Northwest FSAE Shootout

[Denny Trimble]

Everybody in the upper left hand corner of the map (or lower left for you canucks), we're starting to plan a get-together for FSAE teams this summer.

I've already contacted OSU, WWU, and Idaho. Are there any representatives from UBC, UVIC, or other schools who'd like to make the drive to Everett, WA for a weekend of friendly competition?

Nothing is locked down, but we're considering June 25th and 26th as a preliminary date.

Let me know,
Denny Trimble
dennyt at u.washington.edu

[Denny Trimble]

Everybody in the upper left hand corner of the map (or lower left for you canucks), we're starting to plan a get-together for FSAE teams this summer.

I've already contacted OSU, WWU, and Idaho. Are there any representatives from UBC, UVIC, or other schools who'd like to make the drive to Everett, WA for a weekend of friendly competition?

Nothing is locked down, but we're considering June 25th and 26th as a preliminary date.

Let me know,
Denny Trimble
dennyt at u.washington.edu

[kwancho]

hmm... 12 hour drive from the bay area... interesting....

[SD]

Unfortunately we are already obligated to a static (boring) event on the 25th. Maybe we could make it for the 26th...

Anyways, if it's a different weekend I know I'm interested and I'm sure a few other guys would be!

Thanks for putting this together!

Spencer Devivo
University of British Columbia

[Kirk Feldkamp]

Alex, try 14+ even if you're flying like a bat out of hell. You forget that Oregon cops are not friendly. That, and the posted limit is 55 or 65 most of the way. On most of I5, they ain't f'n around. They'll bust you for 56 in a 55 if they feel like it. Trust me, I've been in the car when it happens. Generally a 10mph buffer is ok in Oregon. Just a warning from a guy that grew up in Portland...

-Kirk

[MikeWaggoner at UW]

Personal record, 11 hours, 30 minutes on the way down. While driving around in CA, I then got 2 speeding tickets, one for ~110 in a 70, another for 90 in a 60. Both were written for 15 over, one was dismissed in the mail. The other one I did traffic school for, maintaining my pristine driving record...

The OR cops may have upgraded to lasers now though, which is sad.

[jack]

i can beat that mike:

i totalled my frieds car in CA, clearly doing some reckless driving, and didn't even get a ticket! or have to pay for the stop sign i demolished. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

[Kirk Feldkamp]

Does that mean I have proven my point? http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif Don't get me wrong, I've gone from Berkeley to Beaverton in under 9 hours (with gas stops), but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're willing to get popped for the tickets.

-Kirk

[kwancho]

well, luckily, one of my key members lives in spokane and he wants to attend. is this happening?

[JPS]

I'll be there from PSU, our car wont be though http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_frown.gif.
While ive got you here, if you dont mind me asking what size wheels did you guys make for you 2004 car? thanks!

[Ché]

Denny we here at WWU very interested but have some work ahead of us to get our cars back in to race shape. Do you have a date locked down yet?

[Denny Trimble]

Che,
We're going to go ahead with the 25th-26th of June (two weeks from today). I'll send out more info today via email and post it here too.

F2003-JP, if you're asking me about wheels, we've used 13x7 since 1999.

[Denny Trimble]

OK, I've put together an information document, which you can find here (.doc). (http://students.washington.edu/dennyt/fsae/NWFS_Info.doc)

Please let me know if you have any questions, or if you'd like to change you're team's status from "maybe" to "definitely coming".

-Denny

[raska]

We (UBC) are thinking about coming down on sunday now, and if we can clear out of our static event the night before we'll bring the car. I'm not sure if we'll be able to work our way into much if we have the car, and we're not trying to make anyones life difficult with the single day appearance, but some of us are eager to get out to it.

[Denny Trimble]

You guys are welcome to come down just for Sunday, the event is small enough that we'll probably be able to give you a lot of drive time.

[kwancho]

How's this going? Is it still on?

[Denny Trimble]

Yup, still on. So far only UW and OSU are confirmed, with WWU and UBC thinking about it, as far as I know.

[Denny Trimble]

Everything seems to be in place for this weekend. UW, OSU, and WWU have fixed up their cars and are planning on showing up at 9AM Saturday. I still haven't heard if UBC is coming for sure, but you're welcome to just show up if you like. Give me a call first to make sure we haven't broken all of our cars and gone drinking...

[Denny Trimble]

Another update, University of Portland has their car running and will attend the event. See you there!

[raska]

Unfortunatly UBC will not be able to attend due to a combination of things and a broken diff without access to a machine shop other than m-f 1-5pm. Hope it's going well, it's really unfortunate we're missing this. We look foward to another one and will be better prepared.

[Denny Trimble]

Thanks to all the schools who attended (OSU, University of Portland, and WWU). We had a great time driving with you, for however long it lasted http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

Some Highlights:
OSU did very well for a few laps, then retired due to mechanical difficulties. I would have liked to see you guys run more, I'm sure the competition would have heated up a lot!

WWU had the 900 car running, and it put in some good laps. Mike Waggoner got within 2 seconds of our lap record on our endurance course. Apparently, 120HP and a spool and someone who likes to drive like an ass, make for good lap times http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif Unfortunately V35 didn't want to do more than a lap at a time...

University of Portland had mechanical problems on Saturday, but they were the only team to return Sunday (along with UW). They starting to put down some fast lap times today, only a couple seconds off our pace.

