Formula SAE West 2008 Competition: - Updates, Pictures, Stories, and More.

[RiNaZ]

2 more days to go!!! good luck to everybody!!!

[Biggy72]

Our car left this morning. I wish we had more tuning time, but it was running pretty well on the dyno last night at midnight. I'm just glad we have a dyno shop willing to let us stick around until midnight on a Sunday to get it dialed in. It's not making as much power with the turbo as I had hoped, but I'm pretty sure if we had more time we could make quite a bit more. But we have a really broad flat torque curve just like I was hoping for.

Anyway if you're in the northwest and need a little dyno time go to this place:
www.horsepowerconnection.com (http://www.horsepowerconnection.com)

He's sure helped us out quite a bit over the last couple years.

And as an added bonus the body's painted. I wish I had more time to work on it, but it turned out alright. It's definitely a 20 footer, but it's not that bad. I don't have any pics of it on the car though, so you'll just have to wait until someone posts pics of comp to see it.

[Michael Palaszynski]

Terps Racing made the cross country trip. Left Saturday AM and got here around 3pm on Monday. Glad we're all still alive and no one was arrested.

I'm glad to be back in the CA sun, now i just gotta work on getting rid of my farmers tan...

[JR @ CFS]

Chalmers have made the trip all the way from Sunny Sweden for 2008. Thanks to Cal Poly Pomona for putting us up for the day to let us do a bit of work on the presentations. Rest of the team arrived yesterday and today and we will be breaking open to crate tomorrow to see whether or not we have a car here http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

The lads have worked hard to improve cooling issues (and there is a heatwave at the moment, so hopefully it will hold up) and also to reduce weight! Looking forward to a good competition!

[mtg]

James Waltman and I just rolled into town, we'll be doing tech inspection again. Also, we will be walking around quite a bit talking to teams, taking pics, etc.

[Pete Fodor]

Originally posted by jonnierice:
Chalmers have made the trip all the way from Sunny Sweden for 2008. Thanks to Cal Poly Pomona for putting us up for the day to let us do a bit of work on the presentations. Rest of the team arrived yesterday and today and we will be breaking open to crate tomorrow to see whether or not we have a car here http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

The lads have worked hard to improve cooling issues (and there is a heatwave at the moment, so hopefully it will hold up) and also to reduce weight! Looking forward to a good competition!

its beeen o not so warm and sunny recently though =p

Enjoy yer ihop

[HenningO]

Best of luck to all the teams, especially Dartmouth and Chalmers!

[Dan G]

Weather for Fontana the next 3 days: 87, 90, 94. 0% chance of precip. Welcome to the desert!

[Kirk Feldkamp]

Shoot... and I forgot to order my rain tires for West.

Hey Danny Boy, what are you doing at West this year? Lots of Honeywell people coming out this year?

[mkosonen]

Here are my pictures from Day 1 of the competition. All of the cars look great, and it seems as though everybody has been busy working! Anyway, here's a gallery of 220 pictures of the day.

http://www.mkosonen.com/fsaeday1

So far so good, the last time I checked, the tech number had reached 19. Good luck to everybody in tech inspections, and presentations!

Cheers,

Matt Kosonen

[Underthefloor]

Thanks for the pics.

A lot of teams have the flat roll hoop. Does anyone know who started the trend?

[Kyle Walther]

Originally posted by Underthefloor:
Thanks for the pics.

A lot of teams have the flat roll hoop. Does anyone know who started the trend?

my guess, and this is based on no research, is Wollongong

[ad]

Originally posted by Kyle Walther:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Underthefloor:
Thanks for the pics.

A lot of teams have the flat roll hoop. Does anyone know who started the trend?

my guess, and this is based on no research, is Wollongong </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I think we introduced this to our 2002 car.

[exFSAE]

Good luck to all. Keep the pictures comin.

[Pete Fodor]

awesome pictures!

[Mike Macie]

Originally posted by Underthefloor:
Thanks for the pics.

A lot of teams have the flat roll hoop. Does anyone know who started the trend?

It's because teams are moving the driver position back putting them underneath the roll hoop.

[Osth]

Great pictures Matt, nice to see that you got a few shots at our beautiful Chalmers car http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif.

[RiNaZ]

awesome pictures matt! finally, closeup pictures of the cars. I wonder if VIR and East didnt let ppl in the garage area, hence the lack of closeup pictures in the recent competitions.

[chuckBYU]

Great pics!!! Keep them coming for those of us trying to pretend we are there even though we are at home. Thanks. Good luck to everyone!

[James Waltman]

Design Semi Final Teams:

#26 SDSM&T
#10 Michigan State
#28 U of Manitoba
#35 Western Washington
#37 BYU
#45 Northern Illinois
#79 Oklahoma
#11 Centro Universitario Da FEI (Brazil)
#11 U of Washington

The level of the mid pack cars seems to be pretty good.

[SteveS]

As a courtesy, the Preliminary FSAE West 2008 Design results are shown below. These scores are UNOFFICIAL until the protest period is complete, and final results are approved.

The Design results will be posted in the registration area Friday morning. Protest period will follow - listen for announcements at the track.

Results for the Presentation and Cost events should be posted in the registration area on Friday morning.

Steve Sayovitz
FSAE National Scorekeeper

Place Team Status Score
1 T 10 Michigan State Univ Final
1 T 12 Univ of Washington Final
1 T 35 Western Washington Univ Final
4 T 6 South Dakota Sch of Mines & Tech Semi 120
4 T 28 Univ of Manitoba Semi 120
6 T 11 Centro Universitario Da FEI Semi 110
6 T 37 Brigham Young Univ Semi 110
6 T 45 Northern Illinois Univ Semi 110
6 T 79 Univ of Oklahoma Semi 110
10 T 19 Univ of Maryland - College Park 100
10 T 22 Oregon State Univ 100
10 T 53 Oklahoma State Univ 100
10 T 77 Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst 100
10 T 78 Ecole Polytechnique De Montreal 100
10 T 82 Missouri University of Science and Tech 100
10 T 83 Univ of Cincinnati 100
17 T 5 Univ of Toledo 80
17 T 7 California State Univ - Northridge 80
17 T 13 California State Poly Univ - Pomona 80
17 T 14 Univ of Arizona 80
17 T 17 California Polytechnic State Univ-SLO 80
17 T 20 Univ of Southern California 80
17 T 21 Univ of Calif - Berkeley 80
17 T 26 Montana State Univ - Bozeman 80
17 T 30 Univ of Delaware 80
17 T 32 Univ of New Mexico 80
17 T 40 Instituto Tecnologico de Chihuahua 80
17 T 46 Univ of Alberta 80
17 T 48 Univ of Hartford 80
17 T 81 Univ of Ontario Institute of Tech 80
31 T 27 Univ of British Columbia 60
31 T 29 Univ of Idaho 60
31 T 31 Washington State Univ 60
31 T 47 Univ of Texas - Austin 60
31 T 49 Chalmers Univ of Tech 60
31 T 50 Kansas State Univ 60
31 T 55 Wayne State Univ 60
31 T 56 Univ of Calif - Davis 60
31 T 60 LeTourneau Univ 60
31 T 61 Univ of Minnesota - Twin Cities 60
31 T 62 Pittsburg State University 60
31 T 71 California State Univ - Fresno 60
31 T 73 Honda Technical College Kansai 60
44 T 9 Shibaura Institute of Technology 40
44 T 16 San Diego State Univ 40
44 T 33 Arizona State Univ - Tempe 40
44 T 34 Univ of Texas - San Antonio 40
44 T 39 Dartmouth College 40
44 T 41 Polytechnic Univ - Brooklyn 40
44 T 42 Escuela Sup De Ing Automotriz Tlalnepa 40
44 T 44 Universidad Nacional Experimental Polité 40
44 T 51 Universidad de Oriente 40
44 T 64 Univ of Calif - Irvine 40
44 T 66 Portland State Univ 40
44 T 80 Clemson Univ 40
1 Texas A & M Univ - College Station
2 Univ of Kansas - Lawrence
3 Auburn Univ
15 Univ of Calif - San Diego
18 Univ of Calif - Riverside
23 Colorado State Univ
24 Washington Univ - St Louis
25 California State Univ - Sacramento
36 Polytechnic Univ of Puerto Rico
38 Marquette Univ
43 South Dakota State Univ
52 California State Univ - Fullerton
54 Univ of Houston - Houston
57 New Jersey Inst\Tech(Newark Coll)
58 Hunan Univ
59 Univ of Minnesota - Duluth
63 Stanford Univ
65 Universidad Metropolitana
67 California State Univ - Long Beach
68 Santa Clara Univ
69 Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ
70 Oregon Inst of Tech
72 Univ of Alabama - Tuscaloosa
74 Univ of Nevada - Reno
75 American University of Sharjah
76 ITESM - Campus QRO
84 Univ of Victoria

[Travis Garrison]

Holy freek'n #$%^ batman...WWU and UW in the Finals? Congrats to both teams!

[BamaJeff]

Good luck to everyone tomorrow in the dynamic events!

Too bad we couldn't make it...couldn't find the funds to make the cross-country trip.

[James Waltman]

Originally posted by Travis Garrison:
Holy freek'n #$%^ batman...WWU and UW in the Finals? Congrats to both teams!

I guess we just had to get out of the way huh.

[mkosonen]

Here are the day 2 pictures.

http://www.mkosonen.com/fsaeday2

Good luck to all of the teams in dynamic competitions tomorrow!

