Formula SAE, Fiorano, september 21-23 2007

[LeonOfTheDead]

anyone out there of you guys were at the Fiorano (i guess you all know about where it is...) racetrack for the Formula Sae event???

i was one of the volounters whit those flashy green/yellow jackets and the red caps...for the record, i was the one giving you informations at the main street before entering the track's road on the first day (what a cold morning it was... ) and i also collaborate to design the auto cross track and the endurance one ...and...so on...

i see there are some clips on youtube about the event, especially from the Rennteam from Stuttgart who won the race. Congratulations!

so, any story about those days? i think a lot of UCP's users don't even know what the formula sae is , but, fellows, this is not you fault, if you like to know, just ask...

[RacingManiac]

I think it's cool that FSAE Italy was at Fiorano.....the series had some awesome venues this year...Formula Student being at Silverstone and Hockenheim, FSAE West is at California speedway, and Italy being at Fiorano, IMO it gives the series some much needed and deserved publicity...

[LeonOfTheDead]

it's a shame it doesn't have the attention it deserves, but this year at Fiorano there were a lot of important people from the italian car's industries, Lamborghini gives a price of its own for exaple, and then every single sponsors was there with at least one of his men. i meat a lot of interesting people, such as Giancarlo Minardi and Grabriele Tredozzi from the, sick, dead Minardi Formula 1 team, among others. i was a little disapointed for the absence of Forghieri, a former Ferrari Technical Director at the time of Villeneuve and of the gorgeous 288 GTO

[RacingManiac]

I got a hat signed by Gil De ferran at Silverstone, when he was still Honda F1's managing director...

[LeonOfTheDead]

oh damn...i have nothing at all like you...but, if you like, i can say i saw schumacher, and badoer (ferrari's test driver) taking some hot laps with a pre-production f430 scuderia (it flies) on the second day for some vip i guess, plus a lot of scuderia doing some test lap the day before of the race

[RacingManiac]

sounds like fun...I wish Formula Student or FSAE East was that interesting, as a competitor it is usually busy as heck and not a whole lot of sleep...

[LeonOfTheDead]

RacingManiac, i look at some of your formers threads about Formula Student...you have some good references...
these years the only non-european team was from CAL POLY, the indian team didn't survive to the costs of the project and they have not been able to come to Italy
one of your former opponents, TU Graz, this year used a carbon fiber monocoque and a real time telemetry, brake splitter and a lot of other hot technical stuff becoming too much fast for the other...until they have some problems with the engine, i think with the head engine's seal...
when they came back in the race they had a 120 secs penality, but still run very very fast
maybe too much fast, they were of an another category...

[RacingManiac]

TU Graz defnitely have one of the craziest FSAE car....and probably the most expensive. Carbon tub, carbon rear sub-frame, carbon suspension, carbon wheels, carbon bodyworks, carbon steering wheels....etc

[NSXType-R]

Yes, could you guys explain to me what Formula SAE please?

Edit- is it the racing championship run by students from all around the world and the best team gets preference from the world's automakers?

[RacingManiac]

Formula SAE is a collegiate design competition with the rules made by SAE, the Society of Automotive Engineers. Students are tasked to design a racecar for SCCA style, Solo II event. The car has to be openwheel, open cockpit, conform to a set safety regulations, and have a 4 stroke piston engine no greater than 610cc in displacement. The premise is that this is supposed to be a business case for a vehicle that will be mass produced at 1000 cars per year, and costs less than 25000 USD. The cars built by the student is considered a prototype of that vehicle(thus the actual cost will be higher than 25k). The cars will be judged statically based on design, cost, and team's skill at presenting their business case. The judges are all industry professionals, who have worked in automakers, race teams, written books about how to design a car/racecar. There is also a dynamic side of the competiton(which accounts for more points than static, so your car has to be fast too). The dynamic events are split into 4 categories. Acceleration: 0-75 meter dash. Skidpad: Figure of 8 course around 2 50ft radius circle. AutoX(Sprint): 1 fast hot lap. and finally, Endurance: 22km race split into 2 parts for 2 drivers, with a driver change that requires the car to be shut off and restart on its own. The endurance fuel economy is also measured to account for the score. The total points is 1000, with endurance accounts for 400(of which 50 is fuel econ). At the end of the event points are counted and the team with the most points wins.

Each competiton is independent of another, so each accounts for their own "championship". The biggest event is the FSAE East, it will be at Michigan International Speedway in 2008, over last 2 years though it has been at the Ford Proving ground at Romeo, Michigan. Each year this event opens to 130 teams, and the entries are filled up within 45min of registration. 2nd largest is Formula Student at Silverstone, which is opened to a total about 70-80 cars. Third is the Formula Student Germany and FSAE Australasia, with ~40 cars. FSAE Italy is one of the newer and smaller event. There are also FSAE Brazil and FSAE Japan.

The cars themselves are pretty free in terms of design freedom, as long as it conforms to safety and displacement it is pretty much free for all. Carbon tub, tube frame, suspension mounted aerodynamics, paddle shifter, CVT, turbocharging, supercharging...if you can design it you can probably run it. Stuff that was banned in F1 have been banned in FSAE too, like sucker car(1991 Cornell Univerisity). The top level car in the competiton can do 0-60 in less than 3.5 sec, have up to 90 RWHP, weighs less than 400lbs, and generate up to 2Gs in transient cornering and braking.

The experience is look upon as favorable for employment purpose as it provides just about the most practical experience from seeing a project from start to finish, with all the engineering involve.

[LeonOfTheDead]

you are right RacingManiac.
even if the sentence "if you can design it you can probably run it" is nearly correct, i think is good to underline that some parts of the car could be taken from existing projects, cars or motorcyrcles, as the engine, for example, while others must be design by the University, such as the turbocharger/supercharger and others stuff.
i have a copy of the rules book, and they are quite simple, but still some team went to the track with a car that wasn't in rule, such as the Rome University...they were able to fix the problems, but suffered of a lot of mechanical failure during the dynamic events...with three suspensions collpased!!!

[NSXType-R]

Cool. Thanks for explaining. I was right in my guess.

Popular Science I think had an article about it about two months ago.

[RacingManiac]

it is interesting to note that there have been teams with engines that were designed and/or built by themselves. Western Washinton U have made a custom 550 cc V8 with custom transaxle that can rev to 15000rpm....

[LeonOfTheDead]

550 cc V8...cool, sounds like the old 1.6 liter V6 engine of mazda...
but still, i didn't understand why there are teams like TU Graz which are spending a lot more money than the other teams...