I think we might have the makings of a real competition by August or so, if everyone gets their cars back together and sorted out.

Let us know if you want to get together and drive again this summer!

[SD]

Hey Denny,
Glad to hear the event ran smoothly, even if some of the cars didn't! We were really disappointed we couldn't make it down but hope to make it to the next one.

However we have quite a few events planned for August so I'm not sure how/if it'll work out. Anyways here is our current schedule:

Date Event Type Location
June 25th Driven To Perform Car Show BC Place
June 26th NWFSAE Northwest FSAE Racing Boeing Field
July 3rd CACC #3 Solo II Boundry Bay
Aug 7th CACC #4 Solo II Boundry Bay
Aug 27th BC Champ. Solo II Boundry Bay
Aug 28th CACC #5 Solo II Boundry Bay
Sept 18th CACC #6 Solo II Boundry Bay
Oct 9th CACC #7 Solo II Boundry Bay

Regards,

[BeaverGuy]

Mechanical Difficulties is a very polite and decieving way of putting it. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif It is still hard to comprehend that happening. Hopefully we can get everything straightened out and get a car driveable soon.

[Denny Trimble]

Well, I thought I'd let you guys elaborate if you wanted to, and the root cause was a mechanical issue... http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[iamlucky13]

Hey Denny. Thanks for putting this together. It was a lot of fun and a good chance for us to finally get significant running time on our car on a track.

I wouldn't even call the minor troubles we had Saturday "mechanical difficulties" compared to what we dealt with in Michigan. A sticky throttle cable just doesn't compare to a failed A-arm or broken half shaft. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

OSU, sorry to see the mechanical issue arise. I was hoping to see your car out on the track. Good luck getting it running again.

UBC, Wow! You guys have got a lot planned. Good luck with your races.

[Jonathan S]

iamlucky13 - I snapped a couple quick pictures of your car. Here's the best one of them, the others were a little more underexposed/blurry from lack of light and poor camera settings.

http://staff.washington.edu/dubster/misc/up3x5.jpg

I cropped this one to make it look a little better, let me know if you want the full sized image.

[Denny Trimble]

Here are a couple more pictures Jon took. Jon, mind if I post these? http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif
Mike T (http://students.washington.edu/dennyt/fsae/miket-nwfs-prettybushes.jpg)
Denny having some fun! (http://students.washington.edu/dennyt/fsae/denny-nwfs-crossedup.jpg)

[Underthefloor]

Any one have some pictures of the OSU car? I wouldn't mind it they were posted here. Should serve as a valuable safety/quality lesson.

[Jonathan S]

The only shot of your car I have is pre-drive and way in the background, and WWU's two cars a little closer.

http://staff.washington.edu/dubster/misc/pit.jpg

I didn't grab my camera when I brought our trailer over. There were a lot of cameras there so it probably won't be long before someone posts something. Until then, I can leave people in suspense with these from later in the day...

http://staff.washington.edu/dubster/misc/skids.jpg
http://staff.washington.edu/dubster/misc/curb1.jpg
http://staff.washington.edu/dubster/misc/curb2.jpg

[Denny Trimble]

OK, here's yet another way a stuck throttle can really ruin your day:

Course goes left... what are those marks going straight all about? (http://students.washington.edu/dennyt/fsae/nwfs-osu-1.jpg)

Hmmm... (http://students.washington.edu/dennyt/fsae/nwfs-osu-2.jpg)

Still not looking good... (http://students.washington.edu/dennyt/fsae/nwfs-osu-3.jpg)

How did that nose cone get so far up into the bushes? (http://students.washington.edu/dennyt/fsae/nwfs-osu-4.jpg)

Interesting Alignment... (http://students.washington.edu/dennyt/fsae/nwfs-osu-5.jpg)

Guess they'll be spending some quality time in the shop this summer... (http://students.washington.edu/dennyt/fsae/nwfs-osu-6.jpg)

Apparently what happened was, one of the two nuts holding the push/pull throttle cable (on the throttle end) came loose. The cable housing then slipped and jammed itself about 1.5" from where it should have been, so when the driver tried to lift for the kink (at peak HP and about 60MPH), the motor just kept pushing. He locked up the brakes and continued over the curb at probably 30+ mph (I didn't see it). He wasn't hurt, but the car will need some serious work. All four corners of the suspension had damage, the lower tube on the front bulkhead was crushed, and it sounds like the diff mount plates were damaged. I'm sure they'll find more upon closer inspection.

We've had a few stuck throttles ourselves, but luckily we haven't found any curbs or poles yet. PLEASE make sure you pay attention to your throttle system, it's the easiest way to put your car into an immovable object.

I'll see if I can find more pics of our pedal setup we developed in 2003 after three near-misses in two weeks, and a summary of the causes of all the stuck throttles I've seen.

[iamlucky13]

Thanks for the shot Jonathan. No need to get the full size. I have a couple shots of the UW car on the track and some close ups of parts of the car I was admiring (like the machined shifter knob http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_cool.gif ) in case anyone is interested, but there's nothing unique about any of the shots. I also have a few closeups of the damage to the OSU car. Underthefloor, if you'd like, I can post them when I get the chance.

[slow_vw]

Thanks again denny for putting this together, it was my first time driving either of the wwu cars...35 would have run for more than 1 lap at a time had we let it warm up a bit more after we got the brakes figured out, 24 was a lot of fun before that a arm broke though.