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Formula Student '09

Started by wewantourdarbyback , Jul 23 2009 18:53

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21 replies to this topic

#1 wewantourdarbyback

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Posted 23 July 2009 - 18:53

Was anybody else on here at Silverstone over the weekend?

I for one had a great (if very tiring) time from Wednesday to Sunday before returning to Leeds with a proud 21st finish after a two year absence and in a field of 82 who posted a result in any of the sections of the competition. Just a pity the rain proceeded to bugger up our Endurance, had it not dried up after our run we'd have been in the top 10 probably.

Thought you might like to see some pics of the efforts of tomorrows motor sports engineers:

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Helsinki, I think the only Finns there.

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Vienna

Zurich

Surrey

Exactly who it says on the tin

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Before you ask... Yes that is Wood you see there

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Loughborough

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Madrid Polytechnic went a bit over the top.....

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UCLAN's car situated their engine next to the driver.

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Finally our mean (green) machine, no that's not me in the car.

It must be said that there is a large disparity in the budgets of some of the teams, for example we had 12 members working with about £20,000. One of the teams from Graz is rather proud of their 54 man team with a budget nearing €1,000,000.... we beat them btw

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#2 alfista

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Posted 23 July 2009 - 18:58

No lack of creativity, like usual :up:

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#3 Villes Gilleneuve

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Posted 23 July 2009 - 19:34

We have this program here at my university -they use a parking lot as the test track. Car sounds awesome.

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The rules are very restrictive, so while it teaches some engineering ideas, they really discourage any innovation. That car above has a full CF monocoque (derived from the French for "single Chicken").

You can drive one of these cars in great simulation: Live for speed

http://www.lfs.net/

Edited by Villes Gilleneuve, 23 July 2009 - 19:58.

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#4 redmistracing

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Posted 23 July 2009 - 19:52

Hey there,

Yep I was there driving and one of the leading members of Swansea University. We won the endurance and we even competed when the track was wet and oily, in fact it was raining during most of our run. We just managed to get a clean consistent run. We were worried when it dried up and zurich were putting down some quick times, but their penalty kept them out of the running.

Some pictures or our car;
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My thanks to the team for an amazing weekend, and congratulations to Stuttgart University on their overall win!

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#5 Ivan

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Posted 23 July 2009 - 23:24

Wow that looks like it was a blast... :up:

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#6 tahadar

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Posted 23 July 2009 - 23:38

does anyone know where to find the overall standings and detailed results? i want to see how my uni did

as an aeronautics person ive gotten the impression that i am quite unwanted in our team(s) unless i want to simply do the nitty-gritty parts of car preperation...quite silly i think!

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#7 wewantourdarbyback

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Posted 24 July 2009 - 00:44

does anyone know where to find the overall standings and detailed results? i want to see how my uni did
as an aeronautics person ive gotten the impression that i am quite unwanted in our team(s) unless i want to simply do the nitty-gritty parts of car preperation...quite silly i think!

http://www.formulast...009 Results.htm

There

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#8 wewantourdarbyback

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Posted 24 July 2009 - 00:45

I can't be arsed (alright I'm drunk) to repost all of the above post...

Which member of the Swansea team were you? We were sat behind you all day on Thursday waiting for Scrutineering, had I known there was another person from on here going I would have come and said hi.

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#9 wewantourdarbyback

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Posted 24 July 2009 - 00:54

Forgot to congratulate Stuttgart, I love there car. None of the other German/Austrian teams designs which TBH seem very similar, they have a very simple design and a couple of very good drivers (one Porsche supercup and an F3 driver) and have won for the last couple of years.

TBH some of the rules need stricter regulation if they have to exist. For example there was a car in our Enduro run who's engine could not have come under the 110 decibel noise limit in the test unless they had changed the map afterwards. It was deafening.

During the weekend I met my hero Damon Hill and also met Ross Brawn, it's a fantastic opportunity for young engineers, I (and the rest of our fantastic team) wish that Leeds University would take it seriously rather than just using old cars to attract new students on open days.

BTW if the commentator from the weekend is around let me tell you this. Our cut slicks weren't gamble... WE COULDN'T AFFORD SOME FULL WETS FROM HOOSIER so our drivers had to drive out of their skins to get us into 7th after the run with full wet teams around us in conditions that went from pretty much dry to monsoon rain.

