Would anybody BUY an FSAE car to run on the weekends?

[David Money]

I was talking to another team member about building FSAE cars to sell and we were wondering if anybody would be at all interested in purchasing one to autocross and SCCA race? If so, what would you think would be a fair price? I know it depends on the quality of the car, but within reason is what I'm talking about.


Thanks
David Money

[David Money]

I was talking to another team member about building FSAE cars to sell and we were wondering if anybody would be at all interested in purchasing one to autocross and SCCA race? If so, what would you think would be a fair price? I know it depends on the quality of the car, but within reason is what I'm talking about.


Thanks
David Money

[Angry Joe]

I can't promise I would buy one but I would consider it. It would be cool if they were popular enough to have their own class, but to be sucessful you'd need more restrictive rules (especially a minimum weight) to keep cost down.

Off the top of my head I'd pay about the same as I would for a sport bike, $7-10K for a solid, well-sorted and reliable car that doesn't look like a giant roller skate. Come to think of it, I'd like it to be like our car http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

Lehigh Formula SAE

www.lehigh.edu/~insae/formula (http://www.lehigh.edu/~insae/formula)

[David Money]

That's the big problem, nobody wants somebody elses car, they want the one that they put all their hard work, blood, money, and sweat into...unless of course it was a Western Washington V8, UTA Winged car, or Cornell car http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

It would probably be comparable to a Leeds, Ohio State or UTA car from what we're thinking.

[Angry Joe]

Ugh... Those are all great cars but carbon fiber monocoque = $$$$$

The car should probably have a mild steel space frame (much cheaper) and a minimum of exotic parts. And the suspension arms should be able to survive cone hits http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_cool.gif

Lehigh Formula SAE

www.lehigh.edu/~insae/formula (http://www.lehigh.edu/~insae/formula)

[Mr2fastna]

Sure we'll sell you an old tub for 7-10k http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif But as SCCA rules stand right now a FSAE car would never be compeditive, uven unrestricted it would be hard to run with some of the A-mod stuff.

[David Money]

FYI Arlington ran at the SCCA runoffs a couple of months ago in their 02 car and won it beating ALL the A-Mod cars!!! They ran in the FSAE class that SCCA has set up. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_cool.gif

[Dominic Venieri]

all but the 7 cars that finished ahead of it you mean

www.formularpi.com (http://www.formularpi.com)

[James Waltman]

You are asking the wrong demographic. We would be horrible customers. Always wanting it to be the way we did it on our cars (or the way we wished the rest of our team let us do it). You need to ask the people at the autocrosses that are running production cars that are heavily modified. They are willing to spend cash on going fast but might not have the skills or facilities to build themselves an A-mod.

I don't care too much about a class for them to run in. There are plenty of autocrosses around here where the organizers let us run what we show up with.

James Waltman
waltmaj@cc.wwu.edu
http://dot.etec.wwu.edu/fsae/
Formula SAE
Vehicle Research Institute at
Western Washington University

[Dominic Venieri]

If you got enough cars out there, they would make a class to fit them, so you wouldn't have to run against 750 lbs cars with 250hp. I would buy one, but I agree, I'd want it to be everything my team's car had and more. But I'd be willing to pay a lot more for it too.

www.formularpi.com (http://www.formularpi.com)

[David Money]

I'm sorry, I stand corrected, I was merely going off information from Dr. Woods (the UTA faculty advisor) and from what I remembered from the Racecar Engineering or Racetech article that came out last month from Carroll Smith.

[Michael Jones]

...it's a hard sell, especially since the cost is reasonably high ($7-10K is on the light side if you ask me) and its utility is low (never will be a road car, not much functionality outside of SCCA auto-x, etc.)

That said, we've had offers running in the 20s, and offers for plans. Legal concerns and such nonsense prevents us from actually going through with selling, and it's not like there really is a full, definitive plan in the first place - certainly nothing that your average solo autocrosser could slam together in 17 easy steps or something.

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Cornell Racing
http://fsae.mae.cornell.edu