coastertrav

So we got the car running tonight, and took it out to do a little tuning.

OH MY GOD...

This car hauls *****. No other way to put it. It was wet out, and the car had no traction, but would hit 50 (top of first) in about 2 seconds. The car sounds like a choir of angles, seriously, there is no other way to describe it. One of the main problems we had was we let a freshman wire up the LC-1 and somehow he created a wiring nightmare. He not only wired it wrong, but shorted out the 12 volt bus bar to the chassis, causing an intermittent power issue.

The car won't be run again till the homecoming parade in two weeks, but after that we will be hitting the dyno. Chris has a job at Superchips so we have access to unlimited dyno time.

Efini~FC3S

iTrader: (4)

Is this with or without the restrictor? I seriously doubt you are getting 95hp with the restrictor, the top FSAE teams are about 85hp, at best.

240_to_miata

iTrader: (2)

all these posts makes me wish uconn had a REAL FSAE team.... :(

reddroptop

iTrader: (4)

It's almost too cold to run the car here anymore, and the weather has been ****.

You are not hitting 0-50mph in two seconds, but it is pretty ******* fast.

coastertrav

Yeah, we went back and re-checked our final drive ratio, and apparently the final drive was a little shorter than we thought. Apparently first goes to about 40mph, which is actually way better than having the tall *** gear we previously thought it had.

coastertrav

UPDATE! 10/29/08

So the car is slowly becoming more car-like...finally.

Today the chassis guys made big progress getting the main hoop on the jig and started to assemble the lower portion of the frame. Miles, Will, and Blake started work on the air shifter, while Matt and I pondered the pneumatically actuated clutch and tried to imagine how amazing 7K rpm instantaneous clutch drops would be. Shaun, not really having much faith in the pneumatic clutch, started machining a billet aluminum clutch pedal but was having some issues with the programing and will finish it tomorrow.

Next weekend (Nov 9th) is the homecoming parade that we are in (side note: Parades usually travel at around 5mph which happens to be much faster then our idle speed of 30mph), but after that we will be testing the air shifter and clutch system on the new car. Also the group got the Motec hooked up to the AIM system for datalogging and the speed sensor calibrated.



Main hoop on the jig table



Other side (Matt is the one making the O-face)



Welding the bottom rails




Shaun (in the white) and Mark "Bobbles" working on the soon to be clutch pedal



More of the pedal after getting it situated in the CNC machine





Later






So much was going on in the shop there really wasn't a good way to step back and get a good look at the whole setup, but it is coming along.

coastertrav

UPDATE! 11/08/08


Saturday was homecoming here at UCF, and SAE came out to show the college our support. We were crowded by Chads and Jills as for some reason we were grouped with the frats and sororities, but we still got to show off what we brought quite a bit. Friday night we were all working on some last minute starting issues that ended up being a combination of slightly off cranking ignition timing and fouled sparkplugs. Then, to make matters worse, we had an NGK sparkplug fail in a way none of us had ever seen. After installing new plugs, we went to crank the car (probably with the ignition retarded a little to far back) we heard a pop, which was the plug blowing out of the hole and leaving it's threads behind. The solution? Using a bolt extractor in a creative fashion to retrieve the threads, which turned out to be way easier than any of us imagined.

Anyways, here are some pictures from Saturday morning, and the homecoming parade.

cjernigan

iTrader: (13)

My name is Chad and I don't understand the Chad and Jill comment. If you're saying all Frat boys are named Chad, I'm not in a Fraternity, maybe why I'm not sure what you're talking about.
Good looking FSAE and Baja cars, we had ours out yesterday as well.

coastertrav

Chad is a code name I use to describe frat guys, as well as Jill.

Chad is a synonym to bro, quaid, or frat guy.

CHAD:
A member of the male gender, a Chad is a person who goes to bars to pick up chicks. He usually accomplishes this by cockblocking other guys. A Chad can be identified by his appearance which usually consists of the following: mesh trucker hat, frosted hair, greasy spiked hair, polo shirt with the collar turned up, fake tan, ringer t-shirt two sizes too small, pants two sizes too small, wifebeater in public, and a light colored button-up shirt. Chad's also have spent time in a fraternity, will dance by themselves to attract attention, and typically drink light beer.


This bar is full of nothing but Chads.

swimming108

iTrader: (3)

ok, so how do i get into your school?

cjernigan

iTrader: (13)

Alright just making sure we're on the same page concerning the urban dictionary definition. Good thing I wear dark button ups, don't pop collars, frost my hair or bro rape. I also drink amber beer more often than not. Depends on the drink specials more then anything when on the town though.
Definitely not your definition of Chad here. Plus I'm Alaskan that trumps all that **** anyway.

coastertrav

LOL, yeah I figured. Although every time someone refers to you as Chad on this forum I giggle a little to myself.

curly

iTrader: (25)

Don't get me wrong, you guys are doing some awesome work, I'm incredibly jealous. but that mill you keep calling a CNC looks more like manual to me. maybe it just has a DRO? which is not the same as CNC.

coastertrav

Possibly, as I am not as familiar with the machines yet as you might be, but to clear up any confusion we actually have three mills.

One is completely manual, one (the one I am calling the CNC) is the one that we put our Solidworks models in and is completely automated, and a third is newer and I don't think I have any pictures of it yet.

curly

iTrader: (25)

ah, well is the one you keep taking pictures of the manual one? I've seen small manual mills like that retrofitted to a CNC control, but they're rare, awesome work none the less.

I think idealy I'd buy a FSAE car thats a year or two old, de-restrict it and track it.

P.S. nice wheelies, I'd be showing off too.

coastertrav

UPDATE!!! 1/14/09

Today was a fairly eventful day out at the shop. We were told we had to get the engine off of the dyno, so we spent the first part of the meeting getting it disconnected and unbolted. Later Miles and I worked on positioning/making the harness bar. Mark worked on making the bosses the endlinks will thread into for the suspension, they are going to be little works of art that no one will see. Shaun finished milling the pedal assembly, made from billet aluminum, and they way about 10lbs less than last years assembly (even though this year we have an extra pedal). Also, the aero guys have started on the bodywork, creating the molds out of Styrofoam that we will lay the dry