Who races their FSAE car outside of the SAE competition?

[George]

We've been competing in the MG Car Club of Queendsland Mt Cotton Hill climb. Good fun - a lot faster than the FSAE tracks, with trees and banks to contend with as well. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

Obviously this has raised some saftey issues - I'm interested to see if any other teams do race outside of FSAE, and if they've done anything different to the car. I've heard there was a NSW team at the National Hillclimb championships, we're going to the Queensland championships on the 31st of May. I also know Texas Arlington race in a different competition.

We run the car just as is from the comp, although missing a fair amount of the tie wiring. Compared to some of the other cars there it certainly seems a lot safer and better designed....

We are also quite competitive - our best time has been 45.90 seconds, similer open wheeler cars claiming to have 200hp and 230kg were running 43's and 44's. For some more info check out the website ...

So who else runs their SAE car at other comps?

UQ Racing Team Leader 2003
www.uq.edu.au/fsae (http://www.uq.edu.au/fsae)

[Dave Riley]

This year we've been running our car at a local autokhana series, the Promax challenge. Pretty simple little tracks, only a few corners, bit bumpy but still fun.

Cool part is they race two cars side by side, on the identical track. So far we've knocked off a couple of hot Lotus Elise's and Skylines... caned them actually... what do you expect running on slicks! We'd really like to get both our cars out there and race against each other, but haven't managed it yet.

We've got support from the owners to run our car at sprints round Barbagallo raceway, the big local circuit. Hrmm FSAE car maxed out in top pitching in to tight right hander... maybe we'll brave it someday.

Can be hard to find the time, though...

Project Manager
UWA Motorsport 03

[wingman]

Top gear into "RIGHT HANDER"??????

is this an oval track?? and if so I didn't realize the Corriolis (sp?) effect applied to auto racing.... http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

in the US it's go fast turn LEFT....

as for the topic, several US teams compete at SCCA solo II (i.e. autocross) events. There were 4 or 5 FSAE cars at the SCCA solo II nationals in 2002....

Someone told me that the Cal Poly Pomona 2000 car holds some kind of course record at a local short oval track, (making left turns http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif) but I never checked....

[gug]

you were asking about safety? check this thread: anatonmy of a crash (http://fsae.com/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=763607348&f=648600998&m=1996069072)

"I come from a land down under,
Where beer does flow and men chunder"

[Dave Riley]

No ovals here!

We prefer *real* circuit racing!

Project Manager
UWA Motorsport 03

[D Mack - CMT]

Hey Dave, what is your tyre bill like?
Also, who technically owns the car? The uni? Whats their take on the car being raced for fun.

Dusko Mackoski
Curtin University

[Dave Riley]

Our tyre bill is pretty steep... although we have a dodgy set of Dunlop medium compounds we've been running on recently.

I'd guess we'd go through maybe one or two more sets of those before the Aussie comp... plus maybe a set of race tyres for tuning purposes.

We might spend ~$AU6000 or so this year... maybe? http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_confused.gif We've never run quite so much as this year.

We own/control our cars... but the uni 'owns' us...there is something of a chain of command as in me, then faculty adviser, then head of school... but so far the head of school and therefore the uni has kept out of the running of the team. We have a small team of managers who make all the decisions, and the faculty advisor is part of that.

I'd imagine that if something wasn't going well... i.e. we crashed a car, someone got hurt, whatever, then the uni would want to step in or shut us down. Ultimately, the uni is in charge. However, for now, all is well!

And it's not raced for fun... it's for driver training and getting publicity/exposure. Although it is certainly fun... http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

Project Manager
UWA Motorsport 03

[Courtney Waters]

We compete at local SCCA autocross events. There isn't much by way of A-Mod competition so we usually benchmark our progress against the B-Prepared Corvettes. Our Hoosiers have worn quite well, but if we ran a full season we'd probably need a few sets.

Courtney Waters
UC Davis Formula SAE

[Garbo]

Newfoundland recently got an autocross club geared up again.... we've been to one event since Detroit with another half doz. promised before the end of the summer. Nothing remotely close to an FSAE car but we get to play with a nice cross section of riced civics, VWs, Beemers and the occasional Porsche. A good way to get a sunburn, if nothing else. We pass it off as 'training' to keep the uni. happy. God forbid students having fun while learning.

g

[Rob (ANU)]

We test here at the local hillclimbs, although we haven'ty been out there recently... The car had no problems passing scrutineering (apart from mounting a fire extinguisher)... We won the hillclimb outright once, and set a new lap record... I suggest the teams do something similiar.... Awesome fun... http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

Cheers,
Rob Wootton
Australian National University

"In general, the greater the understanding, the greater the delusion: the more intelligent, the less sane." George Orwell