Matt Kosonen

[RiNaZ]

what material is used for the wings on cal poly's car? Is it plastic? or carbon fiber?

p/s: they should have everybody wear shoes, especially in the pit area, even for the judges.

[Osth]

Nice to see some design results. Hope that someone will post some cost/presentation results soon as it should be about morning over there now I guess (it's time to leave work now here in Sweden anyway http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif).

[Travis Garrison]

Originally posted by James Waltman:


I guess we just had to get out of the way huh.

Ouch.

[Dusan]

Nice job Western ...

~D

WWU 2003
AU '92
HPD 2004-06
RF1 2006-

[Downtownred]

Thanx for the pix!!!

[Underthefloor]

Anyone have pictures of the results?

[JR @ CFS]

anyone get the official word on autox results and running order for enduro?

[SteveS]

The following is the run order for the FSAE West 2008 Endurance event.

Steve Sayovitz
FSAE National Scorekeeper

Car Number School Name
1 82 Missouri University of Science and Tech
2 83 Univ of Cincinnati
3 6 South Dakota Sch of Mines & Tech
4 19 Univ of Maryland - College Park
5 12 Univ of Washington
6 50 Kansas State Univ
7 79 Univ of Oklahoma
8 10 Michigan State Univ
9 80 Clemson Univ
10 35 Western Washington Univ
11 7 California State Univ - Northridge
12 34 Univ of Texas - San Antonio
13 5 Univ of Toledo
14 49 Chalmers Univ of Tech
15 22 Oregon State Univ
16 21 Univ of Calif - Berkeley
17 11 Centro Universitario Da FEI
18 30 Univ of Delaware
19 78 Ecole Polytechnique De Montreal
20 32 Univ of New Mexico
21 77 Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst
22 13 California State Poly Univ - Pomona
23 28 Univ of Manitoba
24 39 Dartmouth College
25 31 Washington State Univ
26 29 Univ of Idaho
27 27 Univ of British Columbia
28 47 Univ of Texas - Austin
29 41 Polytechnic Univ - Brooklyn
30 73 Honda Technical College Kansai
31 61 Univ of Minnesota - Twin Cities
32 20 Univ of Southern California
33 16 San Diego State Univ
34 40 Instituto Tecnologico de Chihuahua
35 53 Oklahoma State Univ
36 45 Northern Illinois Univ
37 46 Univ of Alberta
38 44 Universidad Nacional Experimental Polité
39 9 Shibaura Institute of Technology
40 66 Portland State Univ
41 60 LeTourneau Univ
42 37 Brigham Young Univ
43 48 Univ of Hartford
44 42 Escuela Sup De Ing Automotriz Tlalnepa
45 62 Pittsburg State University
46 51 Universidad de Oriente
47 81 Univ of Ontario Institute of Tech
48 55 Wayne State Univ
49 26 Montana State Univ - Bozeman
Remaining teams on a first come, first served basis

[Garrett Motorsports Engineering]

Originally posted by SteveS:
The following is the run order for the FSAE West 2008 Endurance event.
.
.
.

Steve Sayovitz
FSAE National Scorekeeper



FOR IMMEDIATE NOTICE, EFFECTIVE 6/27/08 9:45pm PST

After careful review of the start list, and upon information recieved right before the Friday night event closure, The event captain & director have deemed it appropriate to revise the start list. The sole purpose of this revision is safety related in order to better match the speed of the cars in each run group and to minimize the need for overtaking of slower cars.

The hardcopy of the start list posted in registration will be revised on Saturday morning before 8am. Each team is responsible for knowing their new start position.

Car Number School Name
1 82 Missouri University of Science and Tech
2 83 Univ of Cincinnati
3 6 South Dakota Sch of Mines & Tech
4 19 Univ of Maryland - College Park
5 12 Univ of Washington
6 13 California State Poly Univ - Pomona
7 50 Kansas State Univ
8 79 Univ of Oklahoma
9 10 Michigan State Univ
10 80 Clemson Univ
11 35 Western Washington Univ
12 22 Oregon State Univ
13 7 California State Univ - Northridge
14 34 Univ of Texas - San Antonio
15 5 Univ of Toledo
16 49 Chalmers Univ of Tech
17 21 Univ of Calif - Berkeley
18 11 Centro Universitario Da FEI
19 30 Univ of Delaware
20 78 Ecole Polytechnique De Montreal
21 32 Univ of New Mexico
22 77 Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst
23 28 Univ of Manitoba
24 39 Dartmouth College
25 31 Washington State Univ
26 29 Univ of Idaho
27 27 Univ of British Columbia
28 47 Univ of Texas - Austin
29 41 Polytechnic Univ - Brooklyn
30 73 Honda Technical College Kansai
31 61 Univ of Minnesota - Twin Cities
32 20 Univ of Southern California
33 16 San Diego State Univ
34 40 Instituto Tecnologico de Chihuahua
35 53 Oklahoma State Univ
36 45 Northern Illinois Univ
37 46 Univ of Alberta
38 44 Universidad Nacional Experimental Polité
39 9 Shibaura Institute of Technology
40 66 Portland State Univ
41 60 LeTourneau Univ
42 37 Brigham Young Univ
43 48 Univ of Hartford
44 42 Escuela Sup De Ing Automotriz Tlalnepa
45 62 Pittsburg State University
46 51 Universidad de Oriente
47 81 Univ of Ontario Institute of Tech
48 55 Wayne State Univ
49 26 Montana State Univ - Bozeman
Remaining teams on a first come, first served basis

Thank you and good luck to all teams tomorrow,

Mike Moyer
2008 FSAE West Endurance Caption

Ian Stewart
2008 FSAE West SCCA Endurance Director

[cmeissen]

Scores so far:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cmeissen

[Gasperini]

Originally posted by Osth:
Nice to see some design results. Hope that someone will post some cost/presentation results soon as it should be about morning over there now I guess (it's time to leave work now here in Sweden anyway http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif).
I think you guys will be happy with your result in presentation.

[mkosonen]

Here's the gallery from Day 3 of competition, some test track, acceleration, skid pad, and auto-x. More to come tomorrow of course!

http://www.mkosonen.com/fsaeday3

Cheers,
Matt Kosonen

[Underthefloor]

Thanks for all the pictures Matt. Can you get a few of Oregon States car? http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[Aaron Bailey]

Cal Poly's wings are Carbon Fiber. Unfortunately we had problems with sound, but we plan to at least run endurance tomorrow. Good luck to all the teams and we are looking forward to seeing how you all do.

THANK YOU very much for every one who helped us today. We were very grateful of everyones generosity!

[Osth]

I think you guys will be happy with your result in presentation.


Cal Poly Pomona

Yes! Finally we won something! http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[Pete Fodor]

Just got an email this morning and congrats to the boys in California is in order on the 1st place in Presentation!

[mtg]

I took notes during the first endurance run (the fast group before lunch), but didn't take notes for the rest- had to go catch a flight home.

