What a mature discussion this has become.

"No YOU'RE stupid!"

"Well YOU wet the bed!"

"I like a man who farts when he types." - DohertyWins!

I feel proud about to participate in FSAE, no matters the place of the comp when I see the hearth , teamwork and spirit perfromed by the teams. one day on Campus I met a guy who was speaking about FSAE and inmediately I wanted to know about it, I begin in SAE site and inmediately knew that I must to be there, I noticed too that a team from Venezuela (USB) was doing something that appeared amazing to me, I felt inspired... later I went to speak with my Univ FSAE Team Leader and I think he didn't took importance to the fact, I didn't understood him... then I read the rules and I looked for mexican teams in the comp, I felt inspired again when I saw that Universidad La Salle was one of the first International entries in the event, and that Tec de Chihuahua did too... wow!, unfortunately I had to leave the FSAE 06' team, the causes: some of the non written rules of a FSAE team. But I never gave up because I beleived in this project from the begining, I decided to make an application for an US Visa and supported by whom now I consider loyable friends: Lolita, Adrian, Andrei I attended to the competition as an observer, I see that some people think that weather in MPG was horrible, believe me, I saw it as if it would be beautiful, I was so happy to saw those engineerig creations, just once I saw one in my life, -it was the Universidad Panamericana car. I can't explain the feeling.... it was so beautiful... it was amazing, but I saw something else: the team work, the perseverance and the spirit against the odds... I felt that if I wanted to participate in FSAE, before I should to visit it and to learn about this experience to invite another guys to form a new team, sometimes I felt very lonely and disappointed when I left purasangre Racing, a team that I believed on, now I know that something better was going to arrive... Now I'm doing my best to learn and to have the guts to lead our New Team I feel they are the right people to work with, I feel proud of my new partners, I know the way is going to be hard and that many times I'm going to feel tired, anger, hungry, sad maybe etc. but as Carroll Smith said "an absolut refusal to be beaten" is necessary in Racing as it is in life, this is that I love from this comp, I love this challenge and all that it implies, no matters if our team cannot reach the 07 registration of if we cannot reach visas, we are going to design, to build and to test a FSAE car attending to the SAE Worldwide Rules.... the spirit is the real meaning in racing, thanks a lot for this knowledege experience, NEVER GIVE UP, keep going!

Arturo,

Thank you very much for that post. I must admit that I felt ashamed at reading it, as I had forgotten what it was like to first see a FSAE competition. Working on the UWA team was one of the best experiences of my life, and if I had only got to go to one competition I would still be incredibly lucky. The fact that I got to compete in 6 competitions, attend 8, including travelling to the United States 3 times (well a fourth when I got a job in motorsport due to my time in FSAE) is pretty amazing.

I guess my dissappointment for the US teams not travelling stems from the fact that the competition started in the US. The first good FSAE cars I saw were RIT and UTA in Australia 2000 (and they were bloody good). At that stage it almost seemed impossible to compete on an even level with teams that professional, with cars that good. In the last 5 years I have become more and more cynical as I have seen international teams take to the competition and improve rapidly. At the same time it seems that the US teams are travelling less, and with the risk of offending some very good teams they appear to be stagnating a little.

I do feel as if the FSAE competition internationally is a little like the United Nations. Unless the United States actively participates its claim for legitimacy is severly compromised. The FSAE competition is something very special. Its good spirit and openeness on such a large scale is virtually unheard of in motorsport, and as an engineering competition its scope is massive. My own team has drastically altered the careers of a bunch of people going through and has been a very good advertisement for science education in our state. The international aspect of the competition is one that is really starting to take shape and has a lot of engineers communicating across large distances. I strongly believe that this should be encouraged as much as possible, both for the benefit of the participants and the promotion of engineering education around the world. There is no doubt that the easiest thing for teams to do is to compete in their local competitions and no more. The danger is that we lose a very good opportunity. One of the things I appreciate about the Australian SAE organisation is that there is a fund set aside to help the winner of the Australian competion travel to an international competition. Better still if the winner does not travel the prize is handed down the line until a team takes it to travel. It is not enough to cover the costs (not insignificant either), but the spirit in which the money is given is a very good one.

Anyway sorry for the ranting and what is definitely an emotional post ... but gosh darnit I love this competition

Kev

It is good to hear of the love that people still have of this competition. It does friggin' rock.

I was a member of the Georgia Tech team from 2002-2005 and I can definately explain some ups and downs that the teams go through. When I came in there was an experienced base already leading the team. Georgia Tech had just come off of a win their second strait win in FS as well as a top 5 in F-SAE. Things were awesome. Team was growing, people were learning, and we were getting better. We built a wicked fast car and scored another Top 5 at F-SAE before going to F-SAE-A to once again win.

note: this is where I interject and say that great teamwork, a fast car, awesome design knowledge and solid static event preparation means you finish well, period. A good showing at any competion simply comes to that, the team that wants it bad enough and refuses to lose, wins. The question of location still comes down to who is the best prepared, everyone has setbacks and it just means you have to want it more.

back to the story: Times were great, our school loved us and champagne poured from the heavens, or something like that. But we were set back and the 2004 car was slightly neglected in preparations for the F-SAE-A competition. We lacked test time and our cooling fans were overloading the charging system. Car spun in endurance and dead batteries didn't start it. Shit. We finished 31st but the worst wasn't over.
A big part of our team was graduating and under the strained nerves of being very behind with the car, rifts were subtly forming in the team. The team was beginning to factionalize and in the prescence of a skilled manpower and leadership vacuum it started to fall apart. The car wasn't getting done, stuff was going wrong and fingers were getting pointed. It got nasty. The team split. We missed comp. New leadership elections were held questionably. People were kicked off and I was one if them. 2/3 of the team quit. An awesome team brought to its knees.


