Formula North 2012 Competition: - Updates, Pictures, Stories, and More

[Mbirt]

I noticed there was no official competition thread for Formula North, so here it is!

Kettering and USF practiced at Tony's I-75 Restaurant in Birch Run, MI with a heaping plate of poutine Sunday night. The cars are running pretty well too. It's been a blast hosting them in our shop.

Does everyone have their 20L jerricans ready?

[Mbirt]

I noticed there was no official competition thread for Formula North, so here it is!

Kettering and USF practiced at Tony's I-75 Restaurant in Birch Run, MI with a heaping plate of poutine Sunday night. The cars are running pretty well too. It's been a blast hosting them in our shop.

Does everyone have their 20L jerricans ready?

[acedeuce802]

Once again, Kettering forum users occupy almost half of the regsitered users logged on the week before competition. Weather is looking awesome for the upcoming days, as it has been around here the past 2 weeks. Good luck to all who will be attending North.

[nick roberts]

Anyone know why Maryland pulled out? I was hoping to see what that car can do.

-nick

[Mike Cook]

patience, grasshopper

[nick roberts]

Let me guess. Something like "well the aero and suspension are done and the cars gonna be a rocket, but that darn powertrain keeps overheating/blowing up/wont run". Its always powertrain isn't it?

Well we may become the first team to make Detroit and miss Lincoln. No seriously, we've got issues. See you there ; )


-nick

[Mike Cook]

Well we could both find a really big hill and push our cars down that....

Or maybe just a god damn cliff.

[Kettering Admins]

http://fsae.com/eve/forums/a/t...20706151#76020706151 (http://fsae.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/412600868/m/39020575151?r=76020706151#76020706151)

[JT A.]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by nick roberts:
Let me guess. Something like "well the aero and suspension are done and the cars gonna be a rocket, but that darn powertrain keeps overheating/blowing up/wont run". Its always powertrain isn't it?

Well we may become the first team to make Detroit and miss Lincoln. No seriously, we've got issues. See you there ; )


-nick </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

hey, our car is gonna be running by the time we get back from our scouting/recon mission in Lincoln this weekend

[JayhawkOne]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by nick roberts:
Let me guess. Something like "well the aero and suspension are done and the cars gonna be a rocket, but that darn powertrain keeps overheating/blowing up/wont run". Its always powertrain isn't it?

Well we may become the first team to make Detroit and miss Lincoln. No seriously, we've got issues. See you there ; )


-nick </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

O ye of little faith...

Anyway, excited to see some pics from North!

[Mike Cook]

us old guys have no faith. The racecar gods have smite us to much.

[Mbirt]

With the California competition a thing of the past, we've found it interesting how much similarity the Barrie, Ontario, Canada area (where the arena is at least) strikes with the Ontario, California area. The developing area has dusty, light-colored dirt, you can see the (slightly) mountainous region topped with haze in the distance, and we're an hour from the coast (although the Great Lakes are no Pacific Ocean).

Most of the 20 teams that showed made it through tech inspection yesterday and today is filled with static events. The weather has been excellent thus far and we hope it continues for the dynamic events.

[spam2128]

A little update for anyone interested after endurance.

ETS dnf on second driver after to losing an exhaust tip.

McGill dnf due to small water leak

Looks like Metropolia will take the entire event.

Oakland University was also pretty fast. Finished their last 5 or 6 laps of endurance with a side pod bent up to the top of their drivers head but weren't DQ'd.

[Der Krug]

This was a great overall event. Facilities and organization was quite good, along with all of the volunteers and design judges.
The surfaces used for the dynamic events were a bit dusty and it was slightly difficult to get a good view of the cars, (no seating besides your own foldout chair).

Claude Rouelle was nice enough to offer a casual design review upon being asked today. We would like to thank him again for his generosity, as our team definitely received some great insight. Can't wait for the OptimumG seminar after Lincoln!

This is an event that will very likely be added on the calender for next year.

[Canuck Racing]

I agree. Great Event. It had its share of goof-ups as expected for a first year event and in-experienced volunteer crew but the crew was quick to admit their mistakes, react to changes and the event always continued smoothly, working through lunch or later into the night when needed. SAE could learn something from them.

Hope to be back next year!

[Fantomas]

Great to see that another "unofficial" FSAE event satisfies the students.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">SAE could learn something from them. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

It seems to me as if having an event completely run by former team members like FS North, FS Hungary, FS Germany and FS Austria is more like a quality seal than being an "official" SAE event...at least telling from the feedback in this forum. I wonder what an event has to do to become an official SAE event. Does anyone know?

Fantomas

[RacingManiac]

Pictures from Saturday during Autocross:

https://plus.google.com/photos.../5747729063473053425 (https://plus.google.com/photos/104102302644408236956/albums/5747729063473053425)

Anyone see pic they like to use send me a PM with the filename and I'll get you the full 12MP image.

The location was pretty good, though as noted it is definitely dusty. You can tell though the organizers are pretty green, but for the students who started it they did a great job pulling it off. I'd note some minor safety issue within the dynamic area with photogs being quite close to the racing lane, or the teams waiting inline got probably too close to the track as well. Next year maybe fence off a bigger area from the space between the practice pad and the dynamic area. Also I seem to recall in Michigan it was usually frown upon to do practice accel launches in the practice area....

[Ynoff]

It was a fun event. I know we learned alot of things for next year. What we need to improve on and making sure engines don't blow 3wks before the race.

See you guys next year!

[Formula North]

Thanks for your feedback and comments! We realize we are a first year event and know that there are many improvements that need to be made.

You can visit our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/formulanorth for pictures or follow us on Twitter @FormulaNorth for updates.

2013 on its way....

[kcapitano]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">It was a fun event. I know we learned alot of things for next year. What we need to improve on and making sure engines don't blow 3wks before the race </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
3wks before? How about making sure your engine doesn't blow on the morning of static events... or during your skid pad run?

But in all seriousness, thank you to all the teams who helped us out over the weekend. Special thanks to the guys at Oakland University for their support and the team from Concordia University for offering their spare engine to us.

Overall the event went really well for it's first time. The sponsors and volunteers who made it happen deserve a big thank you. Hope to see everyone again next year!

[spam2128]

I thought you guys had drivetrain issues? Or was that before dynamic events started?

Either way unlucky. BOL next year

[kcapitano]

Both engines had connecting rod bearing failures.
The first engine started to make a ticking sound a day before comp. It became so loud that we failed the noise test thursday night, so we swapped engines friday. The new one worked until our second skid pad run when we started hearing loud ticking again, then the engine just wouldn't turn over.
Our engine guy is doing a full autopsy on the engines this week. We're not sure if this was just bad bearings, or a problem caused by something we did to the car.

[Ynoff]

For sure man, that is true. At least RR got to race in all events. That sucked for your engine, especially when I came over and saw all those chunks of metal =(. I hope you can figure out what caused it and fix it for next year!

[Owen Thomas]

Con rod failure and loud ticking eh? At the risk of causing this thread to stray, I would recommend checking your ignition timing. It may not be common to get engine knock on this size of engine but with the right (read:wrong) amount of spark advance you can certainly achieve early detonation.

[acedeuce802]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/a...s/72157630020892494/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/acedeuce802/sets/72157630020892494/)