FS-UK Silverstone 2008 Competition: - Updates, Pictures, Stories, and More. [Archive]

JR @ CFS

07-11-2008, 04:01 PM

Just got back from spending half a day walking around and chatting with teams about their designs. I was struck (in a good way) by a few things;

I am very impressed by the level of the first year team entries! If you get a chance, have a look at Talins car, especially their rear suspension. A beautifully presented car that looks smarter than cars brought by some of the more experienced teams.

I LOVE Cal Poly SLO's rear end...not in that way http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif I love their solid rear axle and the suspension design to lift the inside wheel.

Lions Racing rear frame (or lack there of) is a beautiful design and I'm suprised how thin the a-arms look. They are proud of it and thats what I love to see. Lots of other teams deserve a mention for their beautiful rear frames (or the lack there of) and it appears a solution a lot of teams have taken on board.

I had a great chat with TU Graz and their car as always was immaculately presented. Interesting to note that they compromised a little on weight loss to make gains elsewhere...I was impressed by their torsional stiffness figure. They liked to iterate that they built everything on their car...liars. They didn't make their driveshafts http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif That was it http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

Strauslund was another impressive team. Tubular steel chassis/suspension, 4 cylinder, NA and 186kg's...some of the singles couldn't even get that low!!!

I could say so much about so many other teams and cars that I could write for a while tonight. I just think that the level of competition at FSUK increases year on year at an exponential rate and it really is an impressive competition!

Claude Rouelle is in his usual form. I spoke with a 1st year team from the UK who received the following comment from him in the design event;

"I've been a design judge in this competition for 12 years and this is the worst car I've ever seen. Even the indians build better cars than this."

I think the man forgets what this competition is about...inexperienced students learning and gaining experience. I don't think they invest so much time, effort and affect their grades, relationships, etc to be told something like that! Critique, don't criticise!

Space_Toaster

07-11-2008, 04:13 PM

Just got back from Silverstone, I have many many more photos available (all from www.pcpimages.co.uk) (http://www.pcpimages.co.uk)) But here's just a taster of the brand new Oxford Brookes car:

ftp://spacetoaster-2315070:rut4RYeb@hosting9.123-reg.co.uk/2008_07110109.jpg
ftp://spacetoaster-2315070:rut4RYeb@hosting9.123-reg.co.uk/2008_07110137.jpg

Paul Chapman Pictures Official Photographer to the Oxford Brookes Racing Team...

Aarg

07-11-2008, 05:33 PM

hello mates,
I cant find any photos from sylverstone @ chapmans in 2008's competition please upload some photos.

Thank you

AARG

Nitesh

07-11-2008, 10:14 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by jonnierice:
Claude Rouelle is in his usual form. I spoke with a 1st year team from the UK who received the following comment from him in the design event;

"I've been a design judge in this competition for 12 years and this is the worst car I've ever seen. Even the indians build better cars than this."
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's mighty insulting. not only to that team but to us as well. I am not trying to claim that we build very competitive cars at the competition but to be used as the benchmark for the worst cars present there is a different story all together..

RiNaZ

07-11-2008, 10:29 PM

dont take it to heart nitesh. This gives you more reason to outperform all the US/UK team in the next competition.

Im sure when he said it, he probably thought it was just between him and the other guy. Im sure if he knew that it was gonna be posted on the board, he probably wont say it. Not that it's okay to begin with.

p/s: Picturessss!!!

JR @ CFS

07-12-2008, 10:53 AM

Just back from the 1st Dynamic day at the event and it was great to see the cars running and as always there are a few with some problems. Weather has factored considerably, with the british summer behaving impeccably!

TUGraz were having shifter problems and got out for two runs in acceleration and I was informed they made a sprint run as well. Joanneum also had problems and I don't know as yet if they made the sprint. Acceleration times not anywhere close to the 07 event times with the fastest being just under 4secs, but still respectable. As far as I was informed stuttgart have posted the top times in all dynamics so far (although I did hear Bath put in a blinder of a run in sprint) and delft have placed top 3 in all dynamics. Some teams gambled for the wet weather to clear up later in the afternoon and it appears to have paid off with some good times coming late in the day when the track dried out. Delft, Helsinki and quite a few others took the gamble to get out early and get their times in, although some got caught out by the changing weather, resulting in spins. Lions racing looked beautiful out there and definitely deserve a mention given the crash last week.

