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Hello, maybe the organizers are planning to put some kind of plastic carpet in the grass, because I've heard rain is a competition partner at least one of the competition days . I have a questions for those who has been in a fsae competition before: the paddock asignation is in arrival order? I mean who comes first. Talking about taking your fsae outside the Competition place , does judges aprove it? I think many significant chages can be done outside the competition place, and my team has been loking for hotels nearby and found in Auburn Hills and it is like an hour from FPG, isn't it too risky to take your fsae out ? specially if you need to do repairs or last minute changes the three days of competition. Mario Briceño http://www.fsae-luz.org | |||
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Any significant changes to the car, other than adjustments stated in the rules need to be accompanied by passing the tech inspection again. I believe that this would be true for any team taking their car offsite. Usually by the middle of the second day, 70% of teams have been through or passed tech, so getting reevaluated shouldnt be that tough. As for the paddock area. Rain does seem to creep into competition at least one day, so be prepared for the worst. Ezup tents, car covers, tire covers, tarps, ponchos. If you think it may help, bring it. Paddock assignments is by school. They designated us a spot last year, which happened to be on the end of a row, across from Texas A&M. This only served as motivation to get this years car done as early as possible. Stan Weed UNH Precision Racing '05,'06 Electronics Team Captain Engine Team General Smart Ass | |||
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im sure going to miss pontiac. There are so many places to get food around, and the hotels are close by. The proving ground to me, sounds like one of the baja competition. Muddy, no food and just away from everything. Bummer ... RiNaZ | |||
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I'm just wondering if it would be possible to organize some sort of food sponsorship for the competition. Someone like McDonalds/Wendys/etc could ship in the food onsight for a 2 hour window during competition, 3 times a day. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Or possibly setup some sort of onsite cooking facility. Whoever the business is, I'm sure they would make a boatload given student/judge/spectator need for food. Just like the Red Bull truck, even though thats to make us buy it after comp. Get them addicted for free, and they'll pay you back later. Stan Weed UNH Precision Racing '05,'06 Electronics Team Captain Engine Team General Smart Ass | |||
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Things that make you go huh. ---- Mike Cook It's an engineering competition, not an over-engineering competition! | |||
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If you look at the Competition Overview presentation given at the Detroit Section SAE's Formula SAE Workshop last month, which can be found through the offical SAE website at http://www.sae-detroit.org/sae/menu.wml?page=Student#BookMarkTwo you will find some maps of not only the Ford Michigan (read Romeo) Proving Grounds, but satellite photos showing the planned paddock area. It appears that the paddock will NOT be on the "40 acres of asphalt" of the Vehicle Dynamics Facility (the Black Lake in GM terms). As this is Ford's prime handling facility, it is understandable that they don't want their pristine surface damaged by using it as a parking lot. Hence, it appears that it will only be used for the dynamic events. | |||
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C'mon now you guys have more to worry about than pitting in the grass don't you?  Be prepared and it won't even be an issue. You can't expect Ford to offer up thier proving ground surface for people to put up tents, spill 100 octane on, and sink thier metal stands into, now do ya?  -Charlie Ping Auburn FSAE Alum 00-04 | |||
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http://www.crocotile.com These puppies will make your muddy paddock that much easier to work in. Aaron Johnston Waterloo FSAE '02-'06 RCR #31 Team Engineer | |||
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Not when they are on wet mud....not even with plastic tarp underneath it.... | |||
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Im thinking tarp and plywood. Hopefully we'll be lucky enough to get a pavement spot, but I'm not betting on it. Stan Weed UNH Precision Racing '05,'06 Electronics Team Captain Engine Team General Smart Ass | |||
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Come to Formula Student Germany in 2006, you don´t need any tents, any plywood etc. The big long yellow building on top is the pitarea. (the same formula 1 teams use). The blue thing is the camping ground and the big green area is the dynamic area, the smaller one the practice area! Frank  Student Racing Team Stralsund 1999-2003 | |||
