2014 FSAE-Australasia

[ChristianChalliner]

I'm doing my best to keep up with this via here and the facebook page. Good to see the beam cars running so well! Also good luck to UTAS I hope you get it fixed for endurance and good job on the design score

I don't suppose anyone has the results sheets from accel, skidpan and autox?

Oh and I love the unlimited runs idea, it's a shame we can't do that in the UK.

[Rex Chan]

Just for you, Christian 😛

[ChristianChalliner]

Thanks Rex If I've added these up correctly then (cost, design, presentation, accel, skid) Monash is on 394.8 with ECU right behind on 393.3! Looks close at the top.

[SkeH14]

Thanks for all the great coverage guys! As someone who is following the competition from a couple continents away it's cool to get all the details.

Does anyone have any info on issues with Monash and their car? On their facebook page they mentioned that they took the car off site last night and had to be re scrutineered this morning.

[ChristianChalliner]

Awesome news that UTAS fixed their car! Just watching the livestream now.

[Scott Monash]

Live video stream available here:

http://inpitlane.com/archives/15527

Massive congratulations to Johnny Rochester and the UTAS team who just completed their first endurance this morning after an all night engine rebuild.

Fastest cars will be out on track for the first heat in the next hour.

Best of luck to all teams, its a really tight comp and should be some amazing racing.

Scott

[Scott Monash]

Monash had to reweld a cracked alternator mount last night and do a little work on the cooling system.
Thanks to RMIT combustion who made their workshop available to us.
Wasn't too late a night, can't wait to get out on track.

[ChristianChalliner]

Gutted for UQR

[Moke]

FSAE-A 2014 OVERALL POINTS

Electric: 696 points, 7th overall - RMIT ev

3rd 871 points - University of Auckland
2nd 881 points - Edith Cowan University
1st 915.5 - Monash University

[Z]

Sunday Night Wrap-Up.
========================

Nine hours in the saddle tomorrow, so herewith just the nitty-gritty.

The Big Question for this year was "How much faster are you this year, than last year?". In Monash's case next year, they will have to say "a lot faster than last year". Which is this year...

Err..., OK, too much sun... Put simply, "Monash, LOOK OUT!".

Yep, the pack is hunting them down. As seen in Moke's post above, the gap is closing (Monash were almost 200 points clear last year). Here are Top 10, although only the points for top three available at time of writing.

1. #66 Monash - 915,
2. #7 ECU - 881,
3. #47 Auckland - 871,
4. #101 Melbourne,
5. #41 UQ,
6. #14 Curtin,
7. #E88 RMIT (E),
8. #12 RMIT (C),
9. #22 Sydney,
10. #10 Wollongong.
~o0o~

From the "Z-Files" (ie. little scraps of paper scrunched up in pocket).

Enduro 1.
==========
* Cloudy and cool and hot and sunny and very strong gusts.

* Sophia dead on track.

* UQ lift inside-rear-wheel on a hairpin, and engine cuts out. Initially thought that driver had accidentally hit kill-switch without noticing, and then could not restart car, so parked it. Later discovered that the rear-beam, with no warp-mode bump/droop stops (!), had hit some wiring and shorted or severed it.

* Monash gets cone stuck under front-wing and loses ~3 seconds per lap.

* Monash fastest lap ~78 seconds.

Enduro 2.
=========
* Canterbury dead on first lap. Ahhh... TURBO! (+++)

* Melbourne now have new Team song - Kenny Roger's "You Picked a Fine Time to Leave Me Loose Wheel". (Actually, wheel-centre shears off mid-corner. Z's-Forensic-Analysis-4-U finds the ~triangular 3-bolt flange has sharp edges, which, under braking/cornering loads flex and dig into the highly-optimised (ie. TOO THIN) aluminium wheel-centre, initiating 3 x classic stress-raisers. And classic fatigue-failure ensues!)

* Warsaw dead in infield.

* Tokyo Denki spin off track and down a very gentle grass slope. Driver does at least a dozen doughnuts trying to get back onto track. Eventually succeeds and carries on. Huge cheer!!!

* UQ complete E2 with good times, though better drivers were in E1.

* Auckland's times good, but looks doubtful they can beat Monash's E1 times.

* Curtin very reliable and consistent all weekend.

* ECU first lap 81 seconds, then improve to consistent 77s.

* Monash's rear-DRS fails on lap 4. The top-flap of rear-wing "inverts" itself (ie. front flops upwards) so it is at ~30 degree "lifting" AoA. Lap times drop about 3-4 seconds. Driver couldn't see this (front DRS still worked) so he thought rear tyres had "gone off".

So, by the end of Enduro most top-of-ladder places depended on Fuel consumption...
~o0o~

Bottom line, attrition rate this year was much less than last. Perhaps only four (?) cars failed to score in Enduro. Given the huge amount of AutoX laps also covered by most Teams, this reliability improvement, though STILL NOT GOOD ENOUGH (! ), is a positive sign.

PS1. Daniel, as noted by Rex, unlimited AutoX is because Oz is a small comp, so MORE FUN! Basically, everything is already set-up, so may as well continue until end of day.

PS2. Congratulations to UTAS for finishing (both?) Enduros, Jonny for working all night to evict numerous gremlins from the engine, and Warsaw and other Teams (sorry, forgot who) for donating numerous parts to said effort.

PS3. DO NOT buy a "low mileage" BMW-450-single that may come up for sale in Tasmania in near future!

PS4. The All-New, All-Aluminium UNSW car eventually made it through scrutineering, but "failed to proceed" further. However, its scutineered weight was 151 kg. Now, if they toss those stupid F&R-PullRods+Rockers, then I reckon a comfortable 149 kg, or less!

PS5. Christian, I guess you are already looking at ECU's and UQ's websites?

Z