We are in the process of tacking the chassis, Ill have a camera after thanksgiving break to take some pictures with.

 

was jimmy (james) harkness on your build this year?

 

Yeah, he is currently the shop steward. A great guy, and a great worker, but unfortunately he broke his foot about a month ago and hasn't been out to the shop much since.

I see that you are from his hometown. Did you go to school with him or something?

 

helllzzz yeah!! jimmy's my bud high school lolol, real good friends actually. I'll pm you to not clutter this thread sorry OP

 

Its all good man.

 

Looks like I'm getting my frame for Christmas.

 

Looks good, I need to get some pictures asap.

 

What size fuel cell will you run and where will it be located? I ask because I like the X-bracing behind the seat, but it takes up real estate that a lot of teams use for a fuel cell. Will you be putting it under the bottom of the "X?"

 

Our seat is heavily sloped back, so the fuel cell lies in the small of the driver's back. Usually our gas tanks hold around 2 to 2.5 gallons I believe. We've always run it like this, and never really ran into any problems. This car is extra tight too, so everything is fairly cramped behind the seat. We also run the battery back behind the seat too, with all the rest of the electronics on the right side closeout panel.

 

I've always wanted to join USF's FSAE team but I can never find the time to stop by their shop : [ This stuff always looks like a load of fun.

 

some pictures of the chassis so far, including the before shot of the oil pickup.. all taken with the HTC hero.

 

That's basically how ours was set up. It was exciting, one time, when the battery cable was shorting TO THE GAS TANK while I was driving. Of course the guys let it go a couple laps "because they were trying to see what the problem was" before they flagged me down, fire extinguishers in hand.

 

Hey guys, just so you know I re did our website, chect it out for all future updates!


University of Pittsburgh - Panther Racing

 

double post

 

Here is our latest chassis model.

 

We got the dyno in, I cant wait to get it set up =D

 

Bitchin' header.

 

Nice work cool seeing someone else in FSAE, I also desiged the pedal assembly for our car this year as well as working on the rest of the brake system.

I go to Oregon state, our team did pretty well last year in LA, and Austria, should have come in 3rd or so at FSG (damn aluminum rivet failure).

Heres an idea of what our pedal assembly looks like...its not current and has changed a bit but ts what I have on my desktop, but you get the packaging concept.



We run a pneumatic shifter and have a small clutch lever by the drivers hip for launch.
One of our drivers is a german go-karting champ so we went with a throttle pedal he was more accustomed too.

 

Very cool design. How do you like the shifter? Do you use paddles or...?

 

I'll get pics later today when I'm back at school...I need to pass out, I have been trying to get my cost report done..FML..LOL

We use a CF steering wheel that has an up and down shift button on the backside of the steering wheel...It works really well and we have never had any issuses and its crazy fast. Its really nice because you never have to take your hands off the wheel or change your grip like with paddles.This year we are going to try and incorporate a pressure sensor for the shifter though so that the M400 will perhaps light an LED indicating a drop in pressure. This is because shift response does slow down a tiny bit as the tank empties.

Although in 06-08 we still used only a brake and gas pedal, and have a very clever little shiter that ingages the clutch as you shift. Its really simple and has also worked very well.