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What crap. How long is it going to take for 120 teams with 10-20 members to be shuttled from the gate to the trailers???? I'm sure this fan friendly approach will be better. Where will they park? Like its not hard enough to get people to come and watch in the freezing cold Pontiac spring? Now they will be escorted to the competition and will be waiting in lines for hours to get a chance to grab some food???? Don't worry, working in mud and gravel is the worst. Might as well go to the Baja competition. I wish someone put a little bit of thought into the location change, it sounds like it would be easier to have competition in Pelican Bay State Prison. (Less escorts). So how long do we wait to hear that cameras are not allowed, because someone might leak one of Fords "new" designs? What crap. And parking spots? I wonder if the genius who set up the online registration is in charge of assigning parking spots. Cornell and UTA on the pavement and everyone else in the mud. I guess only time will tell and we should wait and see what happens.... | |||
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I wouldn't start complaining yet. I had a lot of fun at last years competition, and seeing as the actual competition are will be about 100 times better, I'm looking forward to it. I think that with everything we go through to build these cars, and all the things we are going to go through in the coming months, we can deal. I mean, a lot of us deal with lacking fab and testing facilities and those of us resourcful enough to make a car out of a bridgeport and a 40 year old tig can come up with something for a gravel parking lot. I mean, bring a cooler full of sandwhiches, have your girlfriend sew up some tire covers and have some fun. I know I won't be complaining about the pit placement at the end of comp. It'll probably be more like "God Damn f$#%&*^ fuel pump" over my beer at the Big Buck. Or the Riverport Tavern in Sarnia. I know thats a place to forget whats ailing you. Stan Weed UNH Precision Racing '05,'06 Electronics Team Captain Engine Team General Smart Ass | |||
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You should be ashamed of this post. You think SAE put no thought into this? I guarantee you they did. I don't see you coming up with any solutions, only complaints. I'm sure if you could find a lot for 140 teams that could be used for free in the area SAE would be very interested! I wish there was a way to keep people with your attitude out of the competition... With limited registration I'm sure there would be plenty of teams that would be ecstatic to have a chance to compete and a little mud wouldn't stop them. SAE doesn't profit from this and doesn't really have any requirement to keep it going. Constructive criticism is great and I'm sure this event won't be perfect; its the first time at a new venue in over a decade. But if you are that down on having to be 'in-convienced' by a little grass or dirt, and have no solution yourself, then please, DONT SHOW UP! -Charlie Ping Auburn FSAE Alum 00-04 | |||
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Taking a cue from the venues for FSAE West and Formula Student Germany, I think investigating the use of Michigan International Speedway for FSAE 'East' in 2007 would be a good idea...  No, it won't be free, but if they can scam a deal/partnership with Cali Speedway, they shouldn't have much of a problem doing the same with MIS. These professional tracks seem like the ideal places to handle an event like FSAE. We're nothing for a place like that to handle. __________________________________________________ UMich-Dearborn '04-'06 Carnegie Mellon '99-'03 eVil eNgineering.com | '95 M3 | '86 951 | Geo MetroGnome | |||
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Hey....Charlies still alive...I was worried about you buddy... it has been almost 2 min. since you posted | |||
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dude, why don't you come back when you have something useful to post? Aaron Johnston Waterloo FSAE '02-'06 RCR #31 Team Engineer | |||
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I sincerely hope that they can work something out with Ford about this. I assume that the prototypes they work with will not be parked outside while the competition is happening. With a professional D-SLR and a 400mm class lens, it's not like I'm going to be inconspicuous with my camera. Many, many people have enjoyed photos from the 2005 competition and I hope that I'll be able to provide more in 2006. | |||
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If people are looking for a place to stay, I would have to say that the hotels by the Silverdome are a bit further than others. Looking the the website for Michigan Proving Grounds, they offer a list of hotels. They are located on a main highway south of Romeo. Should take only 30 min at most to drive there. There are quite a few hotels in this area along with lots of food/stores/places to drink your sorrows away. There might be places closer, but there could be a strong possibility that they will be hole in the wall hotels. Let me know if you need more information. I live in Utica and can try to offer more info if need be. Cheers! Carly | |||
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