Anyone have a layout already made for a FSAE style autocross or endurance course?
LFS-S2 is pretty rockin and I've been using the autox layout editor to check out configurations for tests i'm running later this summer.

I drove the endurance, have a video walk around of the course and LFS is good fun...maybe I should try and do this!

I was thinking about doing the autox track on S1 but i found that the track was almost twice as big as the lot that they give you. That and i couldnt think of a good way to keep the track from deforming. If they only had like a coordinate system...

We filmed the track in the 15min time we had to walk around the autocross course in FSG. We then went back into the pits where we had a laptop with steering wheel. I then put the layout in LFS S2 (track size here is big enough).

It's good the learn the track and I think it worked.
I went onto track and knew where I had to go. vid is up on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BbhZfDiyy8

is it what you want?
http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?t=35963

This thread and this image in particular lead me to wonder if there's anyone out there who uses LFS or anything similar as part of driver training?

I realise that real life and computer simulations are completely different things but surely there's some merit if only just to get new drivers used to the style of tracks?

Like I said, we use it during the events and I personally use it for fun besides driving LFS online

Do you use modified vehicle properties more akin of an FSAE car as well?

I tried to modify the vehicle properties, without success. I even wrote a mail to Scawen Roberts to update the FSAE model, but he didn't answer. I then tried to adapt the car with a specific setup as good as possible to modern FSAE conditions. Works better but not too good.

What about an official mail from our community to the LFS desginers?? We provide them with data and an iges file of a modern fsae car and they adapt the new model??
I think with an adjusted weight of 200-220kg and a power output of approx 90hp it would be a very good way of training our drivers.

Dart, I think your tag is inaccurate.

The phrase ‘laws are for the guidance of wise men and the blind obedience of fools’ should not be credited to Colin Chapman, but rather to David Ogilvy, a Scots man who was known as the 'Father of Advertising'. Where did you see that statement credited to Colin Chapman?

Chapman may have been something of a rogue and it is inferred that he had somthing of an odd view on business matters, however, in racecar design he was nothing short of a genius, but as far as I am aware, always worked within the rules....whatever they may or may not have been at the time. I am sure he was personally responsible for many rules being rewritten to remove ambiguity, but I dont believe he ever designed a car that was deliberately outside the rules.

Regards
Pat

Hi Pat,

I quoted that from Peter Wrights "Formula 1 Technology". Unfortunately I do not possess the book any longer but I will re-borrow it tomorrow at our universities library.

I still remember that Wright made that quotation concerning banned technologies like the moving twin-chassis of the Lotus 88 to lower the cars' static ride height during driving and to eliminate pitch sensivity problems on the old ground effect cars or Gordon Murrays fan-driven Brabham BT46.
In my opinion he didn't want to say that you should aspire breaking the rules but push their borders while still being within them.

And that is was Murray did: in 1978 any mechanism which produced static ground-effect (fans, etc...) was't allowed as long as it wasn't needed to cool down the engine.
Murray used that as a pretense to cool their problematic Alfa Romeo 12-piston flat-twin.

This is my understanding of the quotation. It doesn't mean that our team is keen on pulling a fast one on the rules
You can convince yourself in Hockenheim

Perhaps the old rogue used that quotation by Ogilvy for himself?!

Do you actually visit the Formula Student event in Silverstone? Or only Hockenheim? It didn't see you on the isle last year...

Best Regards,

Clenn

p.s. As long as this quotation is discussed I change it to a neutral one

Good news folks,

I wrote a new mail to the designers of LFS and Victor van Vlaardingen told me that he will meet with the others designers tommorow to think about a redesign of the FSAE part

I will hold the line!

Great! They better prepare to do a whole lot of cars then.

Well... we are ready to a new competition extra to the usual ones as east, west, germany... FSAE LFS, where you hit restart anytime you fail on the enduro!!

Hi again Dart,
I am not going to FS in the UK. Other committments and too costly for me to justify.

So, this year, Hockenheim only.

And my favourite 'Chunky'Chapman saying? "Add lightness and simplificate" (Not sure that that was his originally either)

Cheers
Pat

For the hell of it I grabbed LFS.. cool lil game. Their auto-x "lot" map is a little narrow.. but workable.

Default setup for that "MRT" car in game is junk IMO, but you can get the thing to handle decently with some tweaks. Not sure how close it handles to their real car, but it would be cool to be able to change weight distribution and torque curves and all and see what happens.

Hi,

today I received the following answer from the LFS designers:

Hi,

Ah sorry, I never replied to you.
On the one hand that is because on the short term we are too busy to
accomodate FSAE more.
On the other hand we do have some ideas on how to support the whole FSAE
community more in the long haul. I can't really elaborate much on this at
the moment, but we do see how LFS can be used more nicely for SAE purposes
and so there's room for improvements, such as some of the things you already
mentioned, like increase object count and make a bigger area. We've some
more ideas too, though too inconcrete at this time to mention, but should be
very much worth it if it works out.

So in short - we do hope to accomodate FSAE more in the future. But we've
just a lot of things to do, so it may take a while.

Regards,

Victor van Vlaardingen



I'm anxious to know what happens in their next release