OK, I'm not conciously trying to bad mouth anybody, but I gotta get some of this out. After a poor performance by our team last year, I've tried really hard to make this year better in every way. Sometimes it just seems like the world is against you.
First, our wheels. We ordered from Jongbloed last year with only one mistake by them which required us to return the wheels for them to fix the mistake. This year I ordered exactly the same rims so we could have two identical sets, wet and dry. Firstly, Jongbloed rarely answers the phone and never returns voicemails. We ordered them sometime in January, I called March 2nd and the gentlemen guaranteed them by the 11th, which was the beginning of our spring break. No wheels, we called on the 11th and they said next week..no wheels. I finally got through again on the 29th, and the guy said they were being painted and would ship tomorrow...no wheels. Called on the 31st and he said he was going to pick up the centers because there was a mistake that needed to be corrected. Finally I got the wheels today(april 6th), they didn't cut us a break and charged us for 3 day delivery.
Moving on to shocks, Scott at Motorsports spares seems like a good guy, don't get me wrong. but there is a post on this very forum on jan 11 saying some teams will get their shocks this week, we were supposed to be one of them. We didn't actually get the shocks until the week of March 14th.
Now the radiator, ordered early in the year, we called to check the status over springbreak and the guy said "I don't think your order was entered, i'll call you back" he doesn't call back, we call them and some other guy says, yeah its on its way. Then when it gets here, the dimensions are all wrong, but we have to make do because we don't have another 2 months to wait for another one.
During tuning our engine chewed up a rod bearing, so we promptly ordered new stuff. Apparently on bikebandit.com 1 bearing means one half of a bearing. Add another week of delay.
But I'm not going to be bitter. My team is awesome, our car will be awesome, Detroit will be...rainy and crappy, but we will have an awesome time. Thanks for reading...

If you need a radiator...call C&R Racing (radiators) and ask for Kevin (www.crracing.com). They are actually the ones that make the radiators for Visteon for FSAE. He WILL take care of you and in a timely manner...guaranteed!!!

Damn. I never thought that someone could have so many problems like that come up all at once. It makes me reconsider being on the team...wait...no it doesn't.

Good luck, I'm sure you'll do fine.

Erin Urvina
University of Alaska Anchorage

Man I did that exact same thing with the rod bearing and online parts for my Honda CBX. It drove me crazy.

Good luck - you got much of the tuning done thought? I think you only really need the top rows.. highest MAP row... it will get you running alright. As long as your pipe doesn't glow too bad down low.

We did get the map done before realizing the problem, not sure when it started. Our advisor made us take all of our controls outside the dyno room so all you hear is the dull roar of the exhaust. It ended up being a nice setup with the dyno controller, throttle, laptop and the rest on a table next to a window looking into the dyno room.
Good news though. We drove last night, pretty successfully too. Only had poorly bled brakes, a makeshift clutch (the hand clutch is getting modified) and a leaky diff (through the stubshaft seals). But nothing broke, and friday we plan on putting the hours on it. Be sure to stop by our trailer and give our engine guy props on a job well done. I would but it might affect my rep. of a hard ass captain.

quote:

Originally posted by Wilso:
Apparently on bikebandit.com 1 bearing means one half of a bearing...

Yeah, we've done that too this year. And, I think they sent us the wrong size:

Gotta love the parts business.

Denny,
It looks like they mixed up our schools again. I think that we got the other half of your order.

quote:

Originally posted by Wilso:
Detroit will be...rainy and crappy, but we will have an awesome time.

Who knows man. It has been fricking GORGEOUS here the past couple of weeks. No rain at all, clear skies, sunshine, even hit 70 a couple days. Of course that means once competition rolls around we'll be getting 12 inches of rain, 80 mile an hour winds and it will be 33 degrees out.

I can sympathize with your frustration. On Monday we got evicted from the machine/metalworking shop. So far, the reasoning behind it is pathetic at best. Really what a team that hasn't brought a car to competition in 6 years needs to be dealing with right now. Good news is, we drove the car last weekend, and will probably be autocrossing it on Sunday. So at least we can probably get things done even if we don't get back into the shop.

Grin and bear it, right?

yep, i wouldn't be doing it if I didn't love it.

Wilso,

speaking of faculty advisors, how is ol' Dr. Mathews these days? Sounds like you guys are experiencing the usually FSAE stuff, remember all this when you are working on a 'real world' project. Some of your vendors will probably be very similar. Is the old carbon tub floating around?

Good Luck this year.

buddy

Hey Buddy,

Dr. Matthews is doing well and will be attending competition this year like he has for the last 20 years.

There are actually two carbon tubs that have been found. One is in one of our alumni's garage awaiting suspension parts. That one is gray and black and was built maybe in the mid-90's. It has a nifty little fiberglass leaf spring in the back which was pretty clever.

The pther is red and is in our storage. Pretty much it's only a tub. No suspension, directional control, engine, engine subframe...

DJ,

yea, the red tub was in a pool of water in the fluids lab when I was there (completely stripped). I helped dissect the gray tub when I was a freshman (unfortunately).

Buddy

Hey buddy, check your PM's