So yesterday we hooked up the air shifter on the SAE car and did some testing runs on the road by the shop.

Seriously, I have never driven something so fast. I was in charge of the shifting system, so I got to do the testing, and 1-4 gear are ridiculous. It never quits pulling, and I have no idea how fast I was going but I do know that third tops out at 80mph and fourth is in the 115 range.

My face after I just came.





Unfortunately it made the ride home terrible as the Miata felt slow as **** respectively.

 

But where are the pics of the air shifter? Similar to what drag cars use?

 

Here are some pics of the setup.

It was just a prototype to show proof of concept so we could put it on the '09 car.

It is just an air tank with two solenoids connected to buttons mounted to the steering wheel, and an air ram to actuate the shift lever on the F4i transmission.





We found out the air tank needs to be bigger, we should lower the pressure, and get a smaller ram that self centers. Most of this was due to air consumption, as we were estimating only 250 shifts per bottle at the rate we were using it.

 

That's still awesome, wish I was still involved in FSAE

 

Man, it is a blast.

Seriously the best thing I have done coming down here. Between all that I have learned and experienced, and the people I have met, this has to be one of my favorite things about UCF.

 

Obviously you have never driven a shifter kart.......FSAE cars are somewhat slow in comparison.

 

I'm jealous, that thing would be badass!

 

**** yes. I want to drive one of those sooooo bad.

 

wish uconns FSAE didnt suck so much.

 

FSAE is badass. Makes me wish I had done mech e back in the day.

 

How does neutral work? Do you still have a manual lever to find it?

 

Nyj3r Plz, do not even start trying to compare the two,

Well, at least with our team, Engineering is not a requirement to participate. We have two business majors on our team and a nurse that I know of.

For neutral you just shift down into first, then lightly tap up to engage either neutral or second if you did it wrong. It take some skill, but can be done. Also on the actual car we will still have a jockey shifter on the right side as a backup.

 

It seems like the older I get, the more awesome engineering projects I discover.

 

I wish we had FSAE instead of SAE Baja, just a bunch of hicks seeing how much air they can get or how many times they can roll it with the spec 5hp Briggs motor.

 

LOL

Yeah, we have the same thing down here, but the guys are all pretty cool, and they know there stuff. Also our last jump didn't go so well.