Baltic Open Announcements

[JR @ CFS]

Not much to announce but the date has changed from the 1st of September to two weeks later (15th September) due to a clash with a major round of karting at the track.

More information will follow for accomodation, but the openplan areas above our workshops and the workshop itself are available for teams to make last minute adjustments and secure parking for all cars and equipment.

[JR @ CFS]

Not much to announce but the date has changed from the 1st of September to two weeks later (15th September) due to a clash with a major round of karting at the track.

More information will follow for accomodation, but the openplan areas above our workshops and the workshop itself are available for teams to make last minute adjustments and secure parking for all cars and equipment.

[JonMW]

Could you move it one or three from the first date to avoide the STCC weekends. Volvo motorsport division has requested to see the cars and there's a bigger chance that they have time.

[JR @ CFS]

Drop an email to Malin, I am leaving town on Sunday and not quite sure if I will return.

JR

[JR @ CFS]

The saga continues.

So, we had booked the track but then they dropped a bombshell on us! They wanted us to pay them for loss of earnings! As the project budget is already stretched, we cannot absorb this cost and it would therefore be transferred to you, the competitors.Their logo has been duly removed from the car.

We are now in talks with the Head of Motorsport at Volvo about a new venue. They have 5 tracks that we can access, but due to prototypes floating around, they need to clear it with a few departments first.

Accomodation will be in our students union building with a Sauna, Swimming pool and bar. Scruitineering and storage will occur in our open access areas above our workshop, which you will also have free use of...Delft, you bringing that truck http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

You can bring as many cars as you like, but they must have passed scrutineering. Any difficulties with this can be dealt with by Malin who can be accessed via the website www.chalmers.se/am/formula (http://www.chalmers.se/am/formula).
Please bear with us as we sort these little issues!

[TomF]

Hi Jonnie,

that sucks... Good luck with the talks!

About the truck, I don't think we'll bring it to Sweden. That's just a bit out of our budget I guess.

Looking forward to a great event...

Cheers!

[JR @ CFS]

Don´t worry, we are pretty resourceful here! We are hoping to make it a Baltic Open to remember. Head of Motorsports at Volvo is a big patron of Formula Student here at Chalmers, so this should help smooth things along. Sweden comes to a bloody standstill during the summer though, so getting anything done is always a hassle, but we will manage!

It´s a pity the fun truck won´t be there, but make sure you bring your team...always good for a drinking session!

[Mikko Ahola]

Oh you have a sauna. Then we don´t have to take our own with us http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

Hope that we don´t break anything in Germany as then we will have to take only beer with us when we come. Well atleast the guys are getting HPF006 in good shape (hopefully). And we also have 003 and 005 in running condition so I believe we can have a good race!

[Kimmo Hirvonen]

Any progress with the venue? And is there any rough schedule made yet?
It's just that my boss don't seem to like my week long vacation for FSG that much so I thought I would give him an early heads up of how many days I'll need for BO and when would those days be.

I second the Mikko's "Oh you have a sauna". Just hope that it really is a sauna and not a bastu. There's a big difference!

[HenningO]

Kimmo, just drink plenty of beer before going into the bastu, you won't notice any difference http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[TomF]

any updates on the event yet?

Getting anxious to plan the trip and come over for yet another great event!

[HenningO]

A mail was sent out regarding the competition.

"Sign on" and tech inspection on the 14th Sept at 6 pm. Racing on the 15th then partey! Going home on the 16th.

[Kimmo Hirvonen]

Yes, we got that mail also. Good that now the days are official.
One thing would be nice to know though. We have now three cars ready to race and thanks to Delft, we will get our '06 car up and running in few weeks time. So four cars altogether. The thing I'm curious about is that are they all welcome?
What I mean is that 4 from us, was it 3 from KTH (I heard this at Mahle party so it can really be from 0 to 10), 2 from Delft, Chalmers 1-5, Lunds , Luleå and Aalborg would make a total of atleast 13 cars (more likely 14-17, depending on host team's cars and teams that I don't know of, e.g. Northern Germany).
Last year when we organized BO, we had seven cars and about seven hours of track time to do the same events as this year. We just made it. I'm not saying that 13 cars would make it to 13h, but I'm pretty sure that with that amount of cars the most important thing "after party" might not start when it's supposed to.
So, before it's "too late", we would like to know is there or should there be a limitation of cars/team? Three cars is a must from us. '05 car "the reigning double champion" has to be there to defend its title and '06 has to be there to win '07. But if you think you'll manage with the schedule, we are more than delighted to bring also our '02 car a.k.a. "Fatboy" to the challenge.

[JR @ CFS]

Firstly;

If any other teams are interested, please go to the website at www.chalmers.se/am/formula (http://www.chalmers.se/am/formula) and contact Malin to let her know of your interest in competing.


