Time to open the thread for all things Formula SAE at VIR 2008.

Good luck to everyone.

Day 1 of Dynamics, any updates???

Isn't first dynamic day tomorrow? Judging today?

Today is more tech and all of the static events.

Overall, it's been impressive. A little disorganized yesterday for registration, but they pulled it together and everything went well. The track is pretty nice, but we'll see how nice it is once we get cars out there.

Some really nice cars here.

Got to walk the autocross/endurance track today. The course is going to be unlike any others. It has all the gates and slaloms as expected from using an existing course, but has some serious elevation changes and a lot of off camber sections.

It is fun being around the pro event as we can watch all the practice sessions and check out the machinery, but its a bit of a tease for the dynamic events.

Who won tilt test?

Any indication on how many brought last year's car and how many are in new equipment?

I heard SAE banned cameras on the site... is that why we don't get any photos here?

The first day of dynamic events went off well. Skidpad was really the only normal event by the rules. Best times in the low fives. It is a nice long hike to get there as well. Accel event was replaced by the mini accel uphill event due to space constraints. Best time was a 2.9?? I believe. Auto-x on the other hand was long. Best corrected times were in the low 90 second range. The elevation changes and off camber sections definitely made things more interesting as well.

I can't quote the finishing places, but the competition has been real good. Most cars are new. Many teams are struggling with the earlier date of the competition due to lack of preparation time.

Design finals took place Friday night with:
Wisconsin
VA Tech
Missouri S&T (UMR)
Cincinnati

VIR definitely has a great atmosphere with the co-location of the event. With the track right by the paddocks, the exhaust notes of passing cars is great. Luckily the weather has been great so far as well.

The SAE staff have really been working hard to put on a smooth event. The VIR personnel have been great as well in their support. With the proximity of the event to several racing teams and automotive centers in the south we had an excellent mix of volunteers. For such a long course the SCCA and track volunteers did a great job as well. Big thanks to all those involved for the competition so far. Judging from the enthusiasm of those involved, and uniqueness of the venue FSAE VIR should become more popular I hope.

Design Finals:
1st Wisconsin Madison
2nd VA Tech
3rd Missouri S&T
4th Cincinnati

Endurance:
1st Wisconsin Madison
2nd Missouri S&T

Overall (not official)
Wisconsin Madison ~940 Points
Missouri S&T ~870 Points
Cincinnati ~765 Points

I don't think anyone could have tallied more than Wisconsin or us, pretty sure no one else was near enough to Cincinnati to have overtaken them through endurance points.

Congrats to Madison on the highest points total at a US event, at least since '96.

so is it true that cameras are banned at the VIR? usually it doesnt take this long to see pictures from fellow FSAE'ers.

No, but I know our team didn't have a good internet connection at their hotel. I'll post them on our team website when they get back, maybe I'll convince them to send them tonight when they are back at the hotel.

So I guess the new chancellor was right- a name change would be a change for the better. j/k

Congrats MST! And of course to Wisconsin-Madison.

Bring on the pics.

Hi all, just got home from VIR. Out of the four competitions I have been to, I think this one was the best. A ton of fun, pretty laid back environment. The course was long! Autox times were in the 90 sec range. The endurance was basically the same as the autox track plus a small section that looped around back to the begininng. Acceleration for some reason had some confusion when measuring it out, was only about 50meters or so. Grip was really good, the course was quite smooth. Organization was great considering it was the first event of its kind. The camping site was right next to the paddock which made it really easy to work on the cars and such. The only downside to the whole thing is that there were not too many cars there, maybe only 30 competing. After the positive response to this event I think it will grow tremendously in the years to come.

Top skid pad time was about a 5.25, we ran second with a 5.35ish. Top accel time was a 2.9, second place ran a 3.1. I think most the teams that attempted endurance made it through. Most of the cars there were new cars as far as I could tell.

Anyways, sorry for the jumbled unload, still winding down.

Congrats to Wisconsin Madison on another win. Unfortunately we did not compete in any of the dynamic events due to having a bad ring in one of our motors and slipping the timing chain in the second motor after swapping it overnight. Good news is we should be all set for California, so look out

I did take a lot of pictures, but many of them didn't turn out too well. Here's a few-















Overall it was a very good competition minus not driving the car. It would have been nice to have some more teams, but it was a very friendly and open competition compared to the last two years at FPG. Good work to all the teams there and we hope to see most of you at West!

Seeing the crazy front wings on M S&T and much smaller rear wing compared with last years car, I would have bet that there would be a under tray, but none at all is interesting.

That looks like design so I doubt it was taken off.

What's the deal?

No tunnels this year for Missouri S&T. That's not to say that it wasn't looked at, but the package you saw at VIR was the best configuration for the car this year. As for specific reasons why, I'll leave that up to speculation on here...

Overall, the event was great. Like some other people mentioned, the atmosphere of having the DP and Speed Challenge cars going by while working in the paddock was amazing. Hats off to the crew from Wisconsin, a class act and a really quick car once again. Can't wait to head up to Michigan in a couple weeks!

Congrats to everyone that competed at the first ever VIR event! I was a presentation judge, the assistant skid pad captain and helped with the autox and endurance staging and I've got to say - I had a blast! As Steve mentioned, please email him if you have any questioins / suggestions / comments about the event - we want to make this an awesome addition to the FSAE series. That said, good luck with the rest of the season and if you happen to see and recognize me at MIS (I won't be a volunteer there...) feel free to stop me and say hey!

anybody got more pictures than what we have now?

Henning, you silly Swede. Where did you hear they banned cameras at the event? I took ALOT and will be posting them as soon as I get a chance.

I also wanted to thrown in my thanks for all the students and the generous understanding they gave us volunteers. You definitely made it very easy on us. Thank you.

Colin
Skidpad Captain, VIR '08
Asst. Endurance Captain, VIR '08
Technical Inspection and Autocross Volunteer, VIR '08