Craziest thing you've seen?

[wesg]

I'm relatively new to the FSAE scene at my school, but the more I learn about it, the more interested I've become. So after combing YouTube for interesting clips, I want to know what the craziest thing you've seen/done with FSAE either at the meet up or in preparation. Axle split? Engine caught fire? What else?

[wesg]

I'm relatively new to the FSAE scene at my school, but the more I learn about it, the more interested I've become. So after combing YouTube for interesting clips, I want to know what the craziest thing you've seen/done with FSAE either at the meet up or in preparation. Axle split? Engine caught fire? What else?

[D Collins Jr]

A couple of years ago at Texas Autocross weekend, I saw two things that should have scared me away from this. While working a corner, I saw a car lose a wheel in my corner, and just go straight through the cones instead of turning. Then, later in the day, I was sitting in line to drive for an exceptionally long time. The car in front of me in line didn't move until i saw another being carried (by four guys where wheels are supposed to be) off of the track. After that, I'd say images of our car at California in 2007 and Toledo's more recent fiery experience.

[PatClarke]

Don't even get me started! (he says, shaking his head sagely) =]

Pat

[Huskie Motorsports TD]

Well seen or expienced? Seen was the 07 west incedents. This year our suspension guy was doing a quick run in a parking lot, and as he passed the entrance a car appears out of nowhere going mach to fast, missed collision by inches one day prior to departure for comp.

Also this year I drove on two wheels for a while in endurance...kinda sketchy, but don't let theses things slow you down...

[Pico]

Last year we crashed our car into a sidewalk testing before comp and after trying to drive it on a karting track (ethanol then started to spew out of the restrictor for no good reason).

This year our front suspension buckled 2 times in one day and 3 times overall while we were at Detroits brake test. Then the cam cover gasket popped during endurance (hole in piston heating crankcase)

See you next year http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_razz.gif

[exFSAE]

Ohhh...

Dartmouth in 06 (?) was good... hub failure sent a wheel flying what seemed like 30' in the air and across the VDA.

I've been told, in the year or two before mine (03? 04?) a team was on the accel line and apparently hadn't designed their rear uprights with longitudinal weight transfer in mind. Dropped the clutch, uprights yielded, snapped, and the car dragged on the oil pan slicking the whole acceleration lane.

Cops came into our shop with guns drawn once...

Ehh.. unlocking doors.. with ridiculous welding rod contraptions.

Couple cars have caught fire at comp. I only remember seeing Cinci as one of em.

Watching one of our team members take down an entire opposing team in shirtless arm wrestling (it wasn't my idea!)

I've been told I was trying to start fights with Canadians at some bar (The Beach?) in Windsor.

Unpacking our competition car for some practice in Illinois only to see the a-arms yielded.. and having to bend em back, and weld on 1/8" steel plate at a local high school. Sketchy.

Saw a very confused squirrel on my apartment's 4th floor window sill. I had no idea how he got there, and he had no idea how to get down!

Blah blah blah.

[J.R.]

UWA's car going through a corner! Kinematic Suspension = 5 deg/g = AMAZING!

[Mike Macie]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by J.R.:
UWA's car going through a corner! Kinematic Suspension = 5 deg/g = AMAZING! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

It's Kinetic, and it better not be 5 deg/g. Maybe you meant .5

[J.R.]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Mike Macie:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by J.R.:
UWA's car going through a corner! Kinematic Suspension = 5 deg/g = AMAZING! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

It's Kinetic, and it better not be 5 deg/g. Maybe you meant .5 </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Sorry for the typo's, thanks for taking the time to edit me http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[Wesley]

Probably the flaming spin we did at Cali in '07 (on Youtube!)

Various part failures, etc.

[DART-CG]

Sitting on a chair totally exhausted after an endurance run in those very hot days in the weeks before FSG08 watching as my teamate flies down the back straight in 4th gear. Short before redlining the engine he suddenly misses the braking point, locks up the front wheels in a cloud of smoke but the car maintains his speed and slides out of the track and out of our sight -&gt; later we found out that the throttle unexplicibly got stuck

Those seconds were one of the scariest I ever experienced, I only waited for the bang!!!
Luckily the driver managed to slide parallel to the guardrail and stopped after a measured 60m (!!) 1-2 meters in front of our parked cars.
The 15km old front tires were worn to their carcass and the drivers didn't speak a word for minutes as he was white like chalk.

[BamaJeff]

20 ft flames are pretty crazy...

RIP 2007...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugI_LmNAky8

[Scalesy]

1 week before we shipped our car to california last year...

tie rod gave out as i was coming out of a sharp turn in the parking lot at our shop. crashed the right front wheel into the side of the building, snapped a set of a-arms, a brake line, and bent a rim, as well as radiator mounts. Luckily the frame and upright were ok, as well as my legs...had it been 2 feet over, the crash zone would really have gotten a test.

immediately after i realized i was ok, the reality of some sleepless nights set in, and a few choice words were used.

