The Race Engineer blog

[Buddy Fey]

Greetings to all, and sincere apologies for my first post being to promote my new blog. I'll be back occasionally to contribute in a more meaningful way, as a way to thank the FSAE community for their continuing interest in "Data Power". That said...

Have a look at:

http://buddyfey.blogspot.com

I'll be posting on racing technology, the race engineer's role, life as a race engineer, and more. No drivel or rants about celebs, personal life, politics, etc., I promise.

[Buddy Fey]

Greetings to all, and sincere apologies for my first post being to promote my new blog. I'll be back occasionally to contribute in a more meaningful way, as a way to thank the FSAE community for their continuing interest in "Data Power". That said...

Have a look at:

http://buddyfey.blogspot.com

I'll be posting on racing technology, the race engineer's role, life as a race engineer, and more. No drivel or rants about celebs, personal life, politics, etc., I promise.

[ennis bragg]

Hi Buddy!

No apologies necessary.

You have a lot of fans here. And I know there are many FSAE'ers who own a copy of "Data Power", myself included.

It's great to have you here!
Welcome to FSAE.com

Ennis Bragg
site owner
FSAE.com

[Alan]

Hi Buddy. I spoke to you a couple of years ago and you had mentioned SAE might be reprinting Data Power. Any word on that?

Great blog by the way. I spent a year doing fuel for timed races so I definitely have some thoughts (albeit simple ones) on your Race Strategy Part 1 quiz.

[Buddy Fey]

SAE wanted me to do a legitimate 2nd Edition with updated and expanded content. At the time, I wasn't able to do that, so it didn't happen. Guess I should look into it again...

[Buddy Fey]

New post, the first in a series on springs, is now up.

[Buddy Fey]

New post up today. Travel notes for Watkins Glen.

[Erich Ohlde]

Hey Buddy,
Just an fyi, the link you have to your blog in your signature has a comma at the end so we get a dead link when we click on it.

[Buddy Fey]

Fixed. Or at least it looked that way on my profile. We'll see how long it takes to make its way through the system.

Thanks, Erich. See you soon.

[Buddy Fey]

New blog post today on spring tuning.

[Buddy Fey]

New post up today. Revisiting Philosophy Vol. 1 with some real world experiences from this weekend's event at Autobahn.

[Buddy Fey]

A new post is FINALLY up on the The Race Engineer. I've surfaced for air. There's a new post about modifying production suspension geometry. And, I hope, the first post on testing soon to come.

[Buddy Fey]

After weeks with no new posts, now there are two new ones in the last 7 days!

Today is a short discussion of vehicle dynamics thinking in 3 dimensions.

[R. Alexander]

Keep them coming Buddy!

[Buddy Fey]

The latest blog post is now up. It's a brief introductory thing, covering new download functionality from the blog. But more importantly, it introduces a new multi-part series on setup sheets. First installment on that in just a few days, and the whole thing should be in your hands in a week or two.

Merry Christmas and Happy 2010 to all!

[Buddy Fey]

As promised, the first installment of a multi-part series on setup sheets is now up. Documents available for free or purchase from Scribd, too. More to come this week.

[woodsy96]

Hi Buddy. I know that this is only the first part of your setup sheet blog, but looking at your prototype setup sheet I think it is interesting that you haven't included anything about the conditions, such as air temp, track temp, humidity, etc., given the effects on the car setup they have. Is there any particular reason for that, or is it something you are planning to cover in a later installment?

[Buddy Fey]

Good question.

The initial setup sheet is usually prepared two or three weeks ahead of the event. Even that far ahead, the setup will reflect expected conditions for the event, but can't reflect actual conditions.

I don't usually produce a revised complete setup sheet for the crew between sessions trackside. This will be explained in more detail in one of the upcoming blog posts, but suffice to say that's a lost opportunity to include weather conditions.

I create and save fairly extensive background notes about my thinking behind the setup, both initially and trackside. Expected influence of weather on the setup is part of that info. These notes aren't part of the setup sheet content, though.