Now that I have written a novel- The point is that you can not tell how anything is going to happen. The competitions a team attends, the qualiy of the current team, the number of competitions a team has won in the past;all this has nothing to do with a team's future. One person can not make a whole team competitive and a great finnish one year doesn't mean the team will even exist next year. That's racing. All you can do is learn as much as you can and hope for the best. Where you go to school and which competitions you attend has really very little bearing on how much you can learn.

"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education." - Einstein

What a thread this has turned into. I think that which competition you go to has relatively little bearing on what you can get out of the entire experience. Although, yes, it surely would be quite fun and an immense accomplishment to compete internationally.

As far as picking schools based on FSAE teams goes, I guess I have done that myself. After I finished my prereqs at the community college level, I was going to have to transfer back to a university. Initially, I wanted to go back to the University of Florida, where I had started college before life went crazy. The main reason for wanting to go back was they had an FSAE team, while my other option, the University of South Florida, did not. However, about the time I had to make my decision, USF started an FSAE team, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to help build something. So, I went to USF. This being the second year of FSAE at USF, we finished 42nd, and improvement from 96th in 2005.

I suppose what I'm really trying to say is you don't need to be at a certain competition or go to a perennial top 10 team to get something out of this experience. What you get out of it, what you learn, what you take with you the rest of your life - all of it - depends on what YOU put into it.

Arturo,
that was a great post. Tons of writing mistakes, but boy was that a great post! .

Just wanna share my side of the story here. I first join FSAE in 1999 during my first semester as a freshman. I found out that, prior to me joining the team, they've been trying to keep the program alive for at least 7 years now. And during my years in FSAE, we've had several team leaders come and go and that includes team members. As far as i could remember, i am the only member from 1999 team still in the current FSAE team. .

I started going to the competition in the early 2001 or 2002 and never missed one except in 2005 (best friend's wedding on the same w/end). When new team members found out that i go to the competition every single year, the most and only question i get is, "why?."

It's hard to explain to ppl who only think of these competitions as a thing they have to go to becoz they spent so much time already building the car, or worse, so that they can get class credit. My team advisor put it about right, when he said that some students just treat this as a club, and to them, that's exactly what it is, a club.

I wish i had the money to go to international competitions. I've worked and saved money every spring, so i can attend the competition in the summer. Just like kevin, i still remember how excited i was everytime i finish spring semester and leave for detroit with my school's name all over my shirt and hat. And everytime i walk around the pit area, and talk to guys, they always ask where my car at and i could only give them a shrug with a "next year" answer.

Now im proud to say that after a decade and a half, we finally brought a car to the 06 competition. The first and only team in our school's history to design, build and compete in the FSAE competition. We didnt do too well, and everybody in the team thought we could've done better, but i dont think they can fully appreciate the extend of our achievement by bringing the car to the competition. It's a wonderful feeling no matter which competition you're competing in. Next year, the team is hoping to be the first SAE team to compete and finish all events!

p/s: like the previous posts, we're hijacking the thread . I hear some remarkable stories every year about teams that go out of their way to get the car done. I would love to hear them if any of you guys would wanna share.

quote:

but if a japanese team, or a mexican team goes to detroit where no one understand there sales presentation, wether it be a language barrier or a cultural barrier, then what did they learn? I mean no disrespect by saying that. I think its best to stay in my borders, simply because it makes the most sense. We can drive to both comps within our border, all the judges speak our language, were competing against cars of similar ability, and we dont have all the extra financial burden of shipping and flying etc.

And here (I believe) lies the inherent problem.
Complacency.

I can guaruntee you if those Japanese/Mexican teams entered a US competition they would learn far more than I would (as person who learnt English as a first language - even if I am from another country).

Our team hasn't gone to another event apart from the Australian event - and thats prehaps because there has been a lack of confidence in the cars our team has produced previously, more so in that we prehaps weren't proud enough of ourselves that we were willing to sacrifice all the aformentioned things to go overseas and compete.
I am pretty sure that ethos will change for next year.

From my own personal experience, the majority of the participants in this event have flogged thier arseholes out for the number of years they have participated in the comp. Be it working a few days a week to survive, working on the car 50+hours a week, plus having to do subjects at uni, and trying to juggle that all with attempting to maintain relationships with friends/boyfriends/girlfriends/family etc.
We have done that to push ourselves, see how much we can learn etc. etc Be it whatever...
Anyway, I cannot think of a reason why I WOULDN'T want to do a comp overseas irrespective of my reasoning for participating in this event in the first place.

And I can tell you I (and a number of other members on our team) are pushing to go overseas next year.

Big H
Swinburne Drivetrain

quote:

Originally posted by Big H:
Our team hasn't gone to another event apart from the Australian event - and thats prehaps because there has been a lack of confidence in the cars our team has produced previously, more so in that we prehaps weren't proud enough of ourselves that we were willing to sacrifice all the aformentioned things to go overseas and compete.

That's another interesting point. If a team's car isn't reliable, then what motivation do they have to go to another country for it to break? I would say that would be much more disheartening to arrange such a trip just to watch your car fail again. But the low finishing rate is a whole other thread.