|
FSAE 2010 Competition Daily Report
Sun 16 May 2010
After all the excitement over the last few days, today seems like an anti-climax as we pack up our race car and all the accessories, waiting for the freighters to transport the cargo back home tomorrow. It was a most enriching and educational experience for the FSAE guys and me. With 120 cars to compare and contrast, the FSAE paddock was a fertile ground for engineering education. Talking to the students from all over the world was particularly revealing.
Some teams were here just to observe and learn, but not to participate. The experience will complement all the engineering knowledge they acquired in the classroom. Some teams participate in FSAE once every two years, as they feel that it takes that long to design and build a race car properly. A one-year cycle is really rushed.
I was surprised to learn that many FSAE participants from all over the world have to sit for their university exams once this competition is over. Many students view FSAE participation as more important than their exams and grades, because according to them, FSAE will ensure them good jobs in industries related to vehicles, ships, aircraft, motorsports, etc.
Last night at around 11 pm, we had a surprise visit from Wang Yang, our ex-FSAE team member who did the electricals on the 2008 FSAE car and graduated after the 2008 FSAE competition. He was the contemporary of our researcher engineers, Zhen Hui and Andre. Wang Yang did his Master’s degree in USA, and is now doing internship in Illinois. He drove for almost 10 hours to visit us at Super 8, skirting the coast of Lake Michigan to reach Brooklyn where we are.
Well, all good things must come to an end. FSAE 2010 is over and this race car will join the other oldies in our lab, which is fast becoming a race car museum. But for me there is no such thing as an end, for while the final year students leave for their well-deserved overseas holiday, I have a new FSAE team waiting for me back home working on next year’s car. Over the last 27.5 years, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed teaching engineering. There is really no end point that I’m trying to reach, since the process of teaching is enjoyable in itself, not to mention the joy of seeing students learn. In a ballroom, the dancers enjoy the process of dancing. Nobody is aiming for the end of the dance, nor is anyone striving to reach a final destination point on the dance floor.
So till next year, thank you for tuning in to this FSAE channel. God bless.
A/P SEAH KAR HENG
NUS FSAE supervisor
Sat 15 May 2010
Today was as sunny as yesterday with temperatures comparable to NUS air-con rooms. It was devoted to the 22 km Endurance Event. Our two endurance racers Roy and Nic went to walk the track at 8 am to familisarise themselves with its characteristics before the race began at 9 am. Our car was scheduled in the afternoon. Roy was the first driver, completing 11 km with a decent speed. Unfortunately, during the driver change, the marshalls detected some leak in our transmission and barred Nic from continuing the remaining 11 km. So we packed up. Game over. I suppose that was a blessing in disguise as Roy reported that the rear brakes had faded towards the end of his 11 km. Nic was spared the horror of racing with faulty brakes.
Later on, a team from the University of Patras came to admire our car. I had no clue where they were from, but they told me Patras is in Greece, near Athens. So I learnt some geography. They were participating for the first time, but their car, like that of PES Institute of Technology, Bangalore, was not allowed on the race track because it could not pass the technical inspection. The judges here are very strict about safety.
Iceland’s volcanic ash seems to have delayed the arrival of a few race cars, including that from JSS College of Engineering, Bangalore. It is still stuck in queue behind a backlog of cargo at London’s Heathrow Airport, so the team had no car to show for their year-long efforts.
This year, we did not make it into the Design semi-finals, while our two paddock neighbours did, namely TU Graz and Penn State U. However, at 15th place, we had beaten all the other Asian teams. The top three positions for Design went to TU Graz, Ecole de Technologie Superieure and Oregon State University, respectively, while my alma mater Queen’s University was ranked fourth.
A/P SEAH KAR HENG
NUS FSAE supervisor
Fri 14 May 2010
The sun finally came out with a high of 65 deg F (18 deg C), which was comfortable for us as it was only as cold as some NUS rooms. It was a day of dynamic events at FSAE. The morning consisted of the acceleration and skidpad events, and the window for both events was 9 am to 12.30 pm. The racers for the former were Derek Lee Bing Loong and our team leader Lin Xiaoning. The skid pad was done by Roy Ooi Junhao and Nicholas Sim Kok Jun.
The afternoon 1 km autocross event (2 to 5 pm) was done by Roy and Nicholas. After queueing up, when Nicholas finally went for his first round at 3.30 pm, the clutch was giving problems. The car stalled and stopped at one point. When he re-started the engine to continue, he could not shift to a lower gear, so he drove the rest of the course at 5th gear, even through all the slaloms and hairpin turns. Surprisingly he did not hit a single cone. Bravo! Our team had no choice but to bring the car back to the paddock to repair the clutch. The boys managed to scurry the car back to the start line just a few seconds before the 5 pm deadline so that Roy could give it a shot too. FSAE competitions are always such a race against time. If I ever get a heart attack, it must surely be at an FSAE competition.
