First of all: congrats to Stuttgart on a well deserved win. We knew from FSUK that you guys were the team to beat. Fantastic achievement, not only on dynamics but most certainly on statics as well. We only wish we could have given you some more competition

Ben is right, from what we've heard of the other competitions and from what we've seen from FSUK, this IS the best organized competition at the moment. All the organizers are open for feedback, very open in communication and most important of all: they admit making mistakes (who doesn't????) and try their best to correct it as much as possible. It is obvious that these guys are very passionate about this competition and it shows. Excellent job!

As for all the other teams, it seems the level of competition is getting higher and higher. So many teams had setbacks and worked really hard to solve any of their problems. And the Mahle party....well I think that's fairly obvious.

@Mike Hart: maybe it's wiser to congratulate Stuttgart without picking on other teams. I'm sure that if you had the resources or sponsors you would have "fancy jackets and a huge trailer...". And I outright resent the "showing off" remark. You're not just insulting our sponsors who are kind enough to provide these facilities but also some of our guys who worked until 4:00 in the morning to fix other team's parts in our trailer. We don't expect any prizes for it. The look in the eyes of the guys from India for example is worth more than any fancy trophy.

Just my 2 cents.

Regards to all,

Miki Hegedus
Delft University of Technology

Wow Miki, relax... I don't think the jackets were all that fancy (second smiley to make sure people understand I´m joking)

But this is a fantastic event, as a visitor I really enjoyed it! The quality of the cars and level of competition made a very interesting weekend.

Congrats to Stuttgart, an amazing result for a second year team, you guys really showed what it takes to win this competition!

Peter
Delft 04FSUK, 06FSG

Miki,

I think you miss understood my post. It wasn't aimed at anyone in particular and especially not Delft. If you've got the money to spend on teamwear etc as well as the car then great. I sometimes get the feeling though that there are a few teams who perhaps get their priorities mixed up and would be better spending their money on the car than PR. All I was meaning was that Stuttgart obviously put every ounce of effort they have into making a great car with a relatively modest budget! Even we get a bit carried away sometimes on appearances!

I know comparing FSAE to F1 is a bit pointless but perhaps a good example of what I mean would be Red Bull. They obviously try incredibly hard and have a great team spirit, but is having the biggest and best motorhome really worth the money? Would it not have been better to spend that money on the car and get an extra 10th of a second on track? But then you could argue they wouldn't be noticed as much so it swings in roundabouts!

But above all....I was in NO WAY attacking you guys!

mike,

I agree with you completely. I think there are a few teams out there who'd do well to spend more on dampers than they do on their outfits...The worst part is that it seems the number of teams doing this increases each year.

I think it is very telling that budget really has little to do with being competitive.

Yes I would agree. I used to think that it was all about budget, but you see more and more well engineered cars that are made on a tight budget. I used to think we struggled, but in all honesty it would appear that we are actually fairly decently funded compared to many. I think the thing that makes the biggest difference is how prepared each Uni is to help their team out, and what facilities are in house. Previously we have struggled to get some of the lecturers interested, but having some strong results this year (Winning Cost at UK, and getting top 10 results on presentation at both UK and FSG and also achieving top 10 in sprint) has really helped us out. We've had a few more offers now we're back which is great. I just wish some of the judges would look past fancy bodywork!

I was wondering if someone captured part of the endurance stream that was on the FSG website? I'd like to show it to our team's rookies so they can get a feel about what is an endurance.

Hey Didier,

i thinkt the stream will be posted soon but at the moment there are server problems because of the many clicks and downloads.... sorry about that.

Cheers
Peter

Obviously the "all carbon, huge budget, fancy jacket" jibe was directed at TU Graz.

The Red Bull comment afterwards took the cake.

If you made it any more subtle I think it would have been lost on many.

On another note. Miki, I think every team looks forward to you guys showing up with that trailer. Its become a staple of your team and a well appreciated one.

quote:

Originally posted by Answerforsomeguy:
Obviously the "all carbon, huge budget, fancy jacket" jibe was directed at TU Graz.

The Red Bull comment afterwards took the cake.