Missouri S&T kicks off the endurance event by scaring small children with those large wings
Cincinnati on track
South Dakota Mines & Tech on track
U Washington on track
Cal Poly Pomona on track, moved way up in the run order from autox results
Maryland on track
Pomona going for broke, trying to catch Missouri S&T
Cincinnati passes Maryland
SDMT stalls on track, back alive, UW closes gap
Maryland passed Cincinnati, Maryland does D1 drift around corner
UW passes SDMT
Pomona & Missouri S&T keeping same pace
SDMT stalls again, back alive
Cincinnati gets a little sloppy trying to catch Maryland
Missouri S&T has header wrap flapping in the breeze
Cincinnati locks inside rear as they bounce into braking zone
Missouri S&T & Pomona gap still the same, both cars fast
SDMT stalls again, call the wrecker, yellow flag
Missouri S&T punts cone, soccer style, after driver change
Maryland changes drivers
Maryland & Missouri S&T are the only cars on track, rest are changing drivers
For some reason, Missouri wasn't flagged in for a driver change until after 12 laps, only leaving 8 laps for the second driver
Kansas State enters track, promptly spins and kills cone
UW back out w/ 2nd driver
K State not as quick as first group
CPP back out w/ 2nd driver
Cincinnati has lots of chatter under braking
UW passes K State
MST "extra"� header wrap is now gone
Cincinnati catches K State, passes them
UW stalls, Maryland does evasive maneuver to overtake
Yellow flag, UW car dead next to track
CPP catches K State, passes
K State hits cone
Oklahoma gives you a car on track
CPP finishes enduro, as does Missouri University of Scientology
Michigan State on track
Vultures circling, UW carcass pulled off track by The Grice Reaper
Oklahoma gives you a vibrating front wing
Clemson on track
Mich State makes a wish to pass Clemson, wish granted
K State 2nd driver on track
Western Washington U on track
Clemson passes Mich State
Oregon State on track, providing music to the ears via crisp downshifts
It is rumored that Oregon State has driver downshift training program
K State owns cone, 2 second penalty p3ns K State
Vehicle Research Institue at the Western Washington University gains on Clemson
Mich State backfires
Oklahoma gives you a driver change
Western Wash powerslides a corner
Mich State off pace a little
WWU in for driver change
CSUN on track with ringer
Oregon State stalled on track
Mich State appears to be stuck in one gear
Call the coroner, Oregon state is deceased
Mich State way off pace
WWU back out with 2nd driver
UT San Antonio on track
Clemson not shifting
CSUN's ringers pay for their rides
Oklahoma gives you an overtaking of Mich State (who is still stuck in one gear)
Oklahoma gives you an overtaking of UTSA
Oklahoma gives you a punted cone, and is caught by Mich State
Mich hits cone
Mich passes Oklahoma, with no shifter, showing that single speeds really are better
Oklahoma gives you a completed enduro
Toledo on track
Western Wash slows for yellow flag
Chalmers on track
WWU gaining on Toledo, catches, hits Toledo, passes. OWNED!
Rubbin' is Racin', don't stop in front of the passing zone
WWU catches UTSA, don't piss off these pacific northwest people
WWU finishes, after a time penalty/black flag for hitting Toledo
Cal Berkley on track
Chalmers lets Clemson by, without being flagged proving that rubbin' isn't racin' in Sweden
Toledo carries inside front around most corners
2nd CSUN ringer doesn't pay as much for his rides
Chalmers passes FEI
Cal stalls, restarts
Cal flies through kink sideways, clips grass & cone
Chalmers passes Cal
FEI engine sounds off
UTSA picks up the pace
Cal impressively fast through kink, may be the fastest car through that section
CSUN hits cone
Toledo carries inside front again
Chalmers off pace
U Delaware on track, sets mood by hitting a cone
Toledo getting sloppy
Cal goes in for driver change, DOA; later to find out a seat belt malfunction caused their DNF
Chalmers engine is missing (misfiring, not that they can't find it)
UTSA stopped on track
Toledo abusing their tires
UD hits cone
Montreal on track
UD spins, hits cone, into the fairway, almost gets stuck
U New Mexico on track
Aprilia engine lasts for two laps so far
Finish rate very high so far
Toledo passes UNM
Chalmers stopped for a second
UNM stalls
RPI on track
Dartmouth on track
Aprilia engine lasts for 6 laps so far
Chalmers passes UD
RPI driver not being smooth
Idaho on track
UT Austin on track
RPI has been meat balled, which is supposed to be as bad as tea bagged
RPI back out
Idaho hits cone
UD stalls, restarted
RPI passes Dartmouth
UD stalls again, makes happy dolphin noises
Manitoba on track
Aprilia not sounding so great anymore
The Grice Reaper shows up, scares UD back to life exuberantly, springs back to life screaming "Not my time!!"� with engine shaking furiously
UD's time may have come
Quote from The Grice Reaper: "I've been chasing that guy all over the course"�
The Grice Reaper calls in reinforcements
UD time of death: 11:05am PDT
RPI's intake is still punishing eardrums
Manitoba passes by Idaho
Idaho pulls a gap bigger than a truck of russet potatoes
RPI finishes
Idaho throwing the car 'round like a sack 'o taters
Idaho dragging cone
Manitoba quicker, lets off a little steam (literally)
Idaho passes UTSA
Manitoba lifts inside front, eh?
I think Montreal finished- the only team able to show up with an Aprilia engine finishes enduro
Manitoba fastest car on course, also only car on course
Manitoba finishes enduro cleanly, end of first endurance session

Body count from first session:
SDMT
UW
Oregon State
UTSA
Cal
UD

[Michael Palaszynski]

Hell in a Shell Baby!!!

[Downtownred]

Great commentary!!

[James Waltman]

Final Overall Results (Unofficial)

10. Kansas State
9. Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst
8. Cincinnati
7. Toledo
6. Western Washington
5. Cal Poly Pomona
4. Michigan State
3. Oklahoma
2. Missouri S&T
1. Maryland

[Steve O]

In the notes above you missed the most exciting part... people running away covering their ears when half of our muffler mount broke and the muffler blew out and was hanging from the back of the car by the other mount.

Worst part is we finally got out motor running this morning. We have had nothing but troubles with the california air all week. It was our time to show everyone that we weren't a joke and we blew it! Worst part is the courses this year were meant for our car, lots of slaloms and chicanes.

Thanks to all that helped out and good luck in your next years designs. See you out there!

Steve Osuch

Hartford Motorsports

[mtg]

I don't think you guys were in the first run group, I would have remembered that one for sure!

WWU hitting Toledo was pretty exciting, that's the first contact I've seen on track. It never posed any safety threat, but showed that the WWU team was hungry for high placing.

[Biggy72]

Well we sucked it up today.... First we had a turbo return line melt after the last autocross run. We didn't realize it until we were on grid and ready to go out. They let us fix it, but we were sent to the back. Dartmouth lent us a return hose which worked perfect. So we went to the back and we thought everything was fine. Two laps into the run while running a pretty conservative pace the car decided to quit running. After the car got back we found that one of the coils was off the plug, the coil then sort of exploded.

The rest of what happened is speculation, but I think this is what happened. The fuel kept getting kicked into the exhaust and after some pooled up it caught fire and spooled pretty hard. The wastegate didn't react fast enough and the intake was blown off. That's sort of speculation on why the intake got nocked off, but it was off.

I was pretty disappointed because we finally got the thing to quit smoking so bad and it should have ran pretty well. It wasn't doing too bad for a car that had been driven once and been on the dyno for only a couple hours before comp.

[Jerry Lee]

Matt, first off very good work on your team at FSAE west. We at SDSU are pretty happy about our results as well; someday we will be a contender too http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif Part of us can't believe we finished Enduro.. I think we were the only university without even their own enclosed trailer!

I'm hotlinking your picture to a local SCCA forums for appreciation purposes. Is that okay?

[Jerry Lee]

Also, thanks for letting us use your plasma cutter!

[mkosonen]

Jerry, no problem, hotlink all you want, I have tons of bandwidth.

Here are the pictures for Day 4, Endurance competition, and other random activiites. We had a great time visiting with everybody, I'm really glad I came down this year, and I hope to be back next year. Dartmouth, thanks a ton for letting our team use the oil drain tube, even though we didn't finish endurance...

http://www.mkosonen.com/fsaeday4

Good luck to all in the future!

Matt Kosonen

[fade]

Good job OU!!

[Steve O]

Biggy... I am assuming by that post you guys were the team that caught fire on the start line? If so, I've got some good pictures of your driver airborne in egress and your car getting extinguished.


Originally posted by mtg:
I don't think you guys were in the first run group, I would have remembered that one for sure!


Yeah, we were in the 2nd run group... our map sensor broke with an engine tuned by MAP; therefore, our car was running like crap all week until we finally got the car redialed in with TPS load. It was actually funny, to pass the brake test we pulled the connector off the map sensor so the engine thought it was at 1 atm aka full throttle fueling positions, so opening up the throttle would lean it out make it rev and cause the map to give it more fuel. It was just enough power to get some speed up and lock up all 4's on the first try. The noise test was conducted in the same way... the car revved beautifully and controlled without the map sensor providing we had no load on the wheels!

Anyway, on the morning of endurance we got that car running back to spec and we were really excited to turn some heads in endurance. Just before the endurance, some teammates decided to take the muffler off and it apparently did not get back tight enough because third lap in I came around a corner and heard the car get really loud and I knew exactly what happened. It was still hanging by the rubber hanger, but it was REALLY loud. I was pretty angry...not gonna lie.

The only thing that got me as angry just before, was the brake check I got by the red honda team when I pulled back on them just after they passed me... my tires we still cold but my car was much faster. He brake checked me and caused me to spin out in the corner on the backstretch after the slalom...my fault for getting to close with cold tires.

Anyway, bad luck for us this year, hopefully we'll be a better competitor next year. We are just happy to make it out there after not having a successful team for the past 3 years.

Just wanted to say thanks to Oregon for welding up our intake.

Steve

Hartford Motorsports

[Makofoto]

Lots of Photos!

<span class="ev_code_RED">PHOTOS (http://public.fotki.com/makofoto/2008---auto-cross/fsae-ca/) </span>

They are Low Rez files. Let me know if you want a cropped, enlarged, color corrected and sharpened file in order to have larger prints made.

makofoto at earthlink dot net


http://images38.fotki.com/v1213/photos/4/43793/6410824/Honk-vi.jpg

http://images39.fotki.com/v1236/photos/4/43793/6410824/UpVen-vi.jpg

http://images38.fotki.com/v1220/photos/4/43793/6410824/Goodyear-vi.jpg

http://images38.fotki.com/v1220/photos/4/43793/6410824/Dynoing-vi.jpg

[2BWise]

Originally posted by mtg:
I don't think you guys were in the first run group, I would have remembered that one for sure!

WWU hitting Toledo was pretty exciting, that's the first contact I've seen on track. It never posed any safety threat, but showed that the WWU team was hungry for high placing.

I don't want to make any judgements against Western Washington but according to the rule book contact is a DQ. What bothers me is that the organizers are penalizing teams for headrest infractions, but not penalizing WWU for contact with Toledo. I feel that this is a very unfair application of the rules. If you're going to enforce one rule, then all must be equally enforced.

5.7.15.4 Penalties for Moving Violations
The following are penalties and assessed times or disqualifications for moving
violations:
a. Failure to obey a flag: 1 minute
b. Over Driving (After a closed black flag): 1 Minute
c. Vehicle to Vehicle contact: DISQUALIFIED

[RiNaZ]

http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn63/NaZaeM/img_0643-vi.jpg

what's goin on here? are they doing some teleconferencing with royce?

*picture taken from http://public.fotki.com/makofoto/2008---auto-cross/fsae-ca/img0665.html

[B Lewis @ PE Engine Management]

Congrats to Cincinnati on continuing the string of top 10 finishes!

[2BWise]

Thanks Brian. We were happy that the car help up for another weekend and performed as well as it has. It has been exciting to be apart of the string of consecutive top 10s.

[AeroGT3]

That is a SICK picture of the Cal Poly car on the dyno. Do you have high res?