[JamesWolak]

I hope University administration never reads this thread. I am sure it would turn away many of them from supporting FSAE.

And just in case mine does...

Lawrence Tech has NEVER had anything like this happen. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif

[Zac]

The craziest thing I've ever seen was Pittsburgh testing all day in a monsoon this spring...

...and then being faster than UWA when they finally got their car together.

After that, I think they were the only team openly rooting for rain at Detroit.

[kapps]

Craziest thing I've seen was while making our muffler body. Our welder used an acrylic tube to wrap the aluminum around to keep the shape as he tacked it together. When he was done, he noticed that the acrylic had melted and the body was stuck. Instead of trying to get it off, the decision was made to finish welding and maybe the heat would just melt the acrylic away...well it didn't. We tried sawing, hammering, EVERYTHING to get that bloody thing off. We went so far as to look up the thermal expansion rates of the two materials. Acrylic was an order of magnitude higher so we stuck the thing in the freezer (it actually moved a little but not enough to get it off). Then the greatest decision to ever come from our shop was made...BURN IT. We took out an oxyacetylene torch and went to town on the inside of the acrylic. Eventually, the fire was self sustaining, shooting out of both sides of the tube. One of our guys picked it up with some thick gloves. We hustled him over to the faucet and doused it in cold water and dropped it on the ground. Acrylic cracks and aluminum slides off leaving a perfect muffler body. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif Speaking of which, I still need to get those pictures...

[exFSAE]

Wow.

[Rellis]

baja team using bolts to fill gaps in there frame and covering them in mig weld.

GO cart

HPV team trying to layup a huge nose cone on a loading dock at night with no lights.

The fires of 06 and 07 FSAE

A 60hp Mercedes Diesel auto crossing well

a microwave suck in the ground after a 14 story fall from towers

losing my bike for a week only to find it chained to bar where I rode if the week before for the same drink special

Busan !!

[Mike Cook]

uh.....people banging in the helicopter outside our lab........and then getting hit with a million candle spot lite... http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

[Rellis]

I formula Vee losing it for the 5th strait time in salina and coming right for me again

[Adambomb]

The Busan is good times. For those who haven't had the privilege of riding in one, it is an '85 Nissan 4x4 with a heavily modified Buick V6 capable of blasting through a foot of snow at 60 mph (this has been done). Too much power, too little weight (if there is such a thing!). Plus you can get really creative with parking!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=33153683&l=c8891&id=16912542

Of course the Gocart ellis mentioned...

http://fsae.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8356059423/m/9721005...10059141#97210059141 (http://fsae.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/8356059423/m/97210059141?r=97210059141#97210059141)

Also, getting on the news for making dry ice bombs, microwaving CDs (try it!), watching HPV kink their HREW roll hoop while bending it, then filling in the kink with Bondo and calling it good, watching them make their body mold by stabbing at a large piece of pink foam with screwdrivers; hell, anything HPV does in the shop for that matter. Or most of the stuff baja has done.

Of course in Detroit, in '03-'04 wheels flying off was pretty common, and these days engines explode in balls of flames.

[Rellis]

or from my solar car days

using the "big" power supply to light computer mobos on fire

or testing the durability of lithum batteries by trying to get them to catch fire

mixing fiber glass resin 1-1 with MEKP (dont due it smokes alot)

[Rellis]

the first time I realized the FSAE shop is an old reactor


the fuel rod container


You can buy 40s at Restaurants in Kansas and get them to go once you have taken a drink of them

[t21jj]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Rellis:
the first time I realized the FSAE shop is an old reactor


the fuel rod container
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>
The fuel rod container or "Pig" is still in the storage room. We finally figured out that it is about 1200lb of solid lead. The lid alone is about 300lb.
http://picsorban.com/upload/img_1432.jpg

And this thing that our engine builder built one night.
http://picsorban.com/upload/img_0629_sized.jpg
And this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzZolWiEmv8

[Kyle Roggenkamp]

St. Cloud State University's 2008 car actually moving under it's own power.

[J.R.]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Kyle Roggenkamp:
St. Cloud State University's 2008 car actually moving under it's own power. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'll second that for UB, listen around 0:11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-jscZIe4Kw

Brake test at VIR being the first time the car moved more than 5 ft under its own power!

[munjalsavla]

Orion racing India car coming within cms of banging into a motorbike and a car.

Was driving near college and there was a bump on a corner. i knew about it but unfortunately hit it on one of the laps. all 4 wheels locked and the car started sliding sideways. came within millimeters of a scooter. The only thing that saved the scooter was that my wheels were pointing sideways. I tried to straighten the steering and the wheel touched the scooter !!

one more funny thing was, on some low speed tests, we went really near to a line of parked cars and their security alarms went off!!

just to make sure it was because of us, we did that again..........indeed it was because of us...lol

[Mikey Antonakakis]

Our shop is also right next to an old nuclear reactor in the basement of the engineering building. There is a garage door in the parking garage that connects to our shop that opens to a storage room. Most of the stuff in the storage room is labeled radioactive. And there is no lock on the door, at least not one that works.