I spoke with Malin Kjellberg, team leader at Chalmers and her reply was along these lines;

- Chalmers will be running 3 cars (05,06,07) therefore we see it as unfair to allow any other teams to run less than us (although, see below for exception)
- Can only manage 15 cars at most.
- If more teams apply, car numbers from teams will be reduced as more teams with less cars preferred to less teams with more cars
- Helsinki running 3 cars
- Delft running 2 cars
- KTH no confirmation on how many cars (please confirm in email to Malin)
- Track currently booked for 6hrs, but will extend to 7 or 8 if necessary
- Expect email within next few days from Malin

I know that different people are responsible for different aspects of the competition, all headed up by Malin i.e. those responsible for the party have nothing to do with organisation at the track, so nothing to worry about there.

Hope that information is of some use to you http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif Chalmers are really looking forward to this event and the sponsors are very interested to see what all the teams have produced. They are looking forward to seeing you all there!

[HenningO]

KTH is currently working on getting all 4 cars running.

[Steef]

Hi everybody, I would just like to say that Luleå will most likely attend BO with 1 car, the only problem at this point is economical but this will probably be solved this week. I dropt an email to Malin last week but haven't received any reply. Can anyone from Chalmers please make sure that we are welcome to compete?

[JR @ CFS]

Steef (and others), go to the chalmers website and on the front page (www.chalmers.se) there is a facility in the top right hand corner that enables you to search for peoples contact details. Type in Malins name (Malin Kjellberg) and you will get her number. If you can not contact her, Sven Andersson is also involved with organising the BO.

Sorry, can't hand out numbers here. I will drop her a text to let her know.

JR

[Mikko Ahola]

Race is over!

Again a nice and eventful competition.

Overall results:

1. Helsinki 07
2. Chalmers 07
3. Luleå


This year the new cars dominated the track. Also saw the most spectacular DNF I´ve ever seen as our 06 car caught on fire. Pictures will be added soon to our website.

[JR @ CFS]

You beat me to it Mikko. Well done to all involved! Story to follow up shortly on our website www.chalmers.se/am/formula (http://www.chalmers.se/am/formula)

Sorry I couldn't attend, but the feedback appeared to be quite good...who is hosting next year?

[Fyhr]

Great event!

We had our difficulties and were halted in the end by a broken torque limiter gear in the start mechanism, a new one at that since the one we ran in england was badly worn.

The helsinki '06 fire was spectacular, please write and explain what happend when you've figured it out, was it a leaking fuelrail/injectors?

We'll be sure to post alot of pictures too, Julian our canadian visitor took some 400 pictures with the camera i brought.

And by the way, amazing toys at Chalmers, hope some of the KTH guys post a picture of the Wheel of DEATH! http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_cool.gif http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_eek.gif

[JonMW]

I'm not sure any of us got a pic of that thing. It was too dark, but I'll see what I can find. Will also try to get some other pics postet tonight.

[Mikko Ahola]

Here some pics of HPF006 on fire:

http://hirppa.kuvat.fi/kuvat/BO07

More will be coming soon...

[JR @ CFS]

Doesn't look like he met the 5 second exit rule http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif Reminds me of a time during testing, before which, we had established the 5 second rule was a bit tight, when we had a suspected fire. I think the driver made it out in less than 3 seconds, only after seeing my frantic signals and when he smelt burning. Thankfully only a loose cooling pipe!

[Kimmo Hirvonen]

Now all the photos can be found from the link Mikko put couple of posts before.
Some videos may be found from that address tomorrow.
I try to put up also a zip-file of all the photos in near future.

From the metadata of those pictures you can surely see that it took around 8s to get out and there's a reason for that also.
Let's just say that a solution that was made in few minutes time in between of acceleration and autox to keep us going, turned out to be almost crusial when our driver jumped out from the car. Some may find the cause of this from the photos I uploaded...

[TomF]

From the Delft team, great work on organising a great event again! It was a great race and a great party, despite the fact that not all of us made it to the party...

I believe there are plans for us to organise a Dutch Open or North Sea open next year, but we will have to think about the seriousness of that and your willingness to travel to Holland. But we would like to open up a discussion to see wether you would be interested! Since we did finish up somewhere at the back of the field again we may make a few changes to the events that will be run. We are open for suggestions like fuel economy, skid-pad, acceleration including slaloms, and presentation events.

But there is still plenty of time to think about that! I would like to thank the Chalmers guys once again for their effort and the great race and party,

Cheers!

[Kimmo Hirvonen]

Good that you brought this up. I know we spoke about the next Baltic Open place after the competition but I think it's better to make decisions without the "Viru Valge" bottle next to you.

As they tend to say it in here, I'll throw in my two cents.

Baltic Open has been a "Baltic" Open this far. Organizing Baltic Sea cities have been: Helsinki, Luleå, Stockholm, Helsinki and Gothenburg. I know that some think it should be this way for eternity but I think it would be refreshing to experience "Baltic Open - Relocated".
But it includes atleast couple of "ifs":
-Accomodation should be for free.
-And it wouldn't hurt that the track would be free also.

Baltic Open's original idea was to have fun with minimum cost. This is purely because in the end of the season, all the teams are low on money and I can e.g. tell that Helsinki team is in debt to a certain "trust" at this moment. So, another FSG-budget spent on Baltic Open would be just too much.

Of course I can't speak on behalf of all the Helsinki guys but on return trip I got the expression that if free track and accomodation can be provided, most of us will do the trip.