As I walked round the paddock looking for interesting car designs, I noticed a team wearing a flag on their sleeves which resembles our Singapore flag. It has a red background with a white crescent and a white star (we have a crescent and five stars plus a white strip below). That is the team from Turkey’s Istanbul Technical University. They told me it is their first time at FSAE.
Another first timer is the second team from Bangalore, India, namely the PES Institute of Technology. Their engine is an inline 4-cylinder Honda F4i, but longitudinally mounted, such that they also need to use bevel gears for their transmission. So looks like we’re not the only ones trying the bevel trick.
The FSAE paddock is like a mini-United Nations, with people speaking in French, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, German, Spanish, Turkish, etc, like nobody’s business. If all earth dwellers would occupy themselves with the arduous task of building race cars, nobody would have the energy or time to fight wars. Let’s just fight on the race track for a change and learn some engineering.
A/P SEAH KAR HENG
NUS FSAE supervisor
Thu 13 May 2010
Today started as a typical miserable Michigan cold rainy day, clearing up towards noon. Nevertheless, the show must go on at FSAE and it was a packed day for the boys. Our allocated time slot for Design Judging was 9.15 to 10 am, but they managed to squeeze in the weigh-in before that. After the boys presented to the various judges how they designed the car, they were questioned on why they did or chose this, that and the other, ie. the whole rationale of building the car this way, as opposed to some other way, as there are limitless possibilities of building a Formula race car.
What I admire about these judges is their undying and consistent enthusiasm in their craft. They simply breathe engineering. These are automotive experts specializing in motorsports who have decades of experience in race car technology. Year in year out, they listen to students presenting their rationale for designing their race cars, yet I can never detect any shadow of impatience or jadedness in these intrepid and committed pedagogues. They are quick at spotting the mistakes of students, often offering alternative but workable solutions, yet without dampening the learners’ creativity or despising their ideas. I told some of my students, “Whatever your design, don’t try and smoke these guys. You may succeed in smoking me, but certainly not these experts.”
After the Design Judging was over, they brought the car for the remaining mandatory tests (45 deg and 60 deg tilt tests, brake test, 110 dB max exhaust noise test). In the afternoon, there were two more presentations to do, namely the Cost (2 pm) and the Marketing (3.30 pm) presentations. The day closed with a briefing for all acceleration event and skidpad drivers, as these two events will be held the very next morning.
A/P SEAH KAR HENG
NUS FSAE supervisor
Wed 12 May 2010
We left Super 8 Motel in two batches: an advance party leaving at 6.45 am taking the truck containing the race car with accessories to the competition venue through its back entrance, and a main body leaving at 7.15 am entering by the main entrance to join them at our allocated lot (98) in the paddock. The morning was spent setting up our command post and arranging all the tools, etc for easy and immediate access. It was very cold with an occasional drizzle. Our neighbours this year are two of the most illustrious teams: Last year’s FSAE champion, Technical University, Graz (from Austria) in lot 97, and another promising team, Pennsylvania State University in lot 99.
The technical inspection was at 1 pm and our number in the queue was 11, another double number. The inspectors checked the car thoroughly for safety and compliance to rules, in addition to our fire extinguishers, rain tyres and other safety equipment. We were made to rectify only our water catch tank, which was not a matter of life and death, and was quite easily done. All our drivers successfully cleared the 5 second egress test, which is not as easy as it looks. A Formula race car is so compact, the driver needs to release the steering wheel and safety harness even before he can jump out of the seat.
A/P SEAH KAR HENG
NUS FSAE supervisor
Tue 11 May 2010
The traditional April showers seem to have extended to May this year, as we experienced an entire day of rain, while the temperature hovered around 46 deg F outside. Fortunately, yesterday the boys have done just about all that’s needed to prepare the car for preparation, so today there’s just some final touch ups to do. The long hours of daylight as summer approaches are an advantage we don’t get in Singapore. One team from Bangalore are here in person, but their car has not arrived yet. Hopefully it will arrive tomorrow in time for the technical inspection.
At 6 pm, our team registered for the FSAE competition. As in past years, the registration booth is in Super 8 motel, which is super convenient for the teams putting up here. All went smoothly except for a slight delay when they demanded to inspect our insurance documents. Insurance and indemnity are of paramount importance in FSAE because they recognize the risks involved in student-built and student-raced cars.