If you made it any more subtle I think it would have been lost on many.

On another note. Miki, I think every team looks forward to you guys showing up with that trailer. Its become a staple of your team and a well appreciated one.

Jesus! Are you wanting to start an argument or something? The Red Bull comment was not meant to relate to either Graz Team! It was relating to the fact that they have the biggest motorhome in F1! It'd be a bit pointless if I used Super Aguri as an example as they use Eddie Jordan specials :P

I have no idea if you are a member of the Graz team, but I really have nothing against you guys. Stop trying to imagine conflict where it doesn't exist! Why the hell would I be trying to shit stir anyone? Starting petty arguments on a forum would be the beginning of the end for the spirit of the comp.

Once again I repeat for those that can't be bothered to read posts properly:

I DO NOT THINK TEAMS SHOULD NOT HAVE NICE JACKETS OR TRANSPORT. I DO HOWEVER THINK THAT THOSE WHO HAVE SMALL BUDGETS SHOULD WORRY LESS ABOUT WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE AND JUST PUT THEN MONEY INTO THEIR CAR.....LIKE IT WOULD APPEAR STUTTGART DO!

I know capitals are usually intended to indicate shouting, but in the above case it's simply to highlight my point which is not designed to produce conflict!

Oh and before anyone goes and says 'you clearly think Graz have more money then we do'. No I don't. I'm well aware and happy to believe that the 'million euro budget' is just a silly rumour. Well done on getting the sponsorship you do, and you're video clearly illustrates how much of the car you do indeed make yourselves. Keep up the good work!

Hi Mike, I'd offer you a spade, but that's a pretty big hole you've dug all by yourself

Frank - did you get my email? I think it might have failed as a result of the FSG website being down?

Ben (In Brno, hoping we can keep up today's pace during the weekend.)

I'll just keep digging mate. If I dig long enough I'll come out the other side in Oz and we all know the Aussies are a friendly bunch, so we all win in the end!

We'll be waiting for you Mike, all dressed to the nines in our nice fancy jackets Keep digging buddy, a Chunnel from here to the UK will save us a bomb on freight charges.

Cheers,

Oh Mike, that is a mighty big shovel you have there... making the team look bad as well!

Anyway, you can get what he's trying to say, but it does come across in some ways having a moan about every team that has enough money to buy a T-Shirt with their name on that has more than one colour

Back on topic, it was an awesome event compared to the UK events I have been to, and we will certainly be coming back next year, and hopefully with an engine that doesn't want to try and kill me!

People just missunderstood what I was saying! I'll keep my mouth shut next time....

Mike @ Birmingham?

I think the scene that Mike had in mind whilst typing was this one:

Full Blue Racing team shirt badge sewing "Sweatshop"

Yep, Mike and the Birmingham team chose to camp next to us lot - three blokes who decided that despite having raised no car, no cash, and a university that did it's best to oppose us at every opportunity, we could still design, build and race a car between July 19th and FSG2007...

It's a fairly epic story that we're in the process of writing, but suffice it to say that without folks like Birmingham, who loaned us absolutely everything at their disposal from cooking utensils to MIG welders and even a WideBand O2 sensor, we would *never* have made the start line.

He's a good guy and a very sporting crowd, honest! Just don't ask him to do things with words...


Formula Student Germany 2007?

Yes, our university (still...) hates us. Yes, our only real sponsors are the Student's Loan Company. Yes, we've worked 130hrs/week in shifts around the clock for the last 4 weeks to do it (first motion under power - 4am, undisclosed location that looked remarkably like an industrial estate near Hockenheim, morning of endurance; scrutineering/tilt/noise/brake all passed at 11:40am, morning of endurance, endurance - 12:00 midday...) Yes, we had to cram 10 people and all our gear into two little cars and a bigger one pulling a trailer that was still a caravan on the 5th. Yes, we managed to collect the most penalty points of any team. Yes, we came last.