Cheers!

[Rachel]

Oklahoma University DID NOT have a sticker on their car that read, "It's all about Pablo and Rachel."

Fail.

[Biggy72]

Steve,

We didn't catch on fire. We just suddenly stopped a couple laps in and the car wouldn't refire. I don't know which school caught fire, but I did see the cloud of fire extinguishing chemicals.

[Kyle Walther]

OHH bobby how could you forget.. shame on you.

congrats though on the 3rd place. Good job guys!

also congrats to Missouri S&T on a string of great finishes

2nd and 3rd at west.. surrender the booty!

[B Hise]

GO TERPS!!!!

"you'll never win without swaybars..."

Fail

[Pennyman]

Congrats to all the winners, especially Maryland with such a simple vehicle. Me and the others from San Jose State learned a lot just by visiting this years comp even without a car this year. We'll be back next year with our first.

We a had a ton of fun taking in everything from watching tech to listening to Claude's jokes (oh, and design feedback too!). I bet he thinks I'm a stalker now because I just kept hovering around him with a notepad.

Hope everyone travels safely!

[RiNaZ]

any audio/video of the design feedback or design finals?

[michaelwaltrip]

http://photos-d.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v256/9/8/121201902/s121201902_30791483_5570.jpg
I can't believe it didn't sell....

http://photos-b.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v256/9/8/121201902/n121201902_30791497_529.jpg

http://photos-d.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v256/9/8/121201902/n121201902_30791475_2905.jpg
I didn't see the contact between WWU and Toledo, so I can't comment on that, but there is the "Intent of the rule" that was probably invoked in the decision to allow WWU to finish endurance with only a black flag penalty.

http://photos-c.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v256/9/8/121201902/n121201902_30791490_8007.jpg

http://photos-f.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v256/9/8/121201902/n121201902_30791453_6106.jpg
Best pushbar at west?


The only part of the competition I'm still confused about is how Cal Poly won endurance by that much. Not taking anything away from them, they were running fast, but not 30 seconds of raw time faster than everyone else.... I don't recall ever seeing them pass anyone. I might have missed it though.

Originally posted by mtg:
CSUN on track with ringer
CSUN's ringers pay for their rides

2nd CSUN ringer doesn't pay as much for his rides
UD

What is a ringer?

[J. Vinella]

Originally posted by RiNaZ:
any audio/video of the design feedback or design finals?

This is the gist of what I got from the design finals review,

The level of the top teams has come down (not many at this comp) and the level of the startup teams has improved. They liked Westerns eccentrics over UW ( http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif/ http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif) )

Legacy cars are only as good as the current knowledge on the team.

2 of the teams had one person that knew everything and everyone else was...for lack of a better word, average.

The part that stuck out in my mind was:

Each car had a great suspension, BUT the engineers are not great design engineers, rather they are great race engineers. Which I would have to agree, for UW this is true. Myself and Ryan put getting the car done early and doing ~1200 miles of testing over things like optimizing the drag force from the unladen front tire. However being the "design" event not the best stuff. The race engineer is for the dynamic events.

The one thing I will take away from this comp is, I wish there was a fast lap award and most passes award for endurance.

[michaelwaltrip]

Originally posted by J. Vinella:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by RiNaZ:
any audio/video of the design feedback or design finals?

This is the gist of what I got from the design finals review,

The level of the top teams has come down (not many at this comp) and the level of the startup teams has improved. They liked Westerns eccentrics over UW ( http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif/ http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif) )

Legacy cars are only as good as the current knowledge on the team.

2 of the teams had one person that knew everything and everyone else was...for lack of a better word, average.

The part that stuck out in my mind was:

Each car had a great suspension, BUT the engineers are not great design engineers, rather they are great race engineers. Which I would have to agree, for UW this is true. Myself and Ryan put getting the car done early and doing ~1200 miles of testing over things like optimizing the drag force from the unladen front tire. However being the "design" event not the best stuff. The race engineer is for the dynamic events.

The one thing I will take away from this comp is, I wish there was a fast lap award and most passes award for endurance. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yep, I agree with you, the design final review was kinda sub-par. and i really disagree with WWU's car looking the best of all 3. Sorry WWU, it's a good looking car and fast, but michigan state's car just looked awesome.

and isn't the fast-lap award called autocross? http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[jason08]

Originally posted by Steve O:
Biggy... I am assuming by that post you guys were the team that caught fire on the start line? If so, I've got some good pictures of your driver airborne in egress and your car getting extinguished.

Steve, can you post those pics please? I'm curious which team that was.

[Makofoto]

Some shots of that fire incident here:

http://forums.solo2.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=264&sid=33f...ff29ff3903ae19033ba8 (http://forums.solo2.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=264&sid=33f12f82df59ff29ff3903ae19033ba8)

... and here:

http://public.fotki.com/makofoto/2008---auto-cross/fsae-ca/page7.html

http://images39.fotki.com/v1232/photos/4/43793/6410824/img_1113-vi.jpg

[Charlie]

Originally posted by michaelwaltrip:

Yep, I agree with you, the design final review was kinda sub-par.

I didn't see anything in your quoted post about it being sub-par.

What did you not like about the design review and how can it, in your opinion, be improved in the future?

[Mike Cook]

Just got back home. West was awesome and I really had a lot of fun, the racing was really close. The track was quite a bit faster than last year, similar to the speeds we saw at VIR. I really enjoy the faster tracks and I think it favors winged cars(which I think is a good development for sae!).

Anyways, hope to see a bunch of you guys at nationals this year.

Mike
University of Maryland

[R/TErnie]

I'm very proud of what we've accomplished this year. We've met and exceeded our goals for 2008, finish endurance and place in the top 10. The incident with Toledo was unfortunate, but as I always say...that's racing. I'd like to say thank you to the Officials, Volunteers, and Judges for thier time, intellect, and effort this past week. It was an experience I will never forget. Shout out to UW and OSU... keep in touch and we'll go to some SCCA autox's this summer.

Western Washington University
Eric Urness - Engine

[Pepsi24chevy]

Good Job Terps Racing!

[1975BMW2002]

Go TERPS! Congratulations. From 99th to first in four years. Not too shabby. Keep it up and be the next powerhouse.

[Wesley]

A great job to all teams!

It was good to have a strong showing from the Midwest Pirates, University of Kansas, you were missed!

And excellent job to my team, it was a privilege working with you all. It's good to be Big 12 Champions at something now.

Everyone better kick ass in '09!

[bob.paasch]

Originally posted by 2BWise:

I don't want to make any judgements against Western Washington but according to the rule book contact is a DQ. What bothers me is that the organizers are penalizing teams for headrest infractions, but not penalizing WWU for contact with Toledo. I feel that this is a very unfair application of the rules. If you're going to enforce one rule, then all must be equally enforced.

5.7.15.4 Penalties for Moving Violations
The following are penalties and assessed times or disqualifications for moving
violations:
a. Failure to obey a flag: 1 minute
b. Over Driving (After a closed black flag): 1 Minute
c. Vehicle to Vehicle contact: DISQUALIFIED

Some things are not black and white, and application of penalties must be tempered by judgement.

SAE convened a panel of experienced and impartial (our teams didn't finish endurance) faculty advisors and officials to hear this case. We reviewed the report from the track officials and took testimony from and questioned the WWU driver.

The track officials reported the Toledo driver was given a blue flag on the previous passing zone, which he ignored. He was given a blue flag on this passing zone as well, and from his line and acceleration it appeared he was not going to pull over into the passing lane. The WWU driver accelerated to keep up. Apparently then seeing the flag, the Toledo driver braked hard to pull into the passing lane, and was hit from behind by WWU.

The panel felt a DQ was inappropriately harsh for this case. While the WWU driver admitted that he should have allowed more room, the panel felt the Toledo driver was also at fault. Neither car was damaged to the point of not being able to continue, and both cars finished endurance. WWU was given a black flag on their last lap, which cost them about 2 minutes in endurance. Toledo was given a one minute penalty for failing to obey the blue flag. The panel felt these penalties were adequate for the situation. The WWU penalty probably cost them a top 3 finish.

SAE seemed pleased with both the decision and the process. Given this incident, and the aero DQ in Detroit, I think we may see some new wording in next year's rules regarding how DQs are handled.

[Downtownred]

i was hoping someone would clear that up!!

[mtg]

Yeah, it would be nice to see some better consistency on DQ's. I wasn't in Detroit, but it sounds like they were pretty harsh on DQ's there, whereas the California incidents were much more reasonable rulings.

I saw the WWU and Toledo incident first-hand from not far away, and it would have been unfortunate to see somebody get DQ'd over that.

With the time and effort put into showing up to an FSAE competition, applying a DQ should not be taken lightly.

[BrettHutchens]

Great competition everyone!

Go Midwest Pirates!

[jose angel lopez]

hey guys!!! first of all...congratulations!!!!! now...do you guys have the full overall results? i only see for the top ten...

Can any please....publish the full results?

Thanks!!

[Scott Przybylski]

Man, that was the craziest week ever for us. I can't believe we made it through the enduro. Huge thanks to the University of Texas - Austin guys, you really saved us with all your help. Also, thanks to everyone else that helped us out up in Fontana.

Man, we were so excited to finish and then winning the 2nd place for rookie team really topped it off. What an awesome week, hopefully we'll be back next year better prepared.

