Sorry about the delay here folks, we've been a bit time-limited recently and currently don't have a very fast internet connection. However, I wanted to let you all know about what's been happening so far. The Endurance Race in Fontana last Saturday was filled with lots of excitement and a bit of dissapointment. Driving Team Leader Andy Gryczan headed out for the first half of the race and was running fast for about 5 laps, at which point he discovered that he couldn't shift out of 1st gear. However, thanks to his driving experience, he continued his remaining 5 laps and brought the car in for the mandatory mid-point driver change, signaling to second driver Brandon Goad that he only had first gear to drive in.
Brandon headed out onto the track and ran his full ten laps in that one gear, passing multiple teams in the process. He brought Car 51 back into the pits to complete the Endurance race running, as we later found out, faster lap times that a lot of the teams at the venue. Combined, both drivers earned MSU a 5th place finish in Endurance.
Following the race, Chief Scrutineer Michael Royce directed us to bring Car 51 to a post-race technical inspection, to make sure that we weren't cheating. Car 51 passed, and we headed off to clean her up and prepare for Design Finals. Three hours later, finals were over and we had a brief chanace to relax. I say brief, because head Design Judge Mike O'Neil then called all of the finalists (MSU, Western Washington University, University of Washington) back to the garage for a public review. Mike first spoke about the importance of design and what the judges were looking for out of each team, and then hopped off of the table to announce the 3rd place team. He headed towards Car 51 and then turned around to face Western Washington. After he was finished, he then turned towards us again and followed this up by a 180 degree rotation to announce that University of Washington was the 2nd place finisher. Finally, he came to Car 51 and announced that by far, she was the best-designed car at the event, giving MSU our first ever win in the Design event. He specifically cited the team's advanced powertrain development as an extremely strong point. Powertrain Mechanical Team Leader Andy Gryczan beaming.
Later that evening, we sat through an outdoor awards ceremony in which our Faculty Advisor, Dr. Gary "Doc" Cloud received mention of his recently-awarded SCCA Carroll Smith Mentors Cup for the Best Advisor in Formula SAE. The title is named after world-renouned race car engineer and ardent FSAE supporter Carroll Smith and is given annually to the team advisor most-worthy of the title. It is a true honor and all of us on the team, past members and present, thank him for all that he does and congradulate him on this recognition.
We knew that the results of the competition were going to be close, but even we were surprised when SAE Collegiate Program Manager Steve Daum announced that we placed 4th overall. As much as we want to win, the cards just didn't fall in-line for us on this one, and 4th place isn't too shabby, especially considering that this event had 80 teams registered for it. Just for the record, we were only 20 points out of 1000 possible away from finishing in 1st.
Here are the results broken down by event:
Cost/Manufacturing: 21st
Presentation: 6th
Design: 1st
Acceleration: 11th
Skidpad: 14th
Autocross: 9th
Endurance/Fuel Economy: 5th
Overall: 4th
Addtional accolades were received by receiving the Honda Design Award and an honorable mention from Altair Engineering for the William R. Adam Engineering Excellence Award. This was given to us as a result of Team Leader Paul Strefling's Chassis optimizer.
It's very late as I post this and the internet connection here is quite slow, so i'll post some pictures and more updates tomorrow.
Adam
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Friday's Events
Friday was a hot smoggy day here in Fontana. The hard work from Thursday's events paid off as the team is one of three finalist for Design. Other static events scores include 6th in Presentation and 21st in the Cost/Manufacturing event. The dynamic events all earned top 15 placement with an Acceleration placement of 11, Skip pad placement of 14th, and an Autocross place of 8th setting us in the fast heat for endurance at 9 am Pacific time. The team is excited for Saturday's line up of endurance, design finals, and awards. That's all from California, pictures of the events are coming soon.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Race for Kristin's wish!
Just a reminder that tomorrow, Saturday, June 28, 2008 is the last Endurance race of the 2008 season, and therefore will be the conclusion of our 2008 Race for a Cause campaign for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Michigan.
But there is still time for you to pledge to help our wish kid, Kristin, fulfill her dream of being a zoo keeper for a day! We'll be accepting pledges through 11:59 PM Pacific time tomorrow (Sat, June 28, 2008).
To make help make this wish possible, just visit the Pledge Page on www.race-cause.com and make a pledge. You can choose to contribute either by lump sum or on a per-lap basis. 100% of all donations go directly to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Michigan.
If you have any questions at all, please email me at zemkeada@msu.edu or post up a comment here; team members check the blog several times throughout the day.
Go Green. Go White. Go Fast.
Adam
Static Events
Today was the first day of static events at Formula SAE West. As we don't have scores in yet, I can't comment for sure on our standing thus far in the competition. However, I will tell you that I saw all three events today: Presentation, Cost/Manufacturing and Design, and felt that they went very well. In fact, Design preliminaries went so well that we were asked back for semi-finals.
