burn up a good portion of the cab. I was maybe 1.5 hours behind in the school van, and the fireworks were over when we arrived. I'll never forget Doc's face, standing on the side of the road, still clutching his fire bottle.

"I emptied my bottle. And there was still fire."

So we were towed into Breezewood, where we formed battle plan. Several of us, armed with photos of the buildup, powered on to Detroit for the static events, while several others stayed back to score a rental truck and transfer everything from the trailer to the rental, then power through to Detroit for the dynamic events.

Our car was good enough for 10th in design based on our photos and our ability to justify every element of the design.

Edit: forgot to mention the school. University of Maryland, College Park. Fear the turtle, bitches.

Man we took a car from LA to New Hampshire Motor Speedway this year for the Formula Hybrid comp, pulled 24 hour work days from Sunday to Tuesday (Tuesday we only worked until 1 or 2) Finally got through electrical tech last minute so we could make endurance... then our motor controller popped and we didn't even get to race :( (still made 15th place out of 28 entrants though )

I am still amazed that the folks at super 8 didn't complain once when we unloaded all our equipment (including drill press and grinders) in there parking lot and plugged into one of the outlets they had outside. We were still drilling stuff at like 3 in the morning and no one batted an eye, a few people stopped by to check out the car earlier on in the night (one dad brought his kid to check it out, which was cool)

I think the only GRM sticker was on the sweet looking C4 Vette parked outside... Anyone here at the Hybrid competition? I was with Cal Poly Pomona.

My boys at UMich-Dearborn finally worked out the kinks and built a very solid car. They improved on their 10th place finish at VIR last month up to 9th overall at the big show, MIS. Definitely an unconventional design, its largely baja based sharing many of the same components, and is the spiritual successor to the Briggs VTwin cars that I worked on a couple year's back. This was their second or third year working with a Yamaha Phazer twin, coupled to the stock Yamaha snowmobile CVT. 80hp stock and almost the same through the restrictor.

They got squashed in the static events, especially design. While their presentation could probably use a lot of polish, it seems like the judges still favor as much wiz-bang gadget this and carbon-fiber that. A very simple, cheap, and effective solution just doesn't get the respect. Hopefully they'll get a better look next year, after showing proof in the pudding this year. They didn't even do that well in skidpad/accel. But the car certainly races well, and has repeatedly been the CHEAPEST car entered by a wide margin. I'm proud of those guys!

Incidentally, this is the first year since 2000 that I was neither a competitor or spectator at the Michigan event. Luckily I have LeMons racing to fill the void FSAE left in my soul. And I'll be at the West event next month to snap some photos.

RedS13Coupe wrote: Man we took a car from LA to New Hampshire Motor Speedway this year for the Formula Hybrid comp, pulled 24 hour work days from Sunday to Tuesday (Tuesday we only worked until 1 or 2) Finally got through electrical tech last minute so we could make endurance... then our motor controller popped and we didn't even get to race :( (still made 15th place out of 28 entrants though ) I am still amazed that the folks at super 8 didn't complain once when we unloaded all our equipment (including drill press and grinders) in there parking lot and plugged into one of the outlets they had outside. We were still drilling stuff at like 3 in the morning and no one batted an eye, a few people stopped by to check out the car earlier on in the night (one dad brought his kid to check it out, which was cool) I think the only GRM sticker was on the sweet looking C4 Vette parked outside... Anyone here at the Hybrid competition? I was with Cal Poly Pomona.

I was there with the other Cal Poly. Thanks again for helping us get our car back to California.

Here is a photo of our car.

Hey right on man... glad we could help, plenty of room in the truck. Would have sucked to have to leave your car out in New Hampshire

RedS13Coupe wrote: Here is a photo of our car.

Please explain the 45* of camber.

Dan G, we got to share some track time with Dearborn during endurance and you guys had a solid car. We definitly feel the same thing about a simple well built to the purpose car not being good enough for design semi-finals. For the past three years even with a good presentation we have not made it. We build similar cars in the fact that they are economical and fit the intent of the competition well.

The sight of a Penske in the dark and people working out of it is way too familiar. If I get a chance I should dig up some pictures of us scrubbing in tires with flashlights taped to the front frame tubes in a dark parking lot somewhere in Ohio.

That camber is shocking, I would like to know more.

DILYSI Dave wrote:

ashrum wrote: Here is a photo of our car.

Please explain the 45* of camber.

Its only 22 degrees.

We were the lightest car at competition by a substantial margin (410 lb; everyone else ranges from 650 - 1200 lb) and it wasn't by accident. One of the ways we chose to reduce mass was by using small (10x3.5") wheels and equally small tires. By choosing them instead of wider wheels and Hoosiers (which cannot be fully utilized by these cars anyway...), we cut about 32 lb of rotating and unsprung mass, which is HUGE. The camber is there because that is the only way to get any lateral acceleration out of the tires. If we were to rely on slip angle like you would with normal car tires, the car would not have any grip.

When riding a bicycle or motorcycle, you turn by leaning rather than steering. What you are really doing is adding camber, which produces lateral acceleration, which makes you turn.

If you look at it as an ideal, static system, it makes more sense. From the tire's "point of view", there is no difference between this:

And our car. Ideally you have 100% weight transfer to the outside wheels and the overall loading of the tire is the same as if it were being used on a motorcycle or scooter, as it was intended.

The point is that it is extremely functional (during testing we pulled more than 1.1g on a 50' skid pad) and the car drives beautifully. The biggest difference from a normal car is that the turning radius is poor and the steering is extremely light (partially because of the design but also because the contact patch is very small).

Here's a short video if you are still reading/interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtJ0i5ilyyg

Loads of pics here. Lots of odd looking cars ;)

FSAE MIS Pics

Kendall

Ashrum, if you go with that setup again, you may want to just put a big sign on the car with a brief explanation, and that picture

I shudder to think how many times you've had to explain it... did the judges get it at least?

(BTW you guys want your car back? give us a call so we can work out pick up)