Vehicle Weights

[Freedom Fries]

Did anyone take note of who had the lightest cars at competition this year? I saw Lehigh down below 350, and Penn State at 376 I believe. I am really curious to know what some of the lightest vehicles with 600cc motors and 13 inch tires are at now.

Thanks,
Chris

[Freedom Fries]

Did anyone take note of who had the lightest cars at competition this year? I saw Lehigh down below 350, and Penn State at 376 I believe. I am really curious to know what some of the lightest vehicles with 600cc motors and 13 inch tires are at now.

Thanks,
Chris

[Wildcat_Alum]

UofArizona came in at 404lbs, I think.. they left the shop at 391 on our scales though. Apparently Detroit is the gravitational center of the automotive world.

600cc, 13's, no turbo, lots of wood and thin metal.

[flavorPacket]

ETS was 335
psu was 380ish (lightest 4 cyl)
purdue was 405 or so?
northern illinois 405ish also
TU graz was 409
uwa 433
kansas 442
wisconsin 455
helsinki 456
michigan 459 (turbo, NC state was also 450s)
cornell 487?

[John Stimpson]

Kettering's car with a pretty heavy Mahle powertrain came in at 470. We were happy, considering we have 2 full radiators, radiator fans, hydraulic clutch setup, 4 wheel brakes, heavy dampers we made ourselves that are double the weight of the Risse's of past years etc etc...

[Dan G]

UM-Dearborn was 405

[The Bunker]

Here at Toledo, we tipped the scales 417......

[Dave The Ragin Asian]

Northern Illinois:

Running a Yamaha R6 and 13 inch tires:

Officially 411 lbs

[Kyle Walther]

In Oklahoma our bus weighed in at 452..

o wait that's not a bus that's just a fat car..

[begreer]

UNCC-352

[Patrick]

Here's the list we compiled...

http://www.rpi.edu/~degrop/2007_FSAE_Car_Weights.xls (http://www.rpi.edu/%7Edegrop/2007_FSAE_Car_Weights.xls)

-Patrick DeGrosse Jr.
RPI

[BStoney]

University of Cincinnati - 443
6th - AutoX
7th - Skidpad
33rd - Accel
4th - Enduro/FuelEconomy
14th - Design
4th - Overall

[95M3Racer]

Man, this really shows how much having a lightweight driver counts http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[Patrick]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by 95M3Racer:
Man, this really shows how much having a lightweight driver counts http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hahah yea u know it.... I'm almost down to 150lbs for West... And our Accel driver is starving himself too http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif 1st place in accel here we come!

-Patrick DeGrosse Jr.
RPI

[Kurt Bilinski]

How come you guys don't get a 100lb girl to drive? There's got to be at least one female on a campus with driving experience. (That sounds kind of funny, actually.)

[Patrick]

Girls? At RPI? Sounds like you stepped into the paint booth without a respirator...


-Patrick DeGrosse Jr.
RPI


Hey kb58, it just occurred to me... I think I saw your Mini at an AutoX down near Chula Vista last summer.... or maybe i'm mistaken..

[KU_Racing]

Over at kettering, we feel your pain. Girls? I thought they didnt go to college. Not mine at lease.

[Kurt Bilinski]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Patrick:
Hey kb58, it just occurred to me... I think I saw your Mini at an AutoX down near Chula Vista last summer.... or maybe i'm mistaken.. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Chula Vista, no, but I was at the autocross at Qualcomm.

[Kurt Bilinski]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Patrick:
Girls? At RPI? Sounds like you stepped into the paint booth without a respirator...

-Patrick DeGrosse Jr.
RPI
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Sorry, I keep forgetting that all colleges aren't like SDSU, where it was simply amazing each spring as the weather warmed up http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_razz.gif

[JerryLH3]

University of South Florida - 392 lbs.

Overall - not so hot. We had engine troubles that kept us out of Friday's events, got them fixed and dropped out on our fourth lap of endurance because of a mistake.

[BStoney]

The question I have, is how many of teams are designing for strength as opposed to stiffness. At Cincy, stiffness if our biggest concern, because afterall, this is a compliance race. I'd love to see some compliance stackups of some of the lighter cars (sub 400) and compare them to the cars that are 400-450, while some may be comparable, there are some frames and chassis that appear from first glance to overall be quite 'flexible'...

I would rather have a low-compliance, very predictable racecar than one that has components flexing all over the place and weighs 30 lbs less.

I think this also opens the can of worms of the good ole' titanium and its applicability to the various components you see some teams using it on discussion, but I think that is a new discussion in and of itself...

[Patrick]

In the past we've typically designed for strength, and only seem to address stiffness when it became a problem (tripod housings flexing too much and TRE tripods grenading for example). We're slowly getting into the mindset that stiffness is an important part of the game, however. As such our uprights got heavier this year to improve stiffness, along with our rear box. The trick though, is to find useless mass in other places. It's time consuming (for example... we thinned down the walls of our fuel pressure regulator to save a few ounces), but the end result is worth is... 435lbs... 9th place overall. You can be stiff and still be light as a feather (boy that just sounds wrong).

-Patrick DeGrosse Jr.
RPI

[VFR750R]

Stiffness is your friend, think I beam or c channel everywhere and the weight will improve as well.

By the way, I HATE holes. And I'm sorry for the guys I'm going to offend but Rockers should NOT have holes in them. The wieght loss does not make up for the lost stiffness. When is cutting a hole in an I beam a good idea?

[nicky22]

Does anyones knows if it was a car over 600lbs?

[Corey H]

It was mentioned at the beginning about Arizona how we were 391 loading the car in to the trailer and 404 at competition, but one part was left out. We had no carbon fiber on the car at all. Yea we didn't do to well in anything other than cost, but we achieved our goal of sub 400 with no composites.