Walking around the paddocks and chatting with the teams there has been quite a bit of frustration and controversy. The "2 inch all round" rule that was introduced in the middle of the year and caused a real headache for a lot of teams i.e. redesign and in some cases rebuilds causing great delays to manufacturing phases, has seemingly been overlooked for some teams. On 1st day of tech inspection many teams were turned away for this rule infringement but due to the sheer number of teams not meeting the rule, FSUK has allowed the teams to continue. Strange given it is in place for safety reasons. Whether or not a points penalty will be put in place remains to be seen and an official comment from the organisers, I'm certain, would be greatly appreciated by all.

The other point highlighted by quite a few teams to me was that although the organisers made a strong point of the fact that "if you haven't made your run by 12:30pm, you won't make one" teams were running in accel until after 12:45pm. Last year I remember many teams being turned away from accel even though there were in the queue and it caused a lot of frustration, but rules are rules I suppose. Again, an official comment I'm sure would be appreciated.

I won't be attending the event tomorrow, but given the action over the past few days, I'm sure it will be a fantastic day. Competition is once again tight and the winner will definitely be a deserved one!

Addition: I think Cal Poly SLO deserve a mention. They have had starter problems and one of their team member is currently on a 7hr round trip to Wales to pick up a part that someone has agreed to remove from their bike for them. No suppliers anywhere in the UK had the part. Their car is beautiful and I hope that it will run tomorrow.

QFR also deserve a mention. They always have great potential and this years car, the most tested vehicle they have had, has been giving them brake problems (which is an understatement). Good luck for tomorrow

HerbertD

07-12-2008, 11:18 AM

i'm searching trough all team websites looking for results and pictures but I can't find any.

has anyone detailed results?

congratulations to Stuttgart for winnig the first three dynamic events!

JR @ CFS

07-12-2008, 12:03 PM

I think they have just been posted. I've only received results that have been sent through via text. So, hopefully they will go up soon.

Osth

07-12-2008, 02:26 PM

some results seems to have been posted at the FS homepage: Cost, skidpad and accel.
http://www.formulastudent.com/universities/Important+Documents.htm

By looking at the results from dynamic events the only Swedish team that has managed to get at rolling car in time for competition is Chalmers. Don't know if I should celebrate that http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif....

HerbertD

07-12-2008, 02:41 PM

I just found on the website of Karlsruhe unofficial overall standings:

KA-RaceIngs' Team website (http://www.ka-raceing.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=1&Itemid=27)

Congrats to Stuttgart again
nearly 60 points in advance of delft - incredible
also a good job of Braunschweig so far after their horrible crash

i'm anxious to tomorrow's endurance

James Morris

07-13-2008, 02:11 AM

Just a few pics http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

http://photos-b.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-snc1/v261/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3470497_6758.jpg

http://photos-c.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-snc1/v261/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3470498_7663.jpg

http://photos-d.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-snc1/v261/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3470499_8494.jpg

http://photos-397.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-snc1/v261/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3470500_9457.jpg

http://photos-397.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-snc1/v261/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3470501_300.jpg

HerbertD

07-13-2008, 05:58 AM

Stuttgart finished the endurance.

That should be an incredible overall win for them! Conrgatulations!

Also joanneum racing graz finished the endurance just minutes ago. Congratulations as well - hope it's a Top 3 finish.

arnout99cc

07-13-2008, 06:01 AM

Do you know how many points stuttgart lost with the design event?

they came in 17th didn't they? All teams below them finish in top 5 on design I believe.

HerbertD

07-13-2008, 06:06 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by arnout99cc:
Do you know how many points stuttgart lost with the design event?

they came in 17th didn't they? All teams below them finish in top 5 on design I believe. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

TU Graz reached the 20th rank in Design and they have 100 points
in comparison to joanneum racing i think Stuttgart lost about 40 points (just a guess)

Did Delft also finish the Endurance?