What comes to changing the rules, I'm a bit more conservative.
If you have a space for skid pad, go for it. And nothing against to a new type of acceleration. But for static events, thumbs down.
A short presentation for school personnel and sponsors could be a good thing but it shouldn't be calculated to the points of the overall competition.
After all, you've seen how tight the schedule has been for the couple of years and new events would change it to a two day competition almost for sure. And I'm pretty sure that that would cut down the participants quite some. What I mean is that if people have to take a week off from their work, they might think it's not worth it. Now two days was enough.

OK, I think that was enough from me. What do the other teams think?

To this end I may add that now there's a small video of the fire as well:
http://hirppa.kuvat.fi/kuvat/BO07/

There's also a zip-file of all the stuff found from that site, full size:
http://hirppa.kuvat.fi/BO07.zip

[TomF]

I maybe should have pointed out the remarks about the change of events with a large sarcastic wink, cause allthough it would give us better chance of winning the event it is off course not that much fun to have all kinds of presentations as it is to race. At the moment I can not give any estimations on free accomodation and track, where especially the latter may be difficult to arrange. However I think we will be keen on doing a great effort to arrange such deals, since we know the trip alone is already quite expensive. That being said, please feel free to comment, put in suggestions and the like.

Let's hear about it!

By the way, great fotos once again Kimmo!

[Kimmo Hirvonen]

OK, you got me. Sarcastic smile would've helped. It's just that last year we actually thought of slalom acceleration and super skid pad (figure eight with humongous diameter) but didn't go for it. Also Chalmers thought of presentation for Volvo/Koenigsegg guys. So new event wouldn't probably hurt.
Now that said, next year you will have skid pad-endurance and slalom acceleration with cones 5m from each other.

Thanks for the compliments. Luckily I was on the right spot when that a.k.a Bat-Mobile got those after burns going.

[Gerben van der Lei]

mmm we're not quite done designing the sauna. Do you hae some thermo literature on how to optimize the sauna? http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

Thank you guys from chalmers for organising the event! I had great fun idling the car around the track.

For sure we would like to organise an event here in holland. But it all depends on the other teams on how far they are willing to travel. Offcourse it would be a low cost high fun event. (We are allready developping some nice ideas over here).

Nice pictures kimmo!

Cheers! Gerben

Delft

[JR @ CFS]

Just throwing in my two cents.

We did indeed want to incorporate a lot more this year and this first and foremost, was to provide something back to our sponsors and to show them that we are professionals on the business side of things as well as the engineering side.

This was met with HUGE opposition from the traditional and founding teams of the Baltic Open.

So, rather than end the tradition, we decided to continue it and as far as I am aware the track was quite open and free flowing suiting the bigger capacity cars http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif I for one am in full support of this after driving this years FS track which was a complete nightmare for the, ah hem, bulkier cars among the pack.

I am pretty certain, after the daily parties from the Delft guys, that it would be a cool event. It would be more expensive for the Swedish teams to make the journey, but it could open the event up to the "mainland" european teams.

I for one believe that the BO should develop into something bigger, possibly an official event...why should we have to travel to germany http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif Scandanavian industry is quite sizeable and with the right approach from organisers, could be a MAJOR supporter! But who will take the initiative to take this step. I for one have my hand firmly in the air if anyone else was willing to take it on http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

[Teemu Ristelä]

Just keep throwing in your two cents, I´ll put in my nineteen cents=)

Jonnie, we know exactly what you ment with the "huge opposition" you faced while you were trying to renew things related to Baltic Open

A couple of things we should keep in mind though:

As long BO is an unofficial event, let´s keep it that way. Should it become an official event... well that is a question as hard to answer as "is there big enough tits?"

As long as we´ve got "old" members attending BO from the previous teams with their old cars, we usually forget that they build their cars in just a couple of days just to get it into a ready-to-race condition. And the effort they are willing to put in - in most cases - is totally based on volunteering and they are putting on their own money. Atleast that is the case for Helsinki. The "team money" is only consumed on the latest creation, this year be it the -07 car.

Now, if we want to keep the old cars running and have a lot of cars in the race, we propably should keep in our mind the fact that the old team members are maybe not willing to put in their effort to create powerpoint slideshows if there was a presentation event - for example.

The current competing teams propably have nothing against renewing BO, but as long as the old teams are in and we wan´t to see many cars on track, let´s be concervative with the possible changes?

Cheers

[Gerben van der Lei]

Ok,

There seems to be a misunderstanding. Tom his remarks were purely for fun.
We are serious about organising the baltic open. Offcourse in the baltic tradition -> Fast & Fun driving with no or minimal cost. The only 'renewing' we would like to do is perhaps add a testing day with some fun events like a skidcelleration. But offcourse the lodging and driving will be of no (or very little) charge.

We are open for suggestions.

Cheers!

Gerben

[JR @ CFS]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">"is there big enough tits?"

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Any more than a handfull is a waste http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

I think that applies to the old team members! Point taken http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

[Fyhr]

Got some of Julians pictures up, fortunately no fancy gallery yet.

http://www.luracing.com/baltic
Baltic.rar contains all the pictures in a neat package