[Adambomb]

Yeah, Environmental Health and Safety says we're not supposed to spend any significant amount of time in our storage room due to trace amounts of radiation. Somehow the reactor room/shop isn't a problem.

So I'm seeing a trend:

End of cold war --&gt; cuts in nuclear programs --&gt; SAE shop space

[duckei]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Adambomb:
The Busan is good times. For those who haven't had the privilege of riding in one, it is an '85 Nissan 4x4 with a heavily modified Buick V6 capable of blasting through a foot of snow at 60 mph (this has been done). Too much power, too little weight (if there is such a thing!). Plus you can get really creative with parking!QUOTE]

Is that the Legendary 2.8L V6 from a Buick Century? My friend and I tried to kill that thing. When we put a hole in the oil pan we started cycling through used tractor hydraulic oil and she still ran like a champ! Mad Power!

[Fyhr]

This was pretty amazing, the helsinki car threw some flames from the exhaust a lap before or so, when it came out on the straight this started:

http://hirppa.kuvat.fi/kuvat/BO07/IMG_5017.JPG/medium

Quick track officials got the driver out of the car and put the fire out quite quickly though.

[Krlos]

in 04 i think our engine guy left the water supply for the dyno "on" on Friday night, left for the weekend, gets to the shop on monday morning to see the whole basement completly flotted causing more than a million dollars of dammage! I don't know how they didn't get rid of the team...
we got a new dyno though http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[kapps]

Nice http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif . We've mopped the floor of the dyno room a couple times but never left with the valves open (yet). The professor in charge of the lab has told us stories about some nice floods back when he was using it more often.

We drained and refilled our 3000 gallon gyno water supply last year. I don't even want to think about what all that water would look like inside the building http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_eek.gif

[Mikey Antonakakis]

Gyno water supply?

[Prohet][]

We were fitting our new carbon fibre seat last year. The battery sits under seat and didn't have a cover on since the surrounding relays were being changed. While pushing down the seat, it touched the positive terminal and went up in flames. It was burning bright white too and took most of the extingusher (one of the large ones) to put it out. Seat still come out find though, bit burned on the surface but still ended up being used at the comp.

Besides that, seeing our active suspension working when the only thing holding the circuit tegether is super glue and fibre glass resin.

[screwdriver]

144 on the noise meter, a muffler bust open, a muffler snapped in half and the aftermath of that.

Oh and that:
http://www.formulastudent.de/fileadmin/user_upload/all/...54_Hirvonen_35pc.jpg (http://www.formulastudent.de/fileadmin/user_upload/all/2007/bilder/FSG07//FSG20070812/FSG20070812_1354_Hirvonen_35pc.jpg)
(Yep that's a cable fire extinguished using nothing but apple spritzer)


Actually talking about seeing things. Seeing the temperature in our temperbox-turned-sauna heatsoaking together with the fan-control unit.

[Rellis]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Adambomb:
Yeah, Environmental Health and Safety says we're not supposed to spend any significant amount of time in our storage room due to trace amounts of radiation. Somehow the reactor room/shop isn't a problem.

So I'm seeing a trend:

End of cold war --&gt; cuts in nuclear programs --&gt; SAE shop space </div></BLOCKQUOTE>FSAE member male pattern baldness

[Adambomb]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by duckei:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Adambomb:
The Busan is good times. For those who haven't had the privilege of riding in one, it is an '85 Nissan 4x4 with a heavily modified Buick V6 capable of blasting through a foot of snow at 60 mph (this has been done). Too much power, too little weight (if there is such a thing!). Plus you can get really creative with parking!QUOTE]

Is that the Legendary 2.8L V6 from a Buick Century? My friend and I tried to kill that thing. When we put a hole in the oil pan we started cycling through used tractor hydraulic oil and she still ran like a champ! Mad Power! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Nah, the "Chevy" (technically Corporate) 2.8 V6 is not up to Gonzo Racewerks specs. I used a 3.8 V6 from a Grand National, only with a 4 barrel instead of a turbo, compression ratio switched from 7.6 to 9.6, "circle track" valve springs for a small block Chevy, and sweet lovin' to the rods to get them to live up to 7,000 rpm. It sounds like nothing else.

[Neil S]

In the summer of 2004 we flipped our car at an SCCA Divisional event at Forbe's Field, I didn't get to see it though. It was in a slalom, we think the tire found one of the pot holes left behind from those lovely CP cars, debeaded the tire and caused the rim to dig into the concrete. Supposedly some SCCA guy has video of it happening, but he never sent it our way.