----
Sorry - I made a mistake. TU Graz is 24th in Design. Then i guess bout 30 points compared to joanneum racing

arnout99cc

07-13-2008, 06:15 AM

I just heard they did but they were slower than stuttgart.

I think Delft won the business event but I'm not sure.

looks like Stuttgart is going to win this one.

Spaxa

07-13-2008, 10:25 AM

Congratulations to Stuttgart, UAS Graz and all the other teams competing this year.

Is there anyone who knows something about Lions Racing.

carboneater

07-13-2008, 10:33 AM

very bad event for us...

but congrats to stuttgart, your friends from FH Graz and all teams which finished the endurance.

One positive Thing: We can say that "Graz" won the design event for the last three years in UK... (now the memorial shield belongs to "Graz"?!)

...and we will be back in Hockenheim.

Dozey

07-13-2008, 10:42 AM

Lions, (car 61)

came in for driver change, small fire at back end and were not allowed out for 2nd half of endurance.

after speaking to the team after the enduro run they had a small amount of oil come out of the breather pipe which was directly over the exhaust and it caught fire!

lesson learnt i hope!

congrats to all who finished endurance. special congrats go to the Birmingham team who not only finished enduro (within the time limit) for the 1st time in a looooong time but actually had a to 15 time i believe!

HerbertD

07-13-2008, 11:11 AM

sorry to hear that about lions-racing

that was a great job guys! the horrible crash, the rebuilding of your car and great results in all disciplines.

you would have deserved to finish. at least the "Best endeavour" should go to you.

looking forward to see you guys competing in hockenheim!

HerbertD

07-13-2008, 02:02 PM

congratulations to stuttgart for their overall win. also congratulations to delft and as well

congratulations to our successors of joanneum racing. Well done guys!

also congratulations to all other teams and i'm sorry for all other teams which had problems.

JR @ CFS

07-13-2008, 03:23 PM

Final results here;

http://www.formulastudent.com/NR/rdonlyres/09BBED35-EB0...08Results_Class1.pdf (http://www.formulastudent.com/NR/rdonlyres/09BBED35-EB06-4987-8074-0AF3C7F41D22/0/FS08Results_Class1.pdf)

Well done to Chalmers. I know they've had their issues throughout the year and had an oil leak and a blown intake last night, as well as a seriously dodgy front wheel bearing.

James Morris

07-13-2008, 05:05 PM

Congratulations to everyone who competed at Silverstone this year! Especially Stuttgart who absolutely dominated this event, you guys were in a totally different league.

We at SMU are over the moon with our 6th place overall it was totally unexpected!
We were actually quite surprised how competitively our car was at the dynamic events and to finish 2nd in the endurance was completely unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!

We are actually most happy with our fuel economy result using just 3.6litres of E85. We were actually quite surprised at how close we come to TU Delft winning amount since our car is running on a CBR600 and weighs in at a rather fat 249kg, some 100kg more!

Again congratulations to all those who competed at silverstone

James Morris
Swansea Metropolitan University

repeatoffender

07-14-2008, 02:48 AM

Nobody has posted pics!!!

Every year this happens!! Someone seriously needs to post pictures.

Chris Lane

07-14-2008, 08:54 AM

No Aussie teams?!?! http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_frown.gif

Wow, Stuttgart certainly wiped the floor...

Congrats to everybody that finished!

RacingManiac

07-14-2008, 12:56 PM

I'd post pics but I didn't go this year...lol

Congrats to Stuttgart, I really want to see 08's Stuttgart, especially now that it won F-Student too...

JR @ CFS

07-14-2008, 01:13 PM

Hey RacingManiac,

I was sorry to see that Toronto didn't make it to FSUK this year. Any reason you chose FSG over FSUK? Putting you on the spot http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

VinceL

07-14-2008, 02:12 PM

Hey JR,

The reason we decided to go to FSG instead of FS-UK was that we had done the FS-UK thing 7 times now, and we just wanted to try something different. Everyone keeps talking about how FSG is the best run event in the world, so we decided to give it a try. Most of the top teams are pretty much the same, so we aren't missing anything competition wise. So why not? In the end the thing that did it for us was the idea of a great afterparty with free beer!

