Ben Beacock
05-19-2003, 07:50 PM
So we made it back yesterday from our 1st FSAE competition. Overall, we did alot better than we ever thought we could and see endless opportunities for improvement.
Punctuality paid off(I wish there was an award). We were the second team to pass all tech sections, and the first on the test track. I had planned on having to work bugs out of the car to pass tech on thursday with a few others, but we were able to work on the presentations after 8:45am when everything was done.
I was personally grilled by Claude Rouelle in the design presentation. I thought we'd get smoked and certainly felt like it afterwards. We didn't have much physical testing to back up any of our calcs, but ended up with an 80.
On the flip side, my team members thought the presentation went well and were pumped until we got a score of less than 50%. They were told they had the best 1st year presentation they had seen(so far I guess).
We managed to protest our cost report by proving we paid $222US($350CAN) for Fox Vanilla RC without a discount. It was very fortunate I remembered where I had the receipt. They had a cost of $350 for the same units and weren't accepting any other prices. After that was fixed we only had a $50 adjustment on the suspension and $0 on everything else, which makes me think we were TOO thorough. ~$18200 total, including a stock fuel rail/injectors, and a bunch of other stock parts that were way overpriced.
As for dynamic events, puntuality paid off again. We were second in line in the morning and first on the skidpad. We got a fast and smooth double run in right away before it started to drizzle. We bolted for the acceleration, and got a run before the rain made much of an effect.
When we got to our 2nd heats, it had turned damp and we couldn't beat our times. We were fortunate because our rain tires are dunlop 175/50-13 street tires on rims that we can never get straight because they're 4x4" instead of the 4x100 we ordered.
It cleared up nicely for the autox, and we let the track dry a bit before going out. In practice we found the tip-over sensor was cutting out on hard corners, so we eliminated it with a resistor. Once we got to the autox the best time was a 1:13, good enough for 35th.
We were in the 1st group for the endurance, 10th to go out. I didn't have alot of confidence in the brakes as they were a bit spongy so I didn't use them hard. About 7 laps in the car suddenly stopped dead at the end of a straight. It would just crank and not fire. Turned out to be a faulty fuel pump connector or wire that had too much tension with a zip tie. My times were 66,67 secs and dropping (and 1 cone) so it was quite disappointing.
After a few hours in line for the dyno (and 5 red bulls for me http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif ) we pulled 52hp, but 30ftlbs roughly flat from 4000 to 10500
We would have really liked to at least have a representative or 2 at the banquet, but couldn't get any tickets. I think teams should at least get 2 or 3 with their registration. As it stands we don't know our overall finish and if we won the rookie award (I'm pretty sure Finland beat us)
Thanks to all that helped us. MSOE for their big tent, and MIT for the soldering iron a couple times(I found ours in a box as we unpacked). We got lots of moral support from Waterloo and Toronto. It was fun talking to everyone that came by to ask what our diff came from (Suzuki Vinson 500 front diff) and what the yellow box was (air compressor for shifter). I'm confident we can make 500lbs next year and we'll still be running with the diff(we love it!).
Ben Beacock
Chassis Design and Technical Coordinator
Gryphon Racing - University of Guelph
Punctuality paid off(I wish there was an award). We were the second team to pass all tech sections, and the first on the test track. I had planned on having to work bugs out of the car to pass tech on thursday with a few others, but we were able to work on the presentations after 8:45am when everything was done.
I was personally grilled by Claude Rouelle in the design presentation. I thought we'd get smoked and certainly felt like it afterwards. We didn't have much physical testing to back up any of our calcs, but ended up with an 80.
On the flip side, my team members thought the presentation went well and were pumped until we got a score of less than 50%. They were told they had the best 1st year presentation they had seen(so far I guess).
We managed to protest our cost report by proving we paid $222US($350CAN) for Fox Vanilla RC without a discount. It was very fortunate I remembered where I had the receipt. They had a cost of $350 for the same units and weren't accepting any other prices. After that was fixed we only had a $50 adjustment on the suspension and $0 on everything else, which makes me think we were TOO thorough. ~$18200 total, including a stock fuel rail/injectors, and a bunch of other stock parts that were way overpriced.
As for dynamic events, puntuality paid off again. We were second in line in the morning and first on the skidpad. We got a fast and smooth double run in right away before it started to drizzle. We bolted for the acceleration, and got a run before the rain made much of an effect.
When we got to our 2nd heats, it had turned damp and we couldn't beat our times. We were fortunate because our rain tires are dunlop 175/50-13 street tires on rims that we can never get straight because they're 4x4" instead of the 4x100 we ordered.
It cleared up nicely for the autox, and we let the track dry a bit before going out. In practice we found the tip-over sensor was cutting out on hard corners, so we eliminated it with a resistor. Once we got to the autox the best time was a 1:13, good enough for 35th.
We were in the 1st group for the endurance, 10th to go out. I didn't have alot of confidence in the brakes as they were a bit spongy so I didn't use them hard. About 7 laps in the car suddenly stopped dead at the end of a straight. It would just crank and not fire. Turned out to be a faulty fuel pump connector or wire that had too much tension with a zip tie. My times were 66,67 secs and dropping (and 1 cone) so it was quite disappointing.
After a few hours in line for the dyno (and 5 red bulls for me http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif ) we pulled 52hp, but 30ftlbs roughly flat from 4000 to 10500
We would have really liked to at least have a representative or 2 at the banquet, but couldn't get any tickets. I think teams should at least get 2 or 3 with their registration. As it stands we don't know our overall finish and if we won the rookie award (I'm pretty sure Finland beat us)
Thanks to all that helped us. MSOE for their big tent, and MIT for the soldering iron a couple times(I found ours in a box as we unpacked). We got lots of moral support from Waterloo and Toronto. It was fun talking to everyone that came by to ask what our diff came from (Suzuki Vinson 500 front diff) and what the yellow box was (air compressor for shifter). I'm confident we can make 500lbs next year and we'll still be running with the diff(we love it!).
Ben Beacock
Chassis Design and Technical Coordinator
Gryphon Racing - University of Guelph