The Formula-Hybrid website (www.formula-hybrid.com) now has forums set up so post any and all question about the 2007 F-H competition there.

is there actually any interst in this from the FSAE crowd, seems like heavy, slow and expensive electrical components are bass ackwards what we want????

The whole idea that we are trying to promote with Formula Hybrid is that it is precisely the opposite of what you are calling a "bass ackwards" approach. Hybrids have huge potential given the high torque of electric motors, regenerative braking, advancing battery and ultracapacitor technologies, and so on. The possibilities are endless and in fact the Dartmouth hybrid car clocked in in Detroit at 0-50mph in 4.1 seconds. Not too shabby for a round 1 attempt. Of course there is huge room for improvement and the cars will probably start off a little heavier and slower, but once teams get down the basic components hybrids have the potential to actually out-accelerate some of the top FSAE cars. New challenges are what makes the idea so exciting, and if one of the goals of FSAE is to "build future engineering talent," then what better way than having students educated in alternative energy systems?

An additional point of note for those of you following F1, is that in 2009 many F1 teams will be running hybrids. See link:
http://www.evworld.com/view.cfm?section=article&storyid=1046

Or scroll down a bit in this link:
http://www.greencarcongress.com/hybrids/index.html

How does it handle thou, our cars are designed to turn not just go straight

[quote]How does it handle thou, our cars are designed to turn not just go straight


right now the car handles "okay" this is only because we have not had the time yet to fully redesign the suspension/shocks/anti-roll bars, etc to accommodate for the added weight. Next year this will be a main focus, whereas this past year given our few numbers and resources, the focus was to first just get a working hybrid.

Think in terms of the beginning of any FSAE team...for the first year or two there are only so many things they can optimize. It is a step by step process for the first couple years... for example maybe a team starts off with a solid rear axle before they progress to a differential and independent rear suspension...and so on.

Formula Hybrid cars (all electrons aside) aim to be, and will be, racecars that go fast and handle well, it will just take a couple years before they are as "fine-tuned" as FSAE cars given the new packaging and weight minimization issues.

I think it's a great formula ! Good alternative to solar car challenge for those obscessed with everything electrical. Unlike solar cars hybrids have practical application and should be a lot more fun to drive. I hope this competition gets off the ground.

Thanks for your support Mark. And if anyone has any more questions, please don't hesitate to ask. We hope this competition gets off the ground as well and are doing everything we can to encourage teams to enter. (So far we've had 18 schools say they are "interested in entering a vehicle.")

The finalized rules will be posted on at www.formula-hybrid.com by the end of June and registration will start in early October.

I'm with Mark and Dana

These competitions are about engineering challenges, producing better engineers, and advancing the industry.

Just think... as there are more hybrids on the roads, automotive manufacturers will want to hire engineers with experience with hybrids.

Also, it's a totally different competition, the cars are not directly competing with fsae cars. If I was still in school, it would definatley be something I would be interested in.

quote:

Originally posted by Mark TMV:
I think it's a great formula ! Good alternative to solar car challenge for those obscessed with everything electrical. Unlike solar cars hybrids have practical application and should be a lot more fun to drive. I hope this competition gets off the ground.

One University to consider contacting is ETH in Switzerland. I worked for the commercial side of the University in the ICE department and was trying to persuade them to enter a car for the FStudent competition. Their focus now is mainly on hybrid technologys and not alternative fuels (I suggested they enter with E85), so they may be interested. The University won the shell ECO competition...possibly more than once! The guys at EMPA (the commercial side) were very interested in FHybrid and honestly believed that it would become vastly more popular than the FSAE/FStudent events due to the potential sponsorship available from major manufacturers and because this is the way technology is moving in the Automotive Industry. Some of the guys I worked with are EX-F1 and have good links with sauber BMW.

If you have never heard of the company, you know that silly looking SMART car, they did a lot of the initial development work on it. It was originally intended as the first mass produced hybrid vehicle with a 250cc supercharged boxer engine, but it would have been twice as expensive and it is already expensive enough. It is the funny shape because the batteries were to be fitted in the floor of the car. The engine was a pretty powerful design as well and would have been a nice FSAE unit But it wouldnt work, so they sold it to Mercedes.

www.eth.ch
www.empa.ch

Hi Dana,

I just wanted to say hi and let the world know that Oxford Brookes is embarking on our first FS Hybrid car for the FSUK event in July.

This will more than likley be a design study, however, depending on how the sponsorship goes we may have more than that.

Personally, I was sitting on the fence about the hybrid concept, I am now very much for it and am very excited by whay our team can achieve.

Dana, will you just be competeing in the US, or is there a chance we may see your car in the UK too?

Regards,

Hi Jenner,

Glad to hear that Oxford Brookes has decided to build a hybrid! We will be competing in the US Formula-Hybrid competition, and hopefully bringing the car to the UK for the FS competition, but nothing is set in stone yet. If all goes well we will see you there.

Best of luck!

A Formula Hybrid event will be in Italy too.
http://www.ata.it/formulaata/FormulaEHI07/

Check the link.