JR @ CFS

07-14-2008, 02:50 PM

Free Beer! What's the nearest airport!

K Plush

07-15-2008, 05:27 AM

Firstly, a massive congratulations to all the teams that competed for getting to the competition.

We were opposite stuggart and were blown away by the design and their performance.

Also a massive well done to our neighbours Swansea Met, 2nd UK Team - a really well deserved result.

Unfortunately due to a problem with some body work we were black flagged during the endurance but still managed 2nd in Class 1 (200), so we are pleased.

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas of what times different teams were setting in the endurance, we want to see were we think we might have fitted in.

Time to start on next years car now, see you in July 09.

Kerry
Swansea University Formula Student Team

blister

07-15-2008, 04:03 PM

Here are some pictures. Don't mind the comments, photographer was drunk:

http://artinc.ch/portfolio/fotos/_formula_student_silverstone/overview.html

We were second in the endurance event.
First driver had 54-55s laps. Second one really fast 52-53s laps, before we had too hot tires and again 55s laps.

Our car was incredibely fast on sunday compared to saturday were we lost nearly 9 seconds against Stuttgart in the Sprint.

After the sprint event, we went straight to the practice area to test new ARB Settings. While testing we had a major failure on our drivetrain with a destroyed tripod housing, a displaced diff and a completely stucked chain. With the great help of the Delft truck workshop team we managed to repair everything and to run again on the practice area.

As we came into the starting area for the endurace the marshals were already waving at us. while running to the start we warmed up the engine and secured the driver.

Both of our drivers were incredibely fast and very pleased with the changes made to the setup. we had only one and a half real test day before the event and a catastrophic saturday. So we are very very happy with the 8th place altough the four missing points against Karlsruhe still hurt ;-)

RiNaZ

07-15-2008, 08:45 PM

anybody got a close up of all these cars at the UK competition?

p/s: that white ETH car is definitely a car i would buy if it was in the market.

TMichaels

07-16-2008, 02:25 AM

A big thanks to all the teams visiting us in our pit and wishing the best of luck.

We failed endurance, because the breather hose of our oil catch tank ended over our exhaust. Because of the crash and the engine change we overfilled the oil tank a bit. When the oil became hotter and the volume increased the breather hose began to spray some oil that hit the exhaust. While driving the wind cooled the exhaust and prevented the oil from catching fire, but when the driver came in for the driver's change, the wind was gone due to the car slowing down and the oil catched fire. The marshals reacted very controlled and used the fire extinguishers without ruining the whole car. Thanks to them!

Does anyone have laptimes from the endurance?

Regards,

Tobi

Alastair Clarke

07-16-2008, 03:11 AM

Firstly, thanks to our friends at UCLAN, NEWI, Glasgow and everywhere else who helped us (Cardiff) over the weekend. It was a really disappointing result for us, but we really enjoyed ourselves nevertheless!!!

On the Claude front, we also had an "interesting" time in design with him. I'll say no more, but I think "critique" not "criticise" is about right!

Also, we must say a huge congratulations to our near neighbours at Swansea Metropolitan - what a result!!!! Well done to everyone there.

Regards

Alastair

flavorPacket

07-16-2008, 11:32 AM

Claude is brusque on purpose. He's the same with a top team as he is with anyone else, and I think it's important to recognize how rare it is that someone will tell it to you like it is.

If your car sucked in the real world, you'd be out of a job. Be happy that you have the chance to regroup and build something great for next year's comp.

Too many design judges, particularly in England, try to soothe the egos of designers who didn't do a good job. The series would be better off if the judges actually gave us real feedback instead of feeling bad about ripping on us because 'building a FSAE car is a lot of work'.