Additionally, we completed the final three steps in Scrutineering: passing the Braking, Noise and Tilt tests. Suspension Team Leader Jordan Smart completed the sufficient braking lock-up on his second try, and Car 51 blew 108 decibels (maximum allowable emitted sound is 110 db) in the noise test, thereby allowing us to obtain the other two parts to our three-part inspection sticker.
Tomorrow is the day of the first three dynamic events, or events where the car is in motion. These include Acceleration, Skidpad and Autocross. As Formula SAE is really an educational competition that tests participants and the vehicles that they've brought, each dynamic event poses a different test and reason for running in it.
Skidpad, consisting of a large figure-8 course, is designed to test each cars' lateral acceleration. The easiest way to think of this is that it tests how fast each car can travel around a corner.
Acceleration, consisting of a 75 meter inline sprint, is essentially a drag race that is meant to test each vehicle's inline acceleration from rest.
Autocross. Formula SAE cars are designed and built primarily for autocross courses; road-style race courses that feature short straightaways and very tight corners. The spirit behind FSAE has always been to create vehicles to own for an affordable racing endeavor; something the weekend 'enthusiast' can go out and use without breaking the bank. The most affordable type of road racing is, by a vast majority, autocrossing.
It's quite late, so that's about it for now. Below are some pictures from today. Enjoy!
Go Green. Go White. Go Fast.
Adam
Getting set up for Cost/Manufacturing
Scott Williams reviews the Braking system design with a judge in Design Preliminaries
Powertrain Mechanical Team Leader Andy Gryczan discusses his system with a judge, also in Preliminaries.
Car on stands in Design Semi-finals
2009 Powertrain Intake/Exhaust Team Leader Drew Darling explains the innovations to Car 51's driveline system to design judge Chris Weismann
Discussing Car 51's dual-radiator cooling system
Powertrain evaluation (Andy Gryczan, design judge)
Car 51's nose. A special thanks to Lindsay Exhibit Group of Whitmore Lake, MI, and to owner Scott Lindsay for kindly sponsoring us with the grey pop-up display wall that you see here for this competition. Also, many thanks to Foto 1 Imaging for their work in printing our display boards, especially in such a timely fashion. The combination have worked perfectly for static events thus far.
Happily watching Design Semis
Semi trailer in the evening California sun
Leaving the race track
Dinner with the team from Clemson and our friend Miki from TU Delft
Additionally, we completed the final three steps in Scrutineering: passing the Braking, Noise and Tilt tests. Suspension Team Leader Jordan Smart completed the sufficient braking lock-up on his second try, and Car 51 blew 108 decibels (maximum allowable emitted sound is 110 db) in the noise test, thereby allowing us to obtain the other two parts to our three-part inspection sticker.
Tomorrow is the day of the first three dynamic events, or events where the car is in motion. These include Acceleration, Skidpad and Autocross. As Formula SAE is really an educational competition that tests participants and the vehicles that they've brought, each dynamic event poses a different test and reason for running in it.
Skidpad, consisting of a large figure-8 course, is designed to test each cars' lateral acceleration. The easiest way to think of this is that it tests how fast each car can travel around a corner.
Acceleration, consisting of a 75 meter inline sprint, is essentially a drag race that is meant to test each vehicle's inline acceleration from rest.
Autocross. Formula SAE cars are designed and built primarily for autocross courses; road-style race courses that feature short straightaways and very tight corners. The spirit behind FSAE has always been to create vehicles to own for an affordable racing endeavor; something the weekend 'enthusiast' can go out and use without breaking the bank. The most affordable type of road racing is, by a vast majority, autocrossing.
It's quite late, so that's about it for now. Below are some pictures from today. Enjoy!
Go Green. Go White. Go Fast.
Adam
Getting set up for Cost/Manufacturing
Scott Williams reviews the Braking system design with a judge in Design Preliminaries
Powertrain Mechanical Team Leader Andy Gryczan discusses his system with a judge, also in Preliminaries.
Car on stands in Design Semi-finals
2009 Powertrain Intake/Exhaust Team Leader Drew Darling explains the innovations to Car 51's driveline system to design judge Chris Weismann
Discussing Car 51's dual-radiator cooling system
Powertrain evaluation (Andy Gryczan, design judge)
Car 51's nose. A special thanks to Lindsay Exhibit Group of Whitmore Lake, MI, and to owner Scott Lindsay for kindly sponsoring us with the grey pop-up display wall that you see here for this competition. Also, many thanks to Foto 1 Imaging for their work in printing our display boards, especially in such a timely fashion. The combination have worked perfectly for static events thus far.