Our static events were lacking a bit, but thanks to one of the design judges our car has a new nickname.

http://sae.exploding-banana.com/The_Hodgepodge.jpg

[2BWise]

Originally posted by rp:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by 2BWise:

I don't want to make any judgements against Western Washington but according to the rule book contact is a DQ. What bothers me is that the organizers are penalizing teams for headrest infractions, but not penalizing WWU for contact with Toledo. I feel that this is a very unfair application of the rules. If you're going to enforce one rule, then all must be equally enforced.

5.7.15.4 Penalties for Moving Violations
The following are penalties and assessed times or disqualifications for moving
violations:
a. Failure to obey a flag: 1 minute
b. Over Driving (After a closed black flag): 1 Minute
c. Vehicle to Vehicle contact: DISQUALIFIED

Some things are not black and white, and application of penalties must be tempered by judgement.

SAE convened a panel of experienced and impartial (our teams didn't finish endurance) faculty advisors and officials to hear this case. We reviewed the report from the track officials and took testimony from and questioned the WWU driver.

The track officials reported the Toledo driver was given a blue flag on the previous passing zone, which he ignored. He was given a blue flag on this passing zone as well, and from his line and acceleration it appeared he was not going to pull over into the passing lane. The WWU driver accelerated to keep up. Apparently then seeing the flag, the Toledo driver braked hard to pull into the passing lane, and was hit from behind by WWU.

The panel felt a DQ was inappropriately harsh for this case. While the WWU driver admitted that he should have allowed more room, the panel felt the Toledo driver was also at fault. Neither car was damaged to the point of not being able to continue, and both cars finished endurance. WWU was given a black flag on their last lap, which cost them about 2 minutes in endurance. Toledo was given a one minute penalty for failing to obey the blue flag. The panel felt these penalties were adequate for the situation. The WWU penalty probably cost them a top 3 finish.

SAE seemed pleased with both the decision and the process. Given this incident, and the aero DQ in Detroit, I think we may see some new wording in next year's rules regarding how DQs are handled. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I appreciate the clarification as this information paints a clearer picture of the situation.

Was the Toledo driver questioned as well. We're pretty close with Toledo due to testing together and I spoke with him afterwards. He had said that this was his first lap after the driver change and missed the first passing zone due to cold tires and was ready to pull over in the second zone. I have passed and been passed multiple times in Enduro over the years and have always given more than adequate room in case of incident in front of me leaving room to react. It appears the WWU driver understands he mistakenly was too close and I don't fault his error in judgement. Let me acknowledge now that I have no issue with WWU not being DQ'd and have nothing against WWU, but want to use this as an example.

My biggest issue is the comparison of this penalty with the penalties taken other penalties, particullarly the headrest rules. If I'm not mistaken there was roughly ten teams that got the "meatball" for a headrest in fraction. Now, WWU got what appears to be a 1 min for wreckest driving, correct? We took a 2 min 30 sec penalty for a headrest infraction. Now please compare the severity of the two penalties. There are minimal chances for contact inwhich the headrest will be of needed or of any use, so why do we have to incur 2 min 30 sec penalty for it? The car went thru tech in VIR, MIS, and ACS with no issue. Was driven in VIR and MIS and ACS autox with no warning of an issue. The rule makers were trying to make a point about the headrest and succeeded and ruining several teams endurance. WWU was within .5" of ruining Toledo's race by taking out the aarms and is penalized 1 min, while teams not meeting the headrest rule on a visual ruling were penalized at least a minute or more. This is not fair and should be dealt with better in the future.

[Scott Przybylski]

Yeah, we got meatballed twice for the headrest. I'm sure we spent over 5 minutes trying to fix it. For some reason it was good enough for autocross, but not the enduro.

Scott

[Dan G]

Is the issue with the headrest that the driver's head is too far from the headrest, or that its breaking into the limits of the plane between the roll hoops? I saw a bunch of cars with impromptu duct taped headrest enhancements, but I thought the real problem was drivers sitting up with their head poking through the rollover plane.

I have a feeling the rules committee will have to further clarify driver/helmet placement in the future. Seems a car can get through tech with the driver laying way back, then they hit a dynamic event and they're leaning upright so they can actually see where they're going, clearly not passing the broomstick across the roll hoops test.

[Scott Przybylski]

Yeah, we actually used a go-kart style neck restraint while driving in the dynamic events which was keeping our heads upright and too far away from the headrest. This was also causing us to break the rollover plane.

The real solution would've been to remove the neck restraint rather than duct taping anything I could find to the headrest.


Scott

[The Bunker]

2BWise,

As the driver for Toledo of the incident, I have to tend to agree with you. Don't get me wrong as I have no hard feelings towards WWU as I know they didn't do anything on purpose and they probably got more of the damage in the long run. And I apologize to them about not being able to turn into that first pass zone. By the time I saw the flag I was indeed sliding the front tires past that turn in. We were very very lucky we didn't get taken out on the first lap of enduro as the hit was thousands of an inch from taking out our a-arms.

Now I see the intention of the rule for the head rest is safety, but the times some of these teams were kept for a visual inspection was pretty harsh in regards to that of other infractions. I watched some of the cars later in the day that were far worse in terms or distance on the head rest and were not even questioned??? So why dock the teams that were doing well and deserved a fair chance at a decent finish? A lot of time, hard work, and money was spent to get to these events and can easy be ruined by a bad call. I think there definitely needs to be some more consistency in the endurance events.

On a side note, I am pretty disappointed that some one or team decided to steal all our driving stuff and Laptop with data on it while we were at the awards ceremony. For anyone that was back there and may have saw something, our stuff was in a small pile by paddock 37 if I recall correctly. Any info would be greatly appreciated and could even throw in some type of reward. Or if the person is man enough to grow up and admit to it that would be nice. I know it was not accidentally picked up as some other stuff was gone through and not taken due to low value items such as dirty clothes. Just think it's pretty ridiculous when you can't trust your stuff at comp!!!

[Biggy72]

Our headrest was placed in a pretty comfortable position. If anything maybe a little far forward for my liking, but before the endurance they told us to push it out farther, so we taped a shirt onto the head rest. They told us that would work. I'm really not sure how they think that would help anything, but had we made it all the way through the endurance I sure didn't want to get pulled in because of it. So we were thinking maybe we should come up with some sort of hans type device to make it so your head can't move. I mean if that's what they want it would be worth looking into.

[rjwoods77]

I find it funny with all of this "shellshock" about headpad rules and such. Teams have been sneaking by for years with unnatural/unrealistic seating positions because they wanted to design the lightest/tightest cockpit for their 5'10" 160lbs drivers and not designing the cars to fit the 6'3" 230lbs 95th percentile man they are supposed to fit. How many years have people gotten sores from driving their cars and having the rack and pinion rub against their ankles and laughed about it? That is so unsafe to do not in the sense of the rack busting loose but if you bust a tie rod and goes through your ankle. Not really seen in formula but I have seen catastrophic accidents in mini-baja that if they did this people would be walking funny. The cars are supposed to be designed to fit the people we are selling them to. Compromises that some team continue to not want to do have to be made to make this possible. The judges have done nothing but warn teams for the past 4 years about their displeasure with this situation and have been warning to buckle down with templates/rules/crackdowns. Well I think this year with all the DQ's is pretty much the final straw on their part and unfortunately that is what it takes to get most teams to listen. The reason for the new "bus" rules are because the judges are sick of us dicking them around. These rules more or less make a car the size necessary to fit large people, with room to spare, to make sure that we do what we are supposed to. If you made it through tech and got pulled for leaning way they hell out of where you are not suppose to be then you either "cheated" to get through tech or there is some crazy conspiracy of dumb safety judges. I tend to look toward the former. It seems that the driver tends to be the last thing instead of the first thing the car is designed around. Maybe that will change. I am not saying there aren't mistakes that happen but with the stakes this big why in the world would you take the chance.

[2BWise]

There shouldn't have to be shellshock. Last year the judges warned about the 1" rule and first thing at MIS they were checking cars before they reached the line. This didn't happen at Cali. I sat in the car several minutes and queued for autocross on Friday, passing several judges in the process, head in the same position as it always is, yet on Sat. we get nailed. Nothing was even said in the Enduro drivers meeting. There is no issue if its consistent, but the insistency to penalize teams only during Endurance is harsh and unfair.

[race2win]

maybe we should come up with some sort of hans type device to make it so your head can't move. I mean if that's what they want it would be worth looking into

The HANS Device does not limit a driver's head from moving under normal driving conditions. This would be unsafe for any driver. The device only prevents the driver's head from traveling too far from a driver's neck when involved in a colision.

I have worn the HANS in multiple types of racecars with seat angles ranging from 20 degrees plus to zero degrees. I must say the HANS has saved my neck several times. Also, being a shorter/smaller driver it helps put the shoulder belts at a more reasonable angle.

Just remember several years of etensive research, testing, and money were involved in designing the HANS and similar devices. Maybe a better solution would be looking into making cockpits more compatible with these devices.

[Gasperini]

Design feedback is up on youtube:

part 1 to come.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI5XwH2osDk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9-wDVaiES8


Originally posted by michaelwaltrip:
The only part of the competition I'm still confused about is how Cal Poly won endurance by that much. Not taking anything away from them, they were running fast, but not 30 seconds of raw time faster than everyone else.... I don't recall ever seeing them pass anyone. I might have missed it though.

We were running on 3 cylinders during the autocross and accel events, and that's why the endurance went a lot better. I think we passed three cars, but I'm not sure.

[Rachel]

Being in California, I'm lucky enough to see Pomona practice every year before comp. This year they were FAST. No doubt that they have made a great improvement this year.