When we registered online last October, we were already given the car number 33. This year seems to be a year of double numbers. Our V-twin Aprilia engine has two cylinders arranged at an angle of 77 degrees. It was bought when I was 55 years old. Chinese saying: Good things come in pairs 好事成双。
A/P SEAH KAR HENG
NUS FSAE supervisor
Mon 10 May 2010
The public digital display along the road outside our Super 8 Motel read 46 deg F (which works out to about 7-8 degrees C) as I returned from this morning’s stroll to and from the Michigan International Speedway. There were still no signs of life visible from the outside, but I’m sure the organizers must have done some preparation inside.
Super 8 Motel is pretty quiet, now that Saturday’s wedding guests have all left, but the motelier told me that the vacant rooms will be occupied by judges between now and next Saturday’s wedding party. I thought there was going to be a judiciary conference of sorts but he said he was referring to the FSAE judges. These are experts in automotive engineering and motorsports who volunteer their time and expertise for the sake of nurturing the next generation of engineers. They will be checking all 120 participating race cars thoroughly during the technical inspection in two days’ time to certify that they are safe for racing and compliant to all the rules in the 100 page FSAE rule book. Any car that fails this inspection will be barred from the four dynamic events. The judges will also question the team members to gauge their competence in engineering design, which is the gist of this whole competition.
For this purpose, the boys spent the day preparing the car to ensure that it can pass this stringent test, combing the check list to make sure that no stone has been left unturned. Having invested so much money and trouble to travel across twelve time zones, it behooves us to make sure our car is allowed at the four start lines. Jet lag is certainly not in our vocabulary, since NUS FSAE has an unenviable tradition of working round the clock.
A/P SEAH KAR HENG
NUS FSAE supervisor
Sun 9 May 2010
This morning, as the sun was warming the land to a miserable 5 degrees C, I took a walk to the FSAE competition venue (Michigan International Speedway), situated about 5 km down the road. It was still a ghost town, waiting to be transformed into a beehive of activity a couple of days later.
We are not the only team lodging in Super 8 Motel. Some others have arrived from far and wide, including one of the two teams from India (both from engineering colleges in Bangalore) who are participating in FSAE for the first time. However, we are the only ones using the Super 8 car park for our test drives. The place is sprawling and the motel owner does not mind us test driving in the compound, so long as we stop the racket when a wedding is taking place, like yesterday afternoon. Today, as there was no wedding, we could test our car with impunity. Some of our intrepid guys were braving the gale outside, tweaking the car’s launch control, while a smaller group was sheltered in a warm room preparing for the static events.
Over the last few days, our boys have successfully tuned our Aprilia engine to survive in such near-arctic conditions, which we never experienced in Singapore. The winter clothing which we brought along turned out to be essential after all for our comfort. On our return to Singapore, we can continue using them in the over-cooled NUS lecture theatres and tutorial rooms.
A/P SEAH KAR HENG
NUS FSAE supervisor
Sat 8 May 2010
This year, our FSAE team had to come to Michigan, USA in three batches on 1, 5, 8 May, respectively. The order of move depended on who finished their exams first. With the NUS academic year starting later and later in recent years and the FSAE competition inching earlier and earlier, it will be a matter of time when the NUS final exams clash with this international event.
The first batch that flew here (advance party) consisted of all the section heads (Xiaoning, Joel, Mazher, Roy) and the research engineers (Hong Wee, Zhen Hui and Andre). They had to shop for all the stuff which we could not bring along from Singapore, such as pressurized carbon dioxide to activate our electro-pneumatic gear shifter, fire extinguishers, petrol, various oils and lubricants, etc. The race car arrived on 3 May and so whoever was around worked on it while waiting for the rest. When the main body (Jingyuan, Derek, Moses, Nicholas, Gautham, Vignesh) arrived, they were well equipped to tune the engine, bed the brakes, tweak the suspension, etc. It was just as well they started these preparations early because we are trying so many new things on the car this year and are not too familiar with all its idiosyncrasies yet, which are expected to be compounded by the wintry 5-10 deg C ambient temperature here. The new Aprilia engine, which was a nightmare to start up in Singapore, seems to have been tamed when the boys gave it their full attention, free from the spectre of term papers, continuous assignments, final exams and what not.
I came in the third and final wave (rear guard) together with Iskandar and Zhongwei. While still in Singapore, we were contactable through email and SMS by those who had arrived in the earlier two sorties, so we brought along whatever was missing or whatever they felt was needed as an after-thought, hence taking up the slack. A 20-hour flight half-way round the globe from Singapore to Detroit is always frightful, despite the respite at Tokyo’s Narita airport for an hour. Nevertheless, the sheer expectancy of the FSAE competition, due on 12 to 15 May, does help somewhat to alleviate the rigor mortis of sitting in a confined space for many hours.
A/P SEAH KAR HENG
NUS FSAE supervisor
|
|
