Aussie Teams - How's everyone going

[plohl]

Just curious to see how everyone is going, progress wise? Haha, comp is still 8 or so months away, but anyway.

I should have the engine back next week, with only the plenum to be manufactured and then we can hopefully start tuning/testing. Need to sort out an engine dyno though.

[MalcolmG]

Things are coming along pretty well over here, we've got lots to do this year with a change in engine type and some major redesigns in other areas (suspension, unsprung). We also have some sweet composite parts in the pipelines to increase bad-assness/make things cheaper (I love composites).

We're still keeping a similar philosophy to last year, and are working around similar deadlines. Overall we're ahead in some areas (chassis & suspension) to where we were last year, but a bit behind in others (engine...damn engine...). Having said that, we've already broken the gearbox in our new engine and last year it took us until the competition to break it, so that's good progress!

[oz_olly]

ADFA is getting along ok. We are still finalising some of the design. Things like cooling system, pedal box, exhaust and intake manifold. We have changed the concept of our car this year after not having an entry last year. The complexity and technical risk assosciated with our gear driven 2007 car has made us cautious of trying anything too tricky this year.

Our car will see us move to 10 inch wheels and use beam axle suspension front and rear. The rear will be a de Dion with Watt's link lateral control and the front will be a peg and slot similar to a model T ford. It's old school technology but it will be fun to see how it performs and it has been easier to design. Should be easier to manufacture. I am yet to work out what the increase in unsprung mass is from our previous cars but the change to 10 inch wheels will help.

Check out our website:

http://www.unsw.adfa.edu.au/ac...aevehicle/index.html (http://www.unsw.adfa.edu.au/acme/studentactivities/saevehicle/index.html)

We have a blog sort of thing happening on the main page with news letters bimonthly. If you have any comments on our site please pass them on to the webmaster.

Hope everyone else is going well. I am looking forward to seeing Edith Cowen's next car. Their first attempt was great.

Cheers

Olly
ACME Racing
UNSW@ADFA

[STAATSWANN]

good, id rate our progress bout 7

STAATS
'THAT DRIVELINE GUY'
CURTIN MOTORSPORT TEAM
PERTH, WA - AUSTRALIA

[L B0MB]

Yo Staats, you wouldn't rate it "Heaps sick heyyyyy" ?

[plohl]

7 out of??

haha, its good there here everyone is going.. well.. getting there.

We have had more set backs with the chassis, but should see some major progress in the next few weeks.

good luck

[Juggz]

not doing too bad at sydney, just getting last years car fixed and testing.

Going to add this years high tech :P parts to it in a few months.

Had a prob with the new chassis too but hopefully its sorted.

Bit upset about the cost of the new entry fee when teams like ours struggle to scrape together enough to even build a car.

[Hudson]

Melbourne Uni is going OK, we are trying to pass subjects at the moment and hence are a few weeks behind in manufacturing...

How is the GFC treating everyone?

[Kirby]

Originally posted by Hudson:
How is the GFC treating everyone?

I'd be surprised if anyone had an answer other than something along the lines of: "no asset liquidity, little cash, shrinking sponsor base"


Originally posted by MalcolmG:
change in engine type

moving to the new model R6?

what are the improvements?

[MalcolmG]

Nope, changing completely to a reasonably unique usage of the wr/yz450. Basically the motivation is that a smaller, lighter car should be capable of doing better in fuel economy than a heavier 4cyl car, while being equally capable in the other dynamic events, and with fuel economy worth 100 points we don't think we can ignore it as we were probably pretty guilty of in the past. A change like this has been on the cards for a few years now, and the change in points allocation finally gave us the push we needed to actually do it.

[plohl]

mmmm 450... are you going to be using a supercharger?

Nothing has really been happening on our front, a few things have been made... more than a few things are getting made too slow haha, but yeah, exam time sucks! Cant wait for the holidays (not that i'll actually have 'holidays')

The entry fee is supposed to be released at the end of this month isnt it?

[MalcolmG]

yeah things have slowed down for us through exams too, we were hoping to have the chassis done before exams but everyone had quite a heavy workload of projects due just before exams, so we've been slowly picking away at it and hope it'll be done next week or first week of holidays.

We're planning to test the 450 with the supercharger on the engine dyno soon, once we've finished tuning in naturally aspirated form, and the results of that will decide whether we go with it this year or not.

Pretty anxious to hear about the entry fees, a fairly sizable chunk of our budget is resting on that decision right now!

[plohl]

man, i wish we had an engine dyno...

Yeah, actual results will be amazing, it'll be interesting to see what you end up with.

We are in the same position with our chassis, it picked up then hit a wall, provided a few people hook in once exam finish, it should be finished in a week or so. It'll be great seeing it done, haha, one part closer.

Yeah, if we had gone to comp last year, we wouldnt have the funds to make it to comp this year, or we would, but wouldn't have a car... the out come will be very interesting.