[scottie]

As someone who's been around for going on four years, I think it was a definite mistake on the course workers' part to send Toledo when they did. Having been someone who also talked to both drivers and teams it was just a crappy situation. Toledo was out on cold tires, cold brakes and first lap for that driver. He went in a little hot and couldn't turn in. That situation has happened to every driver just in different circumstances. By nature the person following has the responsibility to watch for what is happening. Its clear there were mistakes on both peoples parts and ultimately if Toledo's A-arms were taken out WWU should have been DQ'ed. During comp I thought they should have been DQ'ed right there on the spot. But being that SAE convened a panel to vote on it then that was the right decision. Just like F1 with Ferrari/Mclaren it's the right decision and I don't think any teams knew about the panel at competition.

As far as the consistency of DQ's and the enforcement of rules period, over the last few years I feel like there has been serious lack there of. I can understand to a certain extent with the number of volunteers that help run the events. However things like scrutineering, points delegation and penalties should be of the utmost importance when it comes to consistency. Asking a team to cut out chassis bars and weld in new ones after passing structural equivalency is one of the most severe cases I have heard of but there are a lot of different occurrences of students having to completely refab some part of their car that passes at Michigan but fails at California.

Disqualifying some teams but not others for the headrest issue was seriously inconsistent this year just as ride height was last year. When teams are working for a full year let alone those teams who run two year programs, there's nothing more frustrating then getting penalized for something that another team doesn't. Not only are you taken out of the running for a top finish but then there's the realization that some teams got away with it. Texas A&M last year lifting two tires. Okay, it's up to the steward's discretion of how severe it is but things like that are what make me upset.

Then theres the points delegation. This year design judges, dont know if it was head design judge's decision, kind of doubt it, decided that the top teams were not "up to par" so they did not award the full amount of points for design. If it does say somewhere in the rules that they can delegate as many points as they feel to the winner than someone please post a quote. In this year's case those ten points would have made a huge difference considering the top four teams were within 20points of each other. That would be like saying that because the total elapsed time of the top cars at endurance was a lot slower than the previous years' cars everyone gets 20 points less. Obviously it isnt the same thing but its the same principles.

Sometimes i feel like they forget how much time and effort goes into these cars. To be disqualified for something or losing points can be devastating. MIS is a great example of how other teams as well as myself feel. The banking destroyed most teams' cars. One team cracked their chassis, another buckled a pushrod and tons of other teams destroyed their cars at comp. To my knowledge it says nothing in the rules about having to be ready for a transition onto a 18degree banking. I understand that our cars should be able to handle certain courses but we are just starting to get to that point with comp where they are throwing elevation changes and what not at us. When it takes this long to design and fab a car i think SAE needs to spend some more time assesing track layout and other issues that could potentially knock out a team.

I would like to add though that I am more than grateful for the opportunity to participate in something this great throughout the entirety of my collegiate career. I cannot thank SAE enough for all of the opportunities that this has afforded me. This is a great program and it truly benefits us students a lot more than most realize. Just a tired (physically and mentally after last week) student's constructive criticism.

[rkellz007]

Originally posted by The Bunker:
2BWise,

On a side note, I am pretty disappointed that some one or team decided to steal all our driving stuff and Laptop with data on it while we were at the awards ceremony. For anyone that was back there and may have saw something, our stuff was in a small pile by paddock 37 if I recall correctly. Any info would be greatly appreciated and could even throw in some type of reward. Or if the person is man enough to grow up and admit to it that would be nice. I know it was not accidentally picked up as some other stuff was gone through and not taken due to low value items such as dirty clothes. Just think it's pretty ridiculous when you can't trust your stuff at comp!!!

Losing your stuff was definitely a bummer, I felt bad for your team when I heard what happened. I had a strange incident while setting up for design finals (I am with UW) which may, I hope, help explain the situation.

We rolled the car into the bay and brought in our design boards. Most spectators were very courteous about staying out of the bay and/or evacuating when asked. However, there was one gentleman in his mid-twenties, who did not respond positively when I asked him to step away from the car so that we could set up. He acknowledged my request with a "yeah, okay" but kept moving in closer. Suddenly I found myself chest to chest with the fellow at the back of our car. He looked up at me and asked if I were looking for a fight. VERY STRANGE. After explaining that we needed room to work and that we would be docked if there were excess people in our bay he reluctantly moved outside but continued to crowd our bay.

His response pulled me out of "get setup for design" mode and into "what the h-e-double-hockey-sticks is going on here" mode. It was then that I noticed a few more peculiar things. The guy was ripped. No shirt, shorts, and flip-flops. Clearly not dressed like a competitor. No wrist band. He was there with a few other guys with a similar demeanor.

For a moment after I put all the pieces together I was a little afraid for my safety.

I moved onto another tack with the guy. "where are you from (as in which school)," I asked. "Around someplace" was his response. "wow, that car looks really fast!" he said. I continued to chat for a moment. Nothing very sophisticated from him.

Site control for these events is pretty open. I think its fair to believe that everyone on all of the teams is there to compete, has good intentions, and can be trusted in a pit environment where people leave their equipment unattended. That said, there is nothing to keep local crim's away or to ID and remove if they show. I would worry that a small group, having had good luck pilfering this year, may be back in greater numbers with more organization next year.

Aside from that, comp was great fun!

Western v Toledo: bummer any way you slice it.
Headrests: We were almost caught by this (fortunately we were saved by our car stopping on track), I would have accepted the penalty. We all have fair warning and plenty of time before comp to address. No excuses.
Derek at WSU: Bummer about the running problems. You guys have done a lot with a little over the last couple of years: impressive
WWU: you guys keep making life tougher in the NW. Really enjoyed testing together this year!

ryan

http://home.comcast.net/~jackbloomberg/site/?/page/WPOAA295XKN150876 (http://home.comcast.net/%7Ejackbloomberg/site/?/page/WPOAA295XKN150876)

[Charlie]

Originally posted by scottie:
Then theres the points delegation. This year design judges, dont know if it was head design judge's decision, kind of doubt it, decided that the top teams were not "up to par" so they did not award the full amount of points for design. If it does say somewhere in the rules that they can delegate as many points as they feel to the winner than someone please post a quote. In this year's case those ten points would have made a huge difference considering the top four teams were within 20points of each other. That would be like saying that because the total elapsed time of the top cars at endurance was a lot slower than the previous years' cars everyone gets 20 points less. Obviously it isnt the same thing but its the same principles.


4.5.11 Scoring
Scoring will be from 0 to 150 pts. at the judges discretion.

The judges felt that all cars were lacking, on all three cars, the judges found things they felt should not be present on a winning car, it was a unanimous decision to not award full points.

Dynamic event points are spelled out in the rules that the fastest car gets full points, the remainder of the cars points are calculated from that. Static events do not have this limitation (Cost does not award full points if I recall correctly).

Cars should be ranked relatively. The judges decide that ranking. The cars in finals were not far enough ahead of the rest of the field to justify a 30 point spread.

[chuckBYU]

Does anyone have the full results sheets? Thanks.

[Nihal]

Anyone have pictures up? James? Dan? I didn't really get to see many of the other cars on track that week.

[wingman]

How about feedback on

the new dynamic area layout?

autocross course?

endurance course?

Anyone have and willing to share in car data from either event? average speed, top speed lap times etc....

[Nihal]

Ian, my ex-team really enjoyed that sound, brake, and the test area were much closer this year. The tech day is the most hectic of all. The car has to be at 4 places in one day and that is alot of pushing. It also helps alot of the teams that are behind schedule.
They hated the enduro and auto-x because they were banking on a tight narrow course like the other years (small 38hp single cylinders don't like big open straights).
The only data I saw was the throttle histogram, which was about 65% full throttle for the auto-x.

[Gino]

The one thing that stood out to me was the tech process. Having a tech reservation ticket, in my opinion, gets rid of headaches on both sides. Instead of standing in line for the entire day, teams were able to tech themselves over and over again so when its time to officially tech there were less red flags to throw by the officials.

Great idea, hope to see it again in future comps

[Mike Cook]

Originally posted by wingman:
How about feedback on

the new dynamic area layout?

autocross course?

endurance course?

Anyone have and willing to share in car data from either event? average speed, top speed lap times etc....


One thing different this year was how the endurance course was basically the autocross course backwards with a few modifications. I think this is really a great idea for a few reasons. First, its a lot less work for the competition staff (only really having to design and set up one course). Its also really nice for the competitors, becacuse you get a chance to see and run on the course before the endurance and possibly make modifications to the car.

VIR was very similar this year (except the autocross and endurance were the same track in the same direction).

Both VIR and West this year had the best SAE tracks I've ever driven. This is mostly because they were slightly faster and had a much better rhythem to them. I like the faster tracks because I think it gives an advantage to the cars with more power and aero and this is how it would be if we were at a scca event.

As far as speeds go, I think that we hit about 67-68mph on the autocross and endurance tracks. Last year the I never got faster than about 35-40 in the autocross (never left first gear).


Overall I was very impressed with the whole organization of the west event.

[Makofoto]

If you missed the earlier post ... lots of photos here (courtesy of the California Sports Car Club ... who helped by providing volunteers):

http://public.fotki.com/makofoto/2008---auto-cross/fsae-ca/

http://images38.fotki.com/v1220/photos/4/43793/6410824/3X-vi.jpg

[mtg]

Originally posted by Gino:
The one thing that stood out to me was the tech process.

That's obviously because Waltman and I are pretty much the best tech inspectors ever. j/k

I was definitely a fan of the "take a number" process, it was easy for us as inspectors, and then the teams don't have to stand in a line baking yourselves when you could be starting on your cost report that you forgot to turn in.