Happily watching Design Semis
Semi trailer in the evening California sun
Leaving the race track
Dinner with the team from Clemson and our friend Miki from TU Delft
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Website problems
Everyone,
Late last night, we realized that our main website (www.msuformularacing.com) and the Race for a Cause website (www.race-cause.com) were down. We are happy to report that both are back up and running, thanks to Fred Hall from the MSU Division of Engineering Computing Services.
We apologize for any inconvenience that this caused, especially if you were trying to access the Race for a Cause homepage to pledge for Make-A-Wish. If you would like to make a pledge to help Kristin, our wish kid, you still can (until Saturday morning) on the Pledge Page at www.race-cause.com.
Currently, the weather in Fontana is hanging pleasantly in the low 70's and very smoggy. We have Cost/Manufacturing in 40 minutes, and the team is busy prepping for the other events today.
Adam
Late last night, we realized that our main website (www.msuformularacing.com) and the Race for a Cause website (www.race-cause.com) were down. We are happy to report that both are back up and running, thanks to Fred Hall from the MSU Division of Engineering Computing Services.
We apologize for any inconvenience that this caused, especially if you were trying to access the Race for a Cause homepage to pledge for Make-A-Wish. If you would like to make a pledge to help Kristin, our wish kid, you still can (until Saturday morning) on the Pledge Page at www.race-cause.com.
Currently, the weather in Fontana is hanging pleasantly in the low 70's and very smoggy. We have Cost/Manufacturing in 40 minutes, and the team is busy prepping for the other events today.
Adam
Scrutineering
Good evening from California! Today marked the first day of the 2008 Formula SAE West competition; being held at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA.
Arriving at the track this morning at 7 am, we spent the morning completing on-site registration and then began to unpack the semi trailer. The first, and only event of the day: Scrutineering, didn't open until 4 pm, and thankfully for driver Brandon Goad's quick response this morning, we reserved the 8th spot in line (out of 55 teams currently present at the venue).
Thanks to the streamlined processes of online SAE registration, and Steve Daum, Kaley Zundel and the rest of the on-site SAE staff, the paperwork that we had to complete in the morning was minimal and went quickly.
Following a quick registration, we spent our time preparing Car 51 (for FSAE West, the number on her is 10) for scrutineering, as well as prepping for some additional static events tomorrow.
Scrutineering was virtually painless, with the technical inspectors leaving us with only three very small fixes to complete on Car 51: some additional padding around the driver's compartment, a few more tabs to support the seat pan, and a small modification to increase the radius of Car 51's nose. We have already completed the last request, and expect to have the other two finished by the start of our first static event tomorrow at 9:30 AM PST.
Speaking of tomorrow...the events for tomorrow include all "static" events, or events where the car is not in motion. These include Design, Presentation and Cost/Manufacturing. I elaborated a bit about Design in an earlier blog post, so I won't go into it again.
The Presentation event helps participants learn the intricacies of product and vehicle marketing. Essentially, the event requires that each team research, build and prepare a presentation or 'pitch' for selling their vehicle in a unit-volume run of 1200 per year. Over the past few years, MSU has been lucky to have team members who are quite good at this event, winning it at Formula SAE Michigan in 2004, and placing 2nd at both in 2006 and 2007 Formula SAE West competitions. I 'pitched' our plans in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 at MIS, so I would really like to win one of these things before fully handing over the rheins to Ankit Mathur.
The final static event, and our first of tomorrow, is Cost/Manufacturing. In this event, we will be asked to present our research on the manufacturing processes of two randomly-chosen components (from a list of eight). Additionally, we will introduce our understanding of Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFM and DFA), and how they apply to this particular product in small-volume production. This event is especially fun, as it allows first-year team members to get involved in presenting at competition.
Well, that's about all for now, folks. I'll post up some updates tomorrow as events are completed. On behalf of all of the 2008 team and our faculty advisor Gary Cloud, who recently joined us tonight, we hope that you enjoy the pictures from today's events.
Talk with you tomorrow. Go Green. Go White. Go Fast.
Adam
Welcome to the paddocks.
Entire paddock area at Auto Club Speedway
Our paddock
2009 Chief Engineer Andy Rogers performing a few final checks before heading to Scrutineering
Waiting in line for Scrutineering. Car 51 drew quite a crowd wherever we took her.
Judges checked Car 51 thoroughly
Powertrain Mechanical and Driving Team Leader Andy Gryczan discusses the inspection with one of the technical scrutineers.
A series of three: Andy practices egress of the racecar. Formula SAE rules require that all drivers must do it in 5 seconds or less.
Arriving at the track this morning at 7 am, we spent the morning completing on-site registration and then began to unpack the semi trailer. The first, and only event of the day: Scrutineering, didn't open until 4 pm, and thankfully for driver Brandon Goad's quick response this morning, we reserved the 8th spot in line (out of 55 teams currently present at the venue).