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#10 redmistracing

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Posted 24 July 2009 - 08:16

Yeah, it was a long old day on Thursday waiting for scrutes! In the team photo I am the driver with the black/yellow helmet.

Must have been fun on inters!!

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#11 mel

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Posted 24 July 2009 - 09:37

Yay Leeds Uni racing green. :clap:

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#12 DMX

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Posted 24 July 2009 - 10:37

I was there as part of the Brookes hybrid team. I'm in my first year (despite my age!) so it was my first time at the event. Not the most successful of weekends for us, we were severely down on power compared to everyone else, and last minute 'issues' meant our final drive gearing was way out. Still, we were glad to finish all of the events and have heads full of bright ideas for next year. I also think our budget must have been one of the smallest at the event, but unfortunately the hybrid event is judged on sustainability rather than cost!
Congratulations to Herts for winning Class 1a with an awesome car, and well done to Swansea on the Enduro result. I did a business degree at Swansea many years ago. If only I'd known better back then...

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#13 V8 Fireworks

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Posted 24 July 2009 - 11:21

The rules are very restrictive, so while it teaches some engineering ideas, they really discourage any innovation. That car above has a full CF monocoque (derived from the French for "single Chicken").

Really?

Sure 4 wheel steering and ground effects are banned, but in this thread there was car with engine next to driver, bodywork ranging from flat sheets of plywood or aluminium up to sculpted CF shapes, even cars with over the top wings big enough to work on ultra-slow Formula Student courses.

Sure teams with CF tubs need to do full analysis to show the cost is worthwhile and not just a $$$ exercise. All test components are not included in the official budget right, so rich teams could do a Brawn and build multiple cars trialling different engines and layouts and work out which is best?

Seems reasonably free?

Edited by V8 Fireworks, 24 July 2009 - 11:24.

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#14 wewantourdarbyback

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Posted 24 July 2009 - 11:28

Must have been fun on inters!!

We were watching from the stands, the track was just getting to the point were our tyres would have been ideal and the wets would have begun to tear themselves to pieces when the heaviest rain of the day began to fall. Our first driver was heading toward the minute mark with every lap doing an outstanding job and then just before he came in the heavens opened. Our second driver did a great job but the tyres gave no grip at all.

We stayed around to watch the ...er.... lesser cars go later in the day. Best hour and a half of motorsports I've watched in my life. Madrid obviously had too much downforce from those wings and kept spinning. One team lost all gears except first and you could see the driver getting angrier and angrier with his car with each lap. Cambridge's car was just atrocious, no handling at all, even leading to the wonderful moment when they were passed by one of the Indian teams who had been crawling round at about 25mph. By the end of the event the run from Brooklands to Luffield was littered with dead cars around the outside, including Dresdens very expensive (and very slow) all carbon fibre car.

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#15 wewantourdarbyback

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Posted 24 July 2009 - 11:29

Yay Leeds Uni racing green.

I thought we had the right colour as well :cool:

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#16 BRK

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Posted 24 July 2009 - 13:50

Woo,Loughborough. They have one of them at the entrance to the Wolfson School here.Had no time to take part myself.

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#17 wewantourdarbyback

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Posted 24 July 2009 - 14:55

Woo,Loughborough. They have one of them at the entrance to the Wolfson School here.Had no time to take part myself.

They were in our garage.... took them till Saturday afternoon to get through scrutineering.

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#18 wewantourdarbyback

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Posted 24 July 2009 - 15:15

Some more pics:

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Eindhoven

The winning car from Stuttgart

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Take off all the sponsors and F12 looks fantastic

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#19 skinnyman

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Posted 15 January 2010 - 14:49

It must be said that there is a large disparity in the budgets of some of the teams, for example we had 12 members working with about £20,000. One of the teams from Graz is rather proud of their 54 man team with a budget nearing €1,000,000.... we beat them btw

Saw that one today, even Red Bull sponsors them :drunk:

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#20 Anssi

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Posted 15 January 2010 - 16:55

It seems there is a Finnish Formula Student team also from http://www.tamk.fi/

http://formula.tamk.fi/

They've not done it for many years but I am glad to see they have started this project :cat: