Yep, that's me, and i'm really happy , i got into the Central University of Venezuela (biggest, more important college in the country) F-SAE team. If all goes well i will be going around April to the US (Detroit-Michigan) for the competitions (against 140 other colleges from all over the world)... i´m just looking forward to it!.

 

WOW.

I was a member of the FSAE team for Swinburne here last year (did the drivetrain and the rear chassis).
Will be helping run the team this year.

What are the technical details of your car?
Ours is a CBR-600 F4i, with Motec and all the traction control etc. goodies.
Pneumatic shifter, spaceframe chassis, Sachs dampers, plastic vaccum formed body over machined high density foam (the first time it has been done in the world!).

I will post up some photos of our car later - and if you need a hand, or have any questions let me know!
I know Eric (Engine team leader of NC state is on here - user name: EPNCSU2006)
What area of the car are you working on?


SAE is a fantasic real world learning experience, but take whatever estimate you have in terms of time you will spend on the project and AT LEAST double it...

 

Well, here we are (I am the one with the blonde hair and glasses standing behing the rear left tyre...)
If you want any more photos, I can post them up.

The other car in one of the photos is tu-FAST (Tech University of Munich) - we hosted them.
Way cool car.

 

Wow! that's a pretty neat car you got there (i really liked the finishing, pretty complete), i might steal an idea or two about the rear end of your chassis (lol, don't worry, we got our design already, but yours seems a lot more efficient, just the kind i would have liked, but it appears my teammates like Tanks). Sadly it's way too expensive for us to use exotic materials in Venezuela (even carbon fiber is hard to find and expensive here).

Still... our engine has an advantage, we use a Yamaha R6 600cc engine, with a Garett TC at 8psi (this year will be higher), last year model was putting almost a 100 HP SAE on the ground.

Wich position did you reach? i think it went really well for you, just by the look of that lil racer.

P.S.: Time to switch to contacts BigF!

 

100hp????
Thats got to be the highest of any team by far. We hit 75hp at the rears on a good day.
We ran a variable GT-12 for testing 2 years ago, discovered car was just as quick without it (mass increase offset hp increase).
Ditched the turbo idea then.
How much does your car weigh?
Whats traction like with that much power
Do you have any photos (if you would prefer not to post them - you can e-mail them to me, with confidence)

The main issue with the rear chassis - is that the bellcrank mounts - while having crossbracing - are effectively in single shear.
I would prefer to mount them off the rear engine mounts themselves.
It also could be a bit lighter...

As for copying - go for your life - I can send you ANSYS results and CAD files if you would like... even the 50 pages of G-Code programing I had to write to manufacture it.
Its a competition to learn in after all - doesn't matter how well you do.

We have just as much difficulty as you by the sound of it with carbon - we managed to get enough to make our own steering wheel and thats it.


As for how we went - well, not so well unfortunately. We had a total of 7 team members (thats total - including "hanger-oners") - and we threw out EVERYTHING that our teams have done in previous years (the only carry over item was the "concept" of the shifter system, and that all cars previous have run the CBR 600 with a Motec.)
Coupled with the fact that everything had to be done to within an inch of its life (we had high hopes of beating West-Australia and RMIT at last years Australian event), and that we chose to manufacture EVERYTHING, from steering rack (going to buy that one next time - what a nightmare), to our own wheel nuts with our own special hex pattern..
So the result was that we put the final parts on the car at 5am on the Friday of the event, and with about 9-12hours sleep a week for the 4 weeks leading up to the event too.
We then had some problems getting through tech on the Saturday, as nothing was tested at all (we managed 128dB in our first sound test!!!).
We managed to get it to the enduro on the Sunday - was unofficially lapping with in 2-3seconds of West Australia (the quickest car) - completely untested...
Then complete disaster struck, we had to re-posistion our CO2 canister for our pneumatic shifter to get through tech, and as a result, one of the CO2 lines accidentally got routed near the exhaust, leaking all the CO2 out, and making us unable to get the car in neutral at the driver change - and subsequently start the car again.
So - we didn't complete one dynamic event

As for contacts, I tried them, I can't stand them

 

Yet it wasn't the highest, but it was one of the best, we also had serious problems with the delivering of the car, UPS offered us to do it for free (patronage), but like two days before the event they withdrew their offer, wich leaded the previous teammates to run like headless chickens for another courier, wich leaded to a final delivery of the car on the sunday (last day).

The previous model weighed about 605lbs (a tank as i told you before), but this year model will be a lot lighter (and smaller).

I'll post some pics when i get hold of them.

Of course any info you share with me will be welcome, but i would need to discuss this with the team, because at the moment they're being pretty secretive (and it would be too unfair of me to receive anything from you without giving anything back, ok?).

P.S.: About those contacts... TRY HARDER!... lol