Thanks to the streamlined processes of online SAE registration, and Steve Daum, Kaley Zundel and the rest of the on-site SAE staff, the paperwork that we had to complete in the morning was minimal and went quickly.
Following a quick registration, we spent our time preparing Car 51 (for FSAE West, the number on her is 10) for scrutineering, as well as prepping for some additional static events tomorrow.
Scrutineering was virtually painless, with the technical inspectors leaving us with only three very small fixes to complete on Car 51: some additional padding around the driver's compartment, a few more tabs to support the seat pan, and a small modification to increase the radius of Car 51's nose. We have already completed the last request, and expect to have the other two finished by the start of our first static event tomorrow at 9:30 AM PST.
Speaking of tomorrow...the events for tomorrow include all "static" events, or events where the car is not in motion. These include Design, Presentation and Cost/Manufacturing. I elaborated a bit about Design in an earlier blog post, so I won't go into it again.
The Presentation event helps participants learn the intricacies of product and vehicle marketing. Essentially, the event requires that each team research, build and prepare a presentation or 'pitch' for selling their vehicle in a unit-volume run of 1200 per year. Over the past few years, MSU has been lucky to have team members who are quite good at this event, winning it at Formula SAE Michigan in 2004, and placing 2nd at both in 2006 and 2007 Formula SAE West competitions. I 'pitched' our plans in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 at MIS, so I would really like to win one of these things before fully handing over the rheins to Ankit Mathur.
The final static event, and our first of tomorrow, is Cost/Manufacturing. In this event, we will be asked to present our research on the manufacturing processes of two randomly-chosen components (from a list of eight). Additionally, we will introduce our understanding of Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFM and DFA), and how they apply to this particular product in small-volume production. This event is especially fun, as it allows first-year team members to get involved in presenting at competition.
Well, that's about all for now, folks. I'll post up some updates tomorrow as events are completed. On behalf of all of the 2008 team and our faculty advisor Gary Cloud, who recently joined us tonight, we hope that you enjoy the pictures from today's events.
Talk with you tomorrow. Go Green. Go White. Go Fast.
Adam
Welcome to the paddocks.
Entire paddock area at Auto Club Speedway
Our paddock
2009 Chief Engineer Andy Rogers performing a few final checks before heading to Scrutineering
Waiting in line for Scrutineering. Car 51 drew quite a crowd wherever we took her.
Judges checked Car 51 thoroughly
Powertrain Mechanical and Driving Team Leader Andy Gryczan discusses the inspection with one of the technical scrutineers.
A series of three: Andy practices egress of the racecar. Formula SAE rules require that all drivers must do it in 5 seconds or less.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
We're here!
Just a quick update - as it is very late and we have to be up in just a few hours. I am happy to say that all team members arrived safely in Ontario, California today. We didn't experience any delays at LAX and coordinating the arrival of the semi with driver Darick Clemons of ATR was a breeze. Many thanks to Darick - he did a fantastic job of getting our things safely to California backing the trailer into the lot next to our hotel.
We leave for Auto Club Speedway tomorrow morning at 7:00 am, where we'll spend the day registering, unpacking and going through scrutineering. Check back tomorrow evening for updates!
Go Green. Go White. Go Fast.
Adam
Goodbye Detroit!
Somewhere out west
Arriving in Los Angeles
Our semi resting for the night. Don't the graphics look great? There is someone that we owe a huge thank you to making them possible - Brian Hodges, father of 2009 Powertrain Electrical Team Leader Leslie Hodges, and diligent employee at Safety Technology International. Not only are the majority of the graphics courtesy of STI, but Brian took an entire day out of his personal schedule to come up and help us put them on. Additional accolades go to Dustin of Ace Graphics & Signs for his quick work to get a couple of logos that we messed up printed before we left for California. A HUGE thank you to both Brian and Dustin - we couldn't have done this with out you.
We leave for Auto Club Speedway tomorrow morning at 7:00 am, where we'll spend the day registering, unpacking and going through scrutineering. Check back tomorrow evening for updates!
Go Green. Go White. Go Fast.
Adam
Goodbye Detroit!
Somewhere out west
Arriving in Los Angeles
Our semi resting for the night. Don't the graphics look great? There is someone that we owe a huge thank you to making them possible - Brian Hodges, father of 2009 Powertrain Electrical Team Leader Leslie Hodges, and diligent employee at Safety Technology International. Not only are the majority of the graphics courtesy of STI, but Brian took an entire day out of his personal schedule to come up and help us put them on. Additional accolades go to Dustin of Ace Graphics & Signs for his quick work to get a couple of logos that we messed up printed before we left for California. A HUGE thank you to both Brian and Dustin - we couldn't have done this with out you.
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