JR @ CFS

07-16-2008, 12:57 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by flavorPacket:
I think it's important to recognize how rare it is that someone will tell it to you like it is. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I think there is a fine line between critiquing someones design i.e. saying "X, Y and Z is good about your design, but did you consider A, B and C because it means Q, P and R is not so good" and telling someone "in the 12 years I've been a design judge, this is the worst car I've ever seen"

Actually...that isn't a fine line at all! There is a huge difference!

You see, constructive criticism means that people can take on board what has been said to them and feed that back into the following years design themselves and take that lesson into the working world with them. At FSAE West, I explained problems we had been having with suspension design and what my thoughts were on the reasons for the problems. He took me around to the back of the car and started to explain to me the problem in great detail and in a way that made me understand where we had gone wrong. If he had told me it was sh*te and left it at that, I wouldn't understand what the problem was in the first place and I couldn't feed that information back to next years team.

flavorPacket

07-16-2008, 01:24 PM

Well JR, I highly doubt that Claude said that to someone and didn't say anything else. I was trying to point out that he said that to grab someone's attention, a goal he has clearly achieved in this case.

And conversely, I could imagine a situation where a car is so poorly designed that a judge would be upset explaining something that is clearly outlined in RCVD/Heywood/etc.

James Morris

07-16-2008, 02:33 PM

Some pics

http://photos-397.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sf2p/v208/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3489684_2107.jpg

http://photos-397.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sf2p/v208/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3489685_2430.jpg

http://photos-397.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sf2p/v208/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3489689_3725.jpg

http://photos-397.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sf2p/v208/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3489691_4375.jpg

http://photos-397.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sf2p/v208/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3489698_6732.jpg

http://photos-397.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sf2p/v208/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3489715_2983.jpg

http://photos-397.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sf2p/v208/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3489672_8416.jpg

http://photos-b.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v208/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3485825_5951.jpg

http://photos-b.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v208/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3485833_8611.jpg

http://photos-g.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v208/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3485894_7520.jpg

http://photos-h.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v208/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3485895_9239.jpg

http://photos-f.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v208/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3485893_6547.jpg

http://photos-e.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v208/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3511068_6815.jpg

http://photos-h.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v208/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3511071_7801.jpg

http://photos-a.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v208/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3511072_8119.jpg

http://photos-g.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v208/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3511078_7.jpg http://photos-f.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v208/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3511085_2310.jpg

http://photos-c.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v208/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3511058_3752.jpg

http://photos-d.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v208/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3511059_4052.jpg

http://photos-e.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v208/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3485948_895.jpg

Mike Hart

07-16-2008, 02:49 PM

Great photos there. I didn't realise the Elephant guys broke their wishbones. Felt really sorry for them. Hope they can get their ABS disconnected for Germany!

Go Hawks

07-16-2008, 03:32 PM

On behalf of everyone on the Cal Poly SLO team I would like to thank everyone that helped us out over the weekend. The guys on Lions, Delft, Cardiff and all the other teams were beyond helpful.

DART-CG

07-17-2008, 02:19 AM

Congrats to all teams who made it to Silverstone and mainly to Stuttgart for an unbelievable performance and Braunschweig for competing that good after their heavy crash.

It was an interesting and funny weekend, especially the gym sessions of TU Delft every morning http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

Unfortunately for our team form Darmstadt it was the worst competition in the last years. Gaining scruitineering, tilt and noise without problems we had a really massive gearbox failure during brake test. For us still inexplicable because we used a relatively new GSX-R 600 gearbox. The second gear disintegrated completely.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3156/2676806776_9fc9079a02.jpg

A big thanks to Stockholm and Kaiserslautern who equipped us with spare parts. We were able to fix the gearbox in one night and two day shifts.

We were able to rescruitineer on Sunday morning and get our brake test.
But sadly an overseen fragment of the gearbox failure was sucked in by the oil pump which came to a sudden halt during a test run for the endurance.

As a result our engine was completely (and that means completely) destroyed within a few seconds and we know face major problems to fix our car and get ready for FSG http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_frown.gif

ben

07-17-2008, 09:53 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by James Morris:
Some pics

http://photos-397.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sf2p/v208/179/67/529785397/n529785397_3489684_2107.jpg </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

What pressure were these at guys :-)

Great result, glad the rubber was ok.

Ben

Mike Hart

07-17-2008, 10:45 AM

They started off slightly less than the prescribed value we'd tested after you suggested about temperatures affecting the pressure. By the looks of it, that was my first run, so not all the heat was in them. The second time round, and during the endurance they were really good, although our setup needs a little work at the back.

Rubber looked fairly shagged at the end of endurance, but not by any means as bad as the Avons. The grip was pretty phenomenal though. I'd guess North of 1.5G from the feel of it. We could have been faster (Herts were till they got pulled), but we were getting a lot more oil surge than in testing so I was just nursing the thing along. Still, I say nursing but we were 8th fastest after we finished! http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

Since we've got a good finish now, we're going to push it a lot more in Germany. Jake is going to do some setup work on Friday to try and eradicate some of the power oversteer we get. TC worked well in sprint though and the diff is a lot lot tighter now http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif Physical traction is no longer a problem!

Wesley

07-17-2008, 11:28 AM

Looks like a fine competition! Congrats to everyone.

As for Claude, he for the most part tells it like it is. Almost everything he pointed out we said "yeah... we need to do something about that," and while he can be abrasive, he lets you know what you should look into doing, and what he thinks might help you.

I'd rather get reamed than get a judge that just nods at everything you say. Preferably a happy middle ground, but I want to learn, because something can always be improved.

ben

07-17-2008, 12:58 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Nitesh:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by jonnierice:
Claude Rouelle is in his usual form. I spoke with a 1st year team from the UK who received the following comment from him in the design event;

"I've been a design judge in this competition for 12 years and this is the worst car I've ever seen. Even the indians build better cars than this."
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

That's mighty insulting. not only to that team but to us as well. I am not trying to claim that we build very competitive cars at the competition but to be used as the benchmark for the worst cars present there is a different story all together.. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I took the comment (as presented here) to mean that relatively speaking Indian teams have less infrastructure close by in terms of a mature motorsport industry, such that it is harder to a good car, not that the students have fundamentally less ability or knowledge.

The point is frankly well made that the standard of some UK teams is woeful relative to the available local resources.

Mike: interesting comments. It definitely looks like you're struggling with rear camber compensation (or rather a lack of it) Do you have any pics of the tyres post-endurance? Feel free to post them here or send direct.

Ben

Mike Hart

07-17-2008, 02:30 PM

Yes, camber compensation isn't great. It's a shame Phil isn't around for another year since I think there would be less compromise from the point of suspension over chassis. We're just in the middle of a Lessons Learnt Review as part of the knowlege transfer so the things that Phil would do differently will get passed onto Danny who is taking over next year and the year after.

We could really do with greater inclination on the upper wishbone (from my very entry level understanding of VD) a la Stuttgart. Perhaps not quite as extreme as Lancaster though.....their upper and lowers were mounted in the same vertical plane....

From a driving point of view, it feels worse on the exit under power. Mid corner it's pretty much OK, and since camber change under bump is virtually zero, I wouldn't have thought the camber change will get any worse on the exit. To me it feels like we need softer damping, but then that's something we can't really change. I was thinking of maybe raising the ride height a bit to increase the weight transfer to the back?

The only picture I can find of the tyres even slightly close up is this.

http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/421/tyreszu8.jpg

There was some graining on the inside, but wear was pretty even on all four tyres.

I'm not in Brum at the moment so don't have the tyres to hand.

ben

07-17-2008, 04:41 PM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Mike hart:
Yes, camber compensation isn't great. It's a shame Phil isn't around for another year since I think there would be less compromise from the point of suspension over chassis. We're just in the middle of a Lessons Learnt Review as part of the knowlege transfer so the things that Phil would do differently will get passed onto Danny who is taking over next year and the year after.
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

If possible, get him on the OptimumG seminar at FSG.

Ben

smb96

07-17-2008, 04:44 PM

First of all thank you for the congrats and i also want to congratulate all teams who got their cars running at competition! Especially Braunschweig! When they fixed the crashed car it reminded me when we cut of the whole rear frame to use the cbr engine instead of the mahle. You need definitely a great team to do such a job in that short time.

I would like to tell you some of my impressions of that competition.

Like on almost every formula student / fsae competitions the spirit was great. You can meet there old friends in the pits and talk with teams about their cars. I really enjoy that. Its always interesting how fast you can find and get spare parts from your "rivals". Also its great to give somebody a ball joint and he thanks you like you saved his life.

It was a great competition but it was not one of the hardest. I want to say that i don't think that we were that extreme fast. Many very good teams had problems there and other very fast teams were not there. The track was very fast, almost like Italy! In my opinion is that better for us than for Delft who did a very good job. I just tell you that because some people told me that we were unbeatable fast or similar.

Again the marshals did not a good job. Again bad luck for Helsinki... the blue flag penalty. Our 2. driver got the finish flag after the 3. lap. I am sure that there are more things. I know that they are volunteers, but on all other competitions i know it works better.

Claude: I had a 20-30 min talk with him in our pit. Most of the time we talked about the team, how the team works etc. and not about the car it self. I liked that because i think that the team it self is much more important than the tech stuff. As far as i can rate him i cant believe that he just said "crap" and nothing else. I must say he came the evening after the autocross.

I hope to see a lot of you at Hockenheim. I would be glad if some people visit me and my team in the pits

HenkWapstra

07-18-2008, 04:25 AM

Congratulations to everyone competing and thank you all for a great competition!

We are currently preparing an after party for the FSG Mahle party... Some party pics from Silverstone:

http://www.dutracing.nl/images/stories/FSUK_Delft1.jpg http://www.dutracing.nl/images/stories/FSUK_Delft2.jpg http://www.dutracing.nl/images/stories/FSUK_Delft3.jpg http://www.dutracing.nl/images/stories/FSUK_Delft4.jpg

[photography: Jorrit Lousberg]

07-18-2008, 06:05 AM

That was an awesome party indeed. Thanks for all the teams who joined us. Especially the guys from India, who have finished enduro for the first time in history!! They were pretty pleased about that as you can see on this video (http://youtube.com/watch?v=bSHWBYlmJXY)

Just a small remark about the marshalls, our second driver got a minute penalty as well. I've seen the footage, the marshall's standing behind a photographer on a totally wrong spot where cars drive away from him, not even waving the blue flag but holding it close.
Kinda makes you wonder, would both the Helsinki and Delft driver ignore this man if he was easy to see? I know from personal experience that drivers are considered crash-test dummies, but I'm inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt every now and then.

Don't get me started on the rest of the incidents I've seen in Silverstone and on the fact that you are considered guilty until you prove your innocence.

See you in Germany!

Miki Hegedus
Delft University of Technology

Robert_USM

07-18-2008, 05:00 PM

Here's a few pics I took. I didn't take many pics this year as I was rushing around sorting stuff most of the time.

Congratulations to all the teams who did well, whether it be winning or finishing enduro for the first time!

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa210/rneilsone/Untitled.jpg

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa210/rneilsone/DSCN2859.jpg

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa210/rneilsone/DSCN2861.jpg

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa210/rneilsone/DSCN2863.jpg

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa210/rneilsone/DSCN2864.jpg

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa210/rneilsone/DSCN2866.jpg

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa210/rneilsone/DSCN2868.jpg

ccsharry

07-30-2008, 04:08 AM

Well done everyone!! It was a very interesting weekend with emotions going up and down every minute!!

I didn't really have time to take photos this year but I still have got some.

12/07/2008 (http://s209.photobucket.com/albums/bb98/tbr08/2008-07-12%20Formula%20Student%20Competition%202008/)

13/07/2008 (http://s209.photobucket.com/albums/bb98/tbr08/2008-07-13%20Formula%20Student%20Competition%202008/)

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb98/tbr08/2008-07-12%20Formula%20Student%20Competition%202008/IMG_6401.jpg

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb98/tbr08/2008-07-12%20Formula%20Student%20Competition%202008/IMG_6364.jpg

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb98/tbr08/2008-07-13%20Formula%20Student%20Competition%202008/IMG_6650a.jpg