[MH]

Some more pictures here (http://picasaweb.google.com/miki.hegedus/FSAEWest2008) .

Mainly action photos and mostly just from the inside of the track. The lady in charge of dynamics almost got a nervous breakdown when we tried to move around from barrier to barrier and she started to freak out.

Anyway I have full res pictures for those interested.

Cheers,
Miki Hegedus
Delft University

[MH]

Also have to say that there were quite a few cars lifting wheels. Seems to me the setup of the car is not what it should be. Also saw a couple of guys driving with their visors open!!!

The following is just sad...

Pic1 (http://picasaweb.google.com/miki.hegedus/FSAEWest2008/photo#5218505845669618866)
Pic2 (http://picasaweb.google.com/miki.hegedus/FSAEWest2008/photo#5218505846944089298)
Pic3 (http://picasaweb.google.com/miki.hegedus/FSAEWest2008/photo#5218505858120896034)
Pic4 (http://picasaweb.google.com/miki.hegedus/FSAEWest2008/photo#5218505860805914850)

[Beaudry]

Since the University of Alberta made it through endurance this year, our trailer decided not to. We lost a wheel in vegas due to a spun bearing. Now our trailer gets a nice two month vacation down there while a broken axle gets fixed.

Marcus Beaudry
Univ. of Alberta FSAE

http://www.ualberta.ca/~mbeaudry/DSC_0019compressed.JPG

[Corey H]

Originally posted by michaelwaltrip:
http://photos-d.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v256/9/8/121201902/s121201902_30791483_5570.jpg
I can't believe it didn't sell....



It is all for sale now, major discounted price just for you!

Seriously let me know if you guys need anything from the bike. There are still a lot of good parts on it!

Someone wanted the swingarm??

[James Waltman]

Alright, I got most of my pictures up.
You can find the Autocross gallery Here (http://www.wwufsae.com/Waltman/Pictures/Hosted/Competition/2008_FSAE_West/Autocross/Autocross_Web_Gallery/) .
(800pixels doesn't do them justice.)
You can also download all of the pictures at once in this zip file (http://www.wwufsae.com/Waltman/Pictures/Hosted/Competition/2008_FSAE_West/Autocross/Autocross_zip.zip).
They're a little larger – email me if you want any full resolution versions.

Same deal for Endurance
Gallery (http://www.wwufsae.com/Waltman/Pictures/Hosted/Competition/2008_FSAE_West/Endurance/Endurance_Web_Gallery/)
Zip file (http://www.wwufsae.com/Waltman/Pictures/Hosted/Competition/2008_FSAE_West/Endurance/Endurance_zip.zip)

[James Waltman]

Originally posted by RiNaZ:
http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn63/NaZaeM/img_0643-vi.jpg

what's goin on here? are they doing some teleconferencing with royce?

*picture taken from http://public.fotki.com/makofoto/2008---auto-cross/fsae-ca/img0665.html

That's the Safety Video you must watch before you can get a Media Pass.


Originally posted by Makofoto:
Some shots of that fire incident here:
http://public.fotki.com/makofoto/2008---auto-cross/fsae-ca/page7.html

Word is, the fire was very small but the extinguisher would not shut off until the whole thing was empty.



Congratulations to my boys at WWU:
http://www.wwufsae.com/Waltman/Pictures/Hosted/Competition/2008_FSAE_West/Endurance/Endurance_Web_Gallery/images/IMG_3345_resized.jpg

Who else has a picture of this:
http://www.wwufsae.com/Waltman/Pictures/Hosted/Competition/2008_FSAE_West/Autocross/Autocross_Web_Gallery/images/IMG_2934_resized.jpg
I can see that at least two people on the left side of my frame may have caught it. The girl with the 1d (http://lh5.ggpht.com/miki.hegedus/SGvalXugC_I/AAAAAAAACDo/5DQBuRXniaE/DSC00673.jpg?imgmax=912) should have nailed it.

[rkellz007]

Interesting choice of roll centers.

[rjwoods77]

I keep seeing all these action shots but none with Cal Poly SLO in them. Did they make it to dynamic events?

[Savington]

We found a leak in our fuel tank after our dyno session on Saturday morning and elected to not attempt a field fix for safety reasons.

[rjwoods77]

Thats a shame. I was hoping to see another solid axle car finish this year. What did your weight come in at? How effective was your aero in testing? Very interested in your car. Do tell. By the way it looked real sick this year.

[Brian S]

Results have been posted: http://www.sae.org/images/cds/215115731_FSAE_2008_West_results.pdf

[Steve O]

Originally posted by MH:
Also have to say that there were quite a few cars lifting wheels. Seems to me the setup of the car is not what it should be. Also saw a couple of guys driving with their visors open!!!


We had an issue with our rear port wheel. It lifted very far off the ground when our front shock blew out. Needless to say the situation was identified and fixed very quickly with extremely stiff springs being placed in front to compensate for the blown out shocks. Turned out the car absolutely loved the new setup; however, it caused the car to behave a little differently than normal in endurance and it cost us a spinout in endurance before loosing our muffler. That muffler still makes me angry... what a stupid reason to DNF from endurance especially after we finally got our car running when we fixed our broken map sensor. We were hoping to do so uncharacteristically well based on the rest of the week that they would re-tech our car after endurance.

Oh well, always next year. I am still happy for our team making it out there for the first time in 4 years and making it to every event.

As far as the comments with how stuff was run, I agree that the tech inspection number thing was great, but they should have had tech open longer on the first day. Do to fixing some things that got broken in shipping when someone fell through our crate (there were footprints leading up to a hole in the back of our crate) we didn't pull a number until later in the first day. Consequently we waited in line for our FIRST tech until almost 3pm on the second day. Thank
God we only had minor issues that could be fixed quickly as this was a major set back already. Due to this delay we had to do tilt,brake,sound (109.6 with a straight through muffler),accel,skidpad between 8am-11am Friday. Don't ask me how but we passed everything and got to both events just in time.



Steve

U of Hartford

[Pennyman]

Here's a few pics I took. Lot's of closeups of suspension systems. Guess what I'm in charge of on my team?


Joey's Pics pt1 (http://picasaweb.google.com/SJSUFormulaSAE/2008FSAEWEST)

[Marshall Grice]

Originally posted by Steve O:
That muffler still makes me angry... what a stupid reason to DNF from endurance especially after we finally got our car running when we fixed our broken map sensor.
U of Hartford

I don't remember who it was, but at least you didn't fail endurance due to your brake over travel switch triggering on your first lap.

[Didier Beaudoin]

For those of you who wondered about the strange sound of our Aprilia during endurance, we found out after the race that we had accidentaly hit the fuel starting compensation during the race and the mixture was therefore 50% too rich.

As a result, we used 0,021 gallons too much, and got the fuel penalty. We would have finished 8th in endurance and 10th overall otherwise.

Murphy doesn't want to give us a break.

ps: isn't there some sort of tolerance on fuel used during the endurance economy event?

[Wes H]

Who else has a picture of this:
http://www.wwufsae.com/Waltman/Pictures/Hosted/Competition/2008_FSAE_West/Autocross/Autocross_Web_Gallery/images/IMG_2934_resized.jpg
I can see that at least two people on the left side of my frame may have caught it. The girl with the 1d (http://lh5.ggpht.com/miki.hegedus/SGvalXugC_I/AAAAAAAACDo/5DQBuRXniaE/DSC00673.jpg?imgmax=912) should have nailed it.

I would love to see more pics of this. All of us at Brooklyn Poly had a great time and were honored to take rookie of the year especially in such a strong field. We cant wait to come back again next year and compete again. Congratz to all the winners.

Wes

[Steve O]

Originally posted by Marshall Grice:
I don't remember who it was, but at least you didn't fail endurance due to your brake over travel switch triggering on your first lap.

Yeah, I guess that is a good point... I made sure ours was adjusted properly before we went out. Either way, if you DNF for a wheel falling off or the BOT triggering you still DNF. It was just so anticlimactic...the muffler! At first I heard it get louder and thought that maybe we just lost the silencer tip and they wouldn't notice, but when they pulled me off and I saw the whole muffler hanging there, I thought it was kind of funny for a brief moment.

I have pictures of the events that I will post for everyone as soon as I can get our DNS to work properly.

Steve
U of Hartford

[Gasperini]

Murphy doesn't want to give us a break.
I think Murphy lives at West.

[mtg]

Originally posted by Marshall Grice:
I don't remember who it was, but at least you didn't fail endurance due to your brake over travel switch triggering on your first lap.

Was that possibly South Dakota State?

[Yellow Ranger]

I know OU had a similar BOT problem in Michigan last year...

[Julian Choquette]

Pictures here:

http://www.etudiants.polymtl.ca/fsae/gallery/view_album...albumName=fsaewest08 (http://www.etudiants.polymtl.ca/fsae/gallery/view_album.php?page=1&set_albumName=fsaewest08)

[MikeDutsa]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPKqDIMkQv4

short video i threw together.

[JR @ CFS]

Hi all,

Just to say thanks to everyone who helped us out during the competition. It's tough enough flying the 8000 miles across the "pond" from Sweden, but when you forget to fill out the Carnet document properly and can't bring any tools or spares, it makes it a little more interesting. All the teams were fantastic in that respect. Even when they had their own problems to deal with, they were willing to lend a hand! It's why I love FSAE!