Finally, the weather conditions aren't really part of the car configuration. For me, this is more than a rhetorical point. I had some early and memorable lessons about setup sheet content and effective and clear communications with the crew.

From my perspective, weather belongs on trackside run logs, general notes, and yes, the "engineer's version" of the setup sheet (which would also contain such things as key target/actual numbers for aero and vehicle dynamics).

My opinion, though, is just my opinion. In the end, it's your call...

[Buddy Fey]

I'm on a roll now...

Part 2 of the Setup Sheet series is now up. It looks like this one will run to four parts.

[Buddy Fey]

It's a regular blog bonanza...

Brandon Thomas, of NASCAR's Red Bull Racing, has written a guest blog on his experiences using DOE in conjunction with vehicle dynamics simulation. Have a look.

The remainder of the Setup Sheet series is hot on Brandon's heels.

[Mechanicaldan]

Hi Buddy,

Have you considered pushing your book to the "Print on Demand" market so that so many of the young engineers that would like to buy a copy of book, could buy a copy of your long out of print book?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Print_on_demand

[Buddy Fey]

Thanks for asking, Dan.

For a long time, there were unresolved copyright issues in the wake of my publisher going out of business. That's fixed now.

I don't want to get anybody's hopes up, but I've been looking into all these options to get Data Power available again - new publisher, self publish, print on demand, and EBook. Nothing is firm, there's no timetable, and no decision. If there's good news, it will show up on FSAE.com, Twitter, and the blog.

[Buddy Fey]

Part 3 of the Setup Sheet series is now posted on the blog. One more to go.

[Buddy Fey]

The final post in the series on setup sheets is now up at the blog.

OK guys, leave a comment or two on the setup sheet series. I know from Google Analytics that you've been there reading them, you can't hide.

Check in again soon, too. My old friend, Jeff Braun, has written a post on his outlook on tuning. It will be on the blog in a few days.

[Buddy Fey]

Jeff Braun's thought-provoking guest post on the setup and trackside tuning process is now up. Have a look.

[scott_rfr]

Buddy,

Finding the posts really interesting. Maybe you can post a screen shoot or some tips on setting up a database?

Scott
Rutgers SAE

[Buddy Fey]

Scott,
Jeff has kindly prepared a PDF of the Excel version of his setup database. You'll find it on the blog now.

I also posted a link to a great writeup on Wikipedia that is required reading for anyone involved in race cars. It relates to Jeff's concept of "secondary effects".

[Buddy Fey]

No, I'm not dead, or even seriously incapacitated. Not yet, anyway.

I've been really busy, and that's the reason for no blog posts in a LONG time, but it's not a good excuse.

Anyway, we're back. New post on rain setups today. More to come. Soon, I hope.

Thanks for your patience.

[Homemade WRX]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Buddy Fey:
SAE wanted me to do a legitimate 2nd Edition with updated and expanded content. At the time, I wasn't able to do that, so it didn't happen. Guess I should look into it again... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

yes, you should. ODU had received permission to make printed copies for one of the classes in the motorsports engineering minor. I would love to have a real (and updated) copy http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[Buddy Fey]

New post up today, with some thoughts about the 24 hour race at Daytona. Kicking the old writing process back into gear. Should be another post soon. Thanks for hanging with me.

[Buddy Fey]

New blog post is up. Comparing Rolex race strategy with Indy 500. Have a look at Andy Brown's fine article in the April 2011 issue of Race Car Engineering.

[Buddy Fey]

New blog post is up. Looking into decision making process for making setup changes on pit lane.

[Rex Chan]

Who thinks a 24Hr (or maybe 12/6/3hr) enduro for FSAE cars would be fun? Would be interesting to see which cars are still running at the end.

You would have to have stops for fuel, tyres, etc (or oil change in our case), in the same way driver change is done: time limit, so its not a race, but so you can't take too long either.

[exFSAE]

There's already a 30-40% (IIRC) retirement rate in a &lt; 30 min event.

3+ hours..?

[Rex Chan]

Maybe they could allocate points based on distance covered?

And yes, looking at overall comp results, only about 30-40% of teams overall finish/score in enduro.