Open Source Sports Racer

[jack]

I just found this website. I think they just "moved" which explains why all the forum topics are archived. Anyway, I guess these guys are collaboratively designing this DSR, I think it will much more interesting with a few hundred FSAE guys trying to build one car....so check it out....

opensourcesportsracer (http://www.opensourcesportsracer.com/OpenSourceSportsRacer/)

[jack]

I just found this website. I think they just "moved" which explains why all the forum topics are archived. Anyway, I guess these guys are collaboratively designing this DSR, I think it will much more interesting with a few hundred FSAE guys trying to build one car....so check it out....

opensourcesportsracer (http://www.opensourcesportsracer.com/OpenSourceSportsRacer/)

[J. Vinella]

Interesting idea.

I laughed at that 6'6" figure for the driver's height. I would like to see someone that is 6'6" get into one of our cars.

I still couldn't get if they are trying to build a race car or just collectively designing one or having a forum like this one but for a broader audience?

[Igor]

Probably started by some 6'6" ex-fsae guys who could never convince their fellow students to design the car big enough so that they would be able to drive too. Now they want a second chance :-)

Igor
(also 6'6" and never driven an FSAE car http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_mad.gif)

[James Waltman]

6'6"� isn't totally unreasonable. Geoff Pearson (Big Bird) is a pretty tall guy and he fits into one of the smallest FSAE cars out there (RMIT).
I think it's just a matter of choosing the driver size range and packaging to make it work.

Igor is on a team that's dead set on making the lightest car possible. Tough break (but cool car).

[Matt N]

I've got to say, there is nothing like having ten times (one thousand times?) the number of minds necessary to actually design something on a given project...

Matt

[NetKev92]

Like most projects, I'd bet a small core group do the heavy lifting. I haven't been able to discern how many people are really in their core group, or if it's mostly a couple guys' project with a forum to discuss details.

I suspect that the Locost method might be more effective if you want to have a design that a large number of people would be interested in building. You design a simple car, work out the major kinks, and you publish basic plans at an affordable price. Open source projects seem to attract tinkerers and less of the "show me how and let me at it" type crowd. Both groups are useful, but the first spend their time designing cars while the latter spend their time building. I hope that I can bridge the gap well on my own project. I've spent a lot of time designing so far.

[Big Bird]

Thanks for the PM invite on this James. For what it is worth I'm around 6'5", and can drive our car without too much trouble. Design methodology involves lots of measurements of your team members, CAD models, and building physical bucks for a reality check. (People move around in real life, in ways you wouldn't expect - my knee moves up and down a good 2 inches as my foot operates the gas pedal)

Regarding the whole size issue, I don't know why you wouldn't design your car so that all your team members can fit in it. Come to think of it, so that sponsors and supporters can too. Nothing gets the enthusiasm up like letting people drive the car. One of the best things we ever did was to have a drive-day for all the workshop staff who helped with the car - they were rapt, and became a lot more interested in putting in a bit of extra effort for the team.

I'd rather spend a couple of extra kilos and boost team morale, than go mad on size and weight saving and build a car that only a jockey can drive. A couple of kilos might be worth 10-20 points on track if you are lucky. But if you are not regularly finishing the event then you have more of a management issue than a performanance issue, and that is where a motivated team and supporters will pay off with much greater returns.

Excuse some semi-hypocrisy - yes, our current cars is very narrow, but we are working on that for 07 as we have been bitten by the driver comfort versus minimizing weight / size tradeoff.

Cheers all,

[J. Vinella]

I realize I was a bit of an arse with my origianl post.

I remember at West talking to you Geoff, the appropriately named Big Bird and I being the aforementioned Jockey, was a bit like looking to the clouds for me. I liked your guy's low mounting rack. With the rack in our current location we can only fit 6'4" without any major problems.

I suspect your car provides great lateral support with the chassis being so tight.

[Big Bird]

Hi Jack,

No "bit of an arse-ness" interpreted. My apologies if I didn't recognize your name, I met so many people at West and East this year, and I'm finding out in retrospect that I've met pretty well everyone in the fsae.com community. It was a great experience doing the US comps, and I learnt so much from my extended gas-bagging sessions with everyone.

Yep, plenty of lateral support is a polite way to put it. It can get pretty tight in there. Actually a lot of us really like the tightness of the cockpit, you can feel what the tyres are doing really well. But this year we are thinking of more of an ETS type system where the opening is wider and the driver is slotted in with custom pads.

And using the driver as a stressed element adds to chassis stiffness too. Maybe I should have mentioned that point in the composite tub thread http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

Cheers,