Was FSG absolutely awesome? You bet! The event, the organisers, the competitors, but most of all the atmosphere, the encouragement, the help and the sheer will to make the start line both within our team (and volunteers for the week) and from you guys made the event for us! :-D


Special shouts to Wisconsin (sheetmetal), Delft (sheetmetal shears), the welders (simply legendary), RIT (silencer/pipe), Swansea and Brunel (base maps), Padeborn (Coolant Hose), Loughborough (Bolts, Zipties etc), Braunschweig (Fasteners), TU Munich (Carl...), everybody who offered their time and their assistance personally, and anybody else I've managed to miss! (not through choice - my memory of the week is still a blur...)

Saving the best until last as usual - you'll see on the FSG photos that there were an awful lot more than the three of us who built (or started to build) the car at the event. They're all friends, family, and a group of complete nutters who volunteered to come out to Hockenheim to help. Hope you loved the week as much as we did and are planning how to use up your lifetime's worth of favours owed wisely!


Now, if anybody has any ideas how to escape the credit card bill for car #22, or any idea what happened from around midnight at the Mahle party to 11am the next morning I'm all ears...


See you all next year, hopefully resembling more of a race team more than a 'junkyard wars' meets 'challenge anneka' team!

Marco: I asked after you, but you were apparently on a sleeping shift when me and David Gould popped in on Saturday afternoon. What you guys did in spite of your university's rather odd attitude to practical engineering was incredible.

I'm also proud to be an alumnus of UBRacing after seeing their efforts to help you out as well.

Ben

Hi Cambridge,

you guys did an increadible job!
Being part of Formula Student Germany without having any support from your university deserves my deepest respect!

I personal honour that you guys came to me and said that you apology of not taking part at the cost event. I had to be fair to the other teams who did the long lasting job of preparing for the cost event. So that's you've started with -100. But you've never given up!

Keep your heads up, guys! I want to see you next near in Germany!!!!

Cheers

Doh!

Yeah, Matt clicked first on the webpage so got event captain and the 07:00-03:00 shift, leaving me with the 15:00-11:00 shift...

I've promised the next team I'll show up in '08, so maybe catch you there?

Cheers for the kind words Jan!I don't think that we're the only ones though - still plenty of universities, in the UK at least, with no support and many others with what's really only token support.

We felt kinda bad about not having prepared anything for the static events, but realistically had to make a call between preparing for them and presenting something that would make some noise on the start line. We chose the latter because it'd be harder to ignore when we got back, and to be honest neither the points nor three M10 bolts that decided to part company with the rear sprockeet on the start line mattered much in the end :-D

Next year we'll try do you proud eh?

Just wanted to post a little review of the competition from RIT's perspective.

Germany was far and away the nicest competition I've attended, (2 in Detroit, 1 in Cali) and from what I understand, those on our team who've been to Australia and England thought Germany blew them away as well. We had a good bit of contact with both Frank Roeske and Thomas Ballschmieter, and both were extremely helpful and kind. I found that the general atmosphere at competition was much nicer than in Detroit. It really felt like we as students were welcome (gasp!) and the organizers of the competitions were as helpful as possible. Everything went smoothly, and nothing seemed rushed or slapped together. The weather was about the same as detroit (rainy for the first half, sunny by endurance), but the weather wasn't so much of an issue with the great indoor paddocks.(We used the same paddocks as they use for the F-1 races) Unfortunately some teams Cost was harder, but more realistic, which I'm all for. Design was nicer with its extended time (50 minutes, though it still felt like 10). Tech inspection wasn't bad at all, and we had no disagreements with the judges, everything was reasonable and thorough without being overly strict. The Mahle Party was a good replacement for Big Buck, and was way better than the awards ceremony in Detroit. I really hope the competition in Detroit moves towards this level. And I hope more teams that I see in Detroit start coming to Germany.

With respect to our performance: Our finishing position wasn't quite what we hoped it to be, but we weren't terribly upset, and our Skidpad finish was nice consolation.

I hope to go back next year and meet up with the organizers again. It was nice to have someone running the competition that seemed to understand what goes into designing and building a car.

Congratulations to everyone who attended, the competition you guys put up was stiff, and the help everyone gave was appreciated. I'll see you there next year.
-Charles