David S. Wallens said:and I have a feeling you’ll see more FSAE content from us in the future. :)
I know that just about every year I was on the team there was talk of a Florida shootout. Get all the Florida teams together and have a weekend playing cars.
It always fell through due to a lack of a sponsor...
David S. Wallens said:The FSAE car that I saw was Georgia Tech’s at an Atlanta autocross. This had to be 1992 or so. If I had known that FSAE was an option, perhaps I would have gone to a different school....
FSAE didn't exist yet back when I was in college. Had it been there, I'd have probably been tossed out of college due to ignoring all other classes.
I volunteered for the FSAE West event back when they ran it at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA. What I remember was seeing an awful lot of driving where it appeared that it was the first time the driver had ever been in the car - or worse, any sports car. Many (most?) of the cars were capable of far better results had they done testing and given the driver time to acclimate to it. Wings and carbon fiber don't mean much when the driver brakes waaaay too early, or is so unfamiliar with the very fast steering, that the car is in a constant PIO down the straights.
I instead became an EE, then software engineer, then Field Support, with zero regrets, and did car stuff on the side, as a fun and enjoyable hobby, one not threatened by management whims and endless crisis deadlines. The automotive employment world (or worse, motorsports) is way to unstable and cutthroat for me.
OK Kiddies, listen up. Prior to Formula SAE and Baja there was a competition known as the Recreational-Ecological-Vehicle . It was for amphibious two passenger (or more) vehicles. It ran for three years from 1973-1975. Most of the vehicles the first couple of years were modified commercially available units, but by 1975 purpose built vehicles were in vogue. In my senior year (1975/76) I was a member of a team that scratch built a 4WD, skid steer vehicle that could transport four people across muskeg and open water while towing a floating toboggan , full of supplies, including 8 cases of beer. We had a lot of fun and learned a lot of neat stuff designing and building it. Unfortunately, the competition wasn't run that spring, instead it changed to the Baja style vehicles. Someplace in the basement, I have a complete set of drawings I drew so our sponsor could put the thing into production. He never did due to high start up costs. Notice I said "drawings"....no computers with CAD in 1975, it was all done on a drafting board.....Yes, I'm that old!
kb58 said:I volunteered for the FSAE West event back when they ran it at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA. What I remember was seeing an awful lot of driving where it appeared that it was the first time the driver had ever been in the car - or worse, any sports car. Many (most?) of the cars were capable of far better results had they done testing and given the driver time to acclimate to it. Wings and carbon fiber don't mean much when the driver brakes waaaay too early, or is so unfamiliar with the very fast steering, that the car is in a constant PIO down the straights.
Yeah. That's normal, unfortunately. A lot of teams first run their cars the week before competition. They often have the prior year car to play with and train drivers, but getting the car running the very first time one week beforehand means you don't get time to setup suspension, aero, or any of that.
Because of this, West/Lincoln/Whichever it is now is usually the better option. Not all the time though.
In reply to Mr_Asa :
Testing is so key. The best GMI did (while I was there) was when we ran an old car because our new one wasn't going to be done (Baja cars could run for 2 years) we had done a lot of testing on that car, it wasn't the fastest but it ran all day and we ended up 5th overall. There were a lot of "nicer" cars broken on the side of the track.
I know it's routine to put things off in college, studying for exams the entire night beforehand, but for FSAE it's different. All the teams have to do for that year's car is to look at prior videos and see that if their driver had more seat time, they would have done much better. Unfortunately, it's easier to come up with new and wonderful suspension or downforce methods, only to once again find they don't matter due to driver inexperience. I remember someone bringing a bone-stock rental car to an autocross, and the driver being the pro that he was, produced a very impressive time. Same thing at FSAE, that just watching the cars on-course, it was apparent who had prior experience and/or sufficient practice time. I realize this rant is pointless because, well, kids be kids, and pulling all nighters to prep the car for competition that very morning will continue.
In reply to NY Nick :
Completely.
Something like 50% of all the cars in the field DNF the endurance event and that's only 22km.
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