Pat’s Corner

 

Well, 2011 has passed into history, so we are all a year older and hopefully a year wiser. I wish all teams around the world, the very best wishes for the New Year 2012. Whether you are building a FSC or FSE car, or a hybrid car for some other competition, remember, time is finite. I cannot believe how fast 2011 passed us by, so stop procrastinating! Time is short! Get to work. That goes for me too!

Formula SAE Australasia 2011

The last competition of 2011 was FSAE Australasia 2011 held near Melbourne on the weekend before Christmas, a week or so later than in the past. It was one of the most interesting Australian competitions to date. A combination of different conditions meant the event was the most competitive on track event ever. Blustery wet and windy weather made on-track tactical decisions critical as teams tried to get their best drivers on the track at the best times without incurring the time penalty for running out of order.

For the second year running, the effects of the tight financial situation were obvious. Many teams brought back a modified second year car, incurring the Design Event penalties that incurs.

These included heavyweight team UWA, who could conceivably have won the event without this penalty.

The second year cars meant many more teams came to the event having tested beforehand. For the first time ever, every car entered at the event ran in one or more dynamic events. Of course, the later date gave a couple of weeks extra time to teams. The late date seems to have been popular, so we may well see it adopted as the standard date for future Aussie comps.

The Indian team from Roorkee just managed to pass the brake test in time to compete in the second enduro. I was interested to see this car run as it was the first time we have seen the new generation India Enfield EFI500 engine run.

This is a simple aircooled single cylinder engine fitted with electronic fuel injection and a unit construction crankcase containing the transmission. I have been recommending this engine to the Indian teams for a couple of years because import regulations there make it virtually impossible for them to source one of the more usual Japanese or European motorcycle engines.

The engine is a more basic design and somewhat bigger and heavier than the popular Yamaha and Honda units, but it is fitted with a simple management system that permits the user to incorporate the mandatory 20mm intake restrictor.  In the event, the EFI-500 ran reliably but the lack of experience by the drivers meant a true measure of the engine’s performance was not obvious.

Monash won the event for the third successive year. This team have really optimised the points return per event to their benefit and were very worthy winners. Their 2011 car is a radical difference for their previous evolutions.

The team changed from a 4 cylinder engine to an Austrian KTM single and designed a significantly different chassis around it. Sensible and straightforward are words I would use to describe this car. The team stressed on getting the car finished early in order to do some exhaustive testing.

Isometric view of Monash chassis

At just over 200kg, the car was a little heavy for a ‘single’ but the team willingly accepted this penalty in order to get the first of this new evolution on the track and ensuring it was reliable. Very sensibly, they reasoned that the time lost accelerating an additional 20kg or so around the track could easily be nullified by testing and chassis optimisation.

Monash on track

The 2011 FSAE rules relaxed the limitations on Aerodynamic devices and Monash took full advantage. Again, they mounted their wings ‘live’ meaning the aero download is fed directly into the tyres rather than via the chassis.

Pre event research had the team change from their more usual Avon tyre choice to Goodyear and abandoned the spool drive system used in their previous two winners for a German Drexler clutch type limited slip differential. Both these decisions were made after investigation showed a points advantage over the entire spread of dynamic events.

On track, the Monash car was awesome, arguably the fastest car there and in my opinion, probably one of the very fastest FSAE cars in the world! The team were one of the four Design Finalists and scored well in all other events. All in all, a very worthy winner.

I was personally very pleased to see the Monash win. I like that it demonstrated that a team does not need a complex composite monocoque chassis to win in FSAE.

Other Design Finalists were RMIT, Auckland and the Design winners Edith Cowan University from Perth. The RMIT and Auckland cars were reasonably similar in concept, both small composite chassis powered by 450cc single cylinder Yamaha engines, though RMIT were on 10” wheels and Auckland on 13”.

Technically, the Auckland car was the more interesting, In order to effectively run a narrow track and reduce the yaw inertia as the car negotiates the slalom sectors of the circuit, the team re-engineered the power train to lower the c/g. They designed a transaxle system to replace the more normal chain drive arrangement (as used by the RMIT car). On track, especially in the wet, the Auckland car looked brilliant, but in the final washout, the Design Judges could not justify the additional 40kg weight penalty, so the RMIT car was awarded second place in Design, just a few points ahead of the Kiwi car.

Anxious Auckland students chasing a ‘hard start’ problem.

Design winning team Edith Cowan University brought the ‘other car with big wings’. In the case of ECU, however, the wings were mounted to the chassis rather than the suspension. On the track, one could see the team need to do some more development on their chassis setup as the car was seen to be porpoising quite a bit.

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