In the end the positives were that we lost weight since FSUK07, our car didn't overheat, it rode like it was on rails during sprint and enduro and we won the sales event.

The downsides were the understeer during skidpad (we finished 4th in FSUK07), the fouled sparkplugs during accel (top 10 FSUK07) and getting the meatball during enduro...we missed a top 10 by 2.5points in the end!

FSAE West differed from FSUK in good ways and bad.

Tech inspection was fantastic, a far more relaxed (but still thorough) affair, unlike the crucifixtion experienced at FSUK. I think once a team has begun their inspection in the bay, it should continue until it is over and done with. FSUK is good in this respect.

The course was fantastically fast (and challenging) and far more fun that the FSUK track which favours the light singles immensley. Some dubious marshalling, but on a whole, good.

Some of the criticism I heard in the run up to and during the design event by some judges was not what I would call constructive, more destructive. This is an educational program after all...we have a restricted amount of time to learn what we can and I think some judges expect us to know what they, people of immense experience, know. I'm not disrespecting/criticising their engineering knowledge, simply their pedagogic approach to dealing with undergraduates at the beginning of a long (and hopefully successful) career. This criticism is not directed at all judges...some of them were fantastic and gave credit where it was due. Toledo had the most fantastic comeback to a comment made by a certain judge, but that's for them to tell http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

The meatballs during the endurance;

http://public.fotki.com/makofoto/2008---auto-cross/fsae-ca/img0971.html

Well, our first driver was checked in the queue for the enduro and passed with no problems. During our changeover our second driver wasn't checked for rule conformance with distance to the head rest and as a result, we got meatballed. You could say we were in the wrong and it was our fault, but we had checked this problem constantly after what had happened to Helsinki and took action to make sure it wouldn't happen. I discussed this at length with several of Cincinnati, Pomona and Toledo and we agreed that SAE should do a deal with a HANS device manufacturer/distributor to provide them at discounted prices, that way when worn, there is no question of nonconformance. And if safety was such a big issue, it could simply be made compulsary...much like the 2inch roll over rule all around was made compulsary late in many teams design/manufacturing phase. At the end of it all, these people are volunteering to do this and I sincerely salute them in making the hard calls...but in a few years time, it will be us having to make the same calls.

Now I am finished and done with FSAE, it will be nice to be a spectator once again (I need to have a short break before I volunteer). FS/FSAE experience definitely got me my job, so I have a lot to thank for it. I look forward to seeing a few teams from across the pond at FSUK and if you need a hand with anything, just keep an eye out for me (I'll be in my red top with a Swedish blondie on my shoulder and no doubt a Swedish flag attached to me somewhere http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif)


P.S.

Oh a message to Miki from DUT...can I please have a copy of your photos from the awards ceremony. If anyone else has any, I would greatly appreciate them.

[Osth]

I look forward to seeing a few teams from across the pond at FSUK and if you need a hand with anything, just keep an eye out for me (I'll be in my red top with a Swedish blondie on my shoulder and no doubt a Swedish flag attached to me somewhere Big Grin)

Please give us some updates about FSUK this year Jonnie if you go there, as our 08 team isn't really focusing on communication with the outer world http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif.

PS. Very nice work with the sales, finally a win for Chalmers again!

[MH]

Originally posted by jonnierice:
P.S.

Oh a message to Miki from DUT...can I please have a copy of your photos from the awards ceremony. If anyone else has any, I would greatly appreciate them.

I took the pictures with the camera of Michigan State, cause my batteries were gone. But with a bit of luck they will send them to me soon, so you can have them. Couldn't you shave a bit before the awards? It blackened the photo!

See you in England!

Miki Hegedus
Delft University

[JR @ CFS]

Originally posted by MH:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by jonnierice:
P.S.

Oh a message to Miki from DUT...can I please have a copy of your photos from the awards ceremony. If anyone else has any, I would greatly appreciate them.

I took the pictures with the camera of Michigan State, cause my batteries were gone. But with a bit of luck they will send them to me soon, so you can have them. Couldn't you shave a bit before the awards? It blackened the photo!

See you in England!

Miki Hegedus
Delft University </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Excellent! It was suppose to be something the whole team signed up to i.e. the vikings arriving from Scandinavia, but it seemed I was the only one who did it in the end. I shaved it all off that night and Maria almost didn't know who I was when I stepped off the train in England! Looking forward to seeing what DUT have produced for FSUK, especially given what happened in East. See you there.

[James Waltman]

Originally posted by jonnierice:
FSAE West differed from FSUK in good ways and bad.

Tech inspection was fantastic, a far more relaxed (but still thorough) affair, unlike the crucifixtion experienced at FSUK. I think once a team has begun their inspection in the bay, it should continue until it is over and done with. FSUK is good in this respect.


Ha! That's because you got me and Matt (http://fsae.com/eve/personal?x_myspace_page=profile&u=4426043132) as your Tech inspectors.
We've both been around FSAE for a while...

The first day closes at 7pm and that's a little bit beyond our control but I don't think it's that bad.

I've got a couple of Awards pics of your team. I'll send you an email.

[Steve O]

First I wanted to post up a link to some pictures. I will admit our photographer got mostly pictures of our car but there are some other team's cars in there. If you want any full resolution pictures (3888x2592@10.6Mpx), send me a message and I will e-mail them to you. If you want any pictures of our trip to Laguna beach *cough* lots of babes *cough* let me know and I will see what I can do! http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

Hartford Motorsports CA 08 (http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/fsae/california)



Next, I have to add to the discussion of tech inspection and say that at least one of the tech inspectors did not know what he was talking about. He informed me that what I was telling him was "dumb" and that he's never heard of it before. The argument was based on the fact that he was telling us that we needed a check valve on our gas tank. I informed him that we are using a brand new gap off of a 2007 Honda Civic and that all gas caps for many years now have been MANDATED to be VENTED and CHECKED up to 20PSI. In fact, in the state of CT in order to pass emissions testing they first take your gas cap and pressure test it to make sure the check valve in it works so no fuel spills out in a roll over. After an informal protest to Micheal Royce he came over sucked on the gas cap which he was able to do and get a mouthful of gas vapor thus proving it was vented, and causing him to have to get a drink of water. He then blew into the gas cap showing that the check valve worked because he was unable to blow air back out. The tech inspector said nothing, did not apologize for insulting our team and walked away. He was not even our tech inspector, he was just walking by after checking someone else's car and decided to butt into our tech inspector's inspection. The actual inspector on our car was excellent, very knowledgeable and respectful giving feedback for potential rules for next year that our car may not comply with and demonstrated that he was honestly only there to make sure the car was safe and compliant with the rules, not to give people a hard time. Inspectors like this in my book are welcome at these events, but ones like the random guy with malicious intentions calling students dumb should not be allowed to work these events, this does ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for the event.

[rjwoods77]

http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/fsae/california/FSAE_West_Comp.html#51


Haha. Owned. The look on the students face with a partial smile like "WTF is this guy talking about?" is hilarious especially when it looks like the guy is scolding him.

[RiNaZ]

anybody else having problem with the links? I couldnt see any pictures in the link you guys gave. I disable my pop-up blocker, still no pictures. Is it just my computer?

[ntrettel]

Little late, but finally got around to getting some of my better photos from West onto my flickr page. Slight bias towards University of Washington, but I got other teams in there as well.

http://flickr.com/photos/14311209@N05/sets/72157606147676736/

[Makofoto]

This link works for me:

PHOTOS (http://public.fotki.com/makofoto/2008---auto-cross/fsae-ca/)

http://public.fotki.com/makofoto/2008---auto-cross/fsae-ca/

[Dan G]

I sorted through and put up a few from west here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/gielamonster/BestOfFSAEWest

[Scania]

http://www.mkosonen.com/fsaeday3/images/IMG_7583.jpg
the cloor is so cool.....

[Brian J]

Our first outing at competition in recent history was disappointing for us, but huge thanks to the teams that helped us out! I believe it was Washington State that gave us two additional mufflers (and we needed all of them to pass sound), RPI sold us some rain tires, and Michigan State had some helpful advice for our brakes. That school in Tucson helped us a lot too, and it's a shame they couldn't sell the motorcycle. With the chop saw included I don't know who could have passed up on such a great deal.

Brian Johnston
Team Captain
Arizona State University

[duckei]

Matt Giaraffa, I just read your play by play again and it was as hilarious as it was the first time I read it. It was a pleasure to be the second driver for RPI - EARDRUM PUNISHING FOR ALL! But seriously... Good stuff.

Needless to say, both endurance races (East & West) were a blast and I was humbled to place up there with some of the best drivers in US FSAE.

See you all on the track for 2009. Skipping graduation for this one.

-Ian

[mtg]

Originally posted by duckei:
Matt Giaraffa, I just read your play by play again and it was as hilarious as it was the first time I read it. It was a pleasure to be the second driver for RPI - EARDRUM PUNISHING FOR ALL! But seriously... Good stuff.

Needless to say, both endurance races (East & West) were a blast and I was humbled to place up there with some of the best drivers in US FSAE.

See you all on the track for 2009. Skipping graduation for this one.

-Ian

Thanks. Unfortunately, I can't make it to West this year due to a lack of vacation time http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_frown.gif

[Isn't it Obvious?!]

Unfortunately, I can't make it to West this year due to a lack of vacation time


That sucks! I was looking forward to seeing you out there. You need to make your way back to Rolla sometime........I think you should bring your helmet along with you http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[mtg]

Originally posted by Isn't it Obvious?!:
I think you should bring your helmet along with you http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

That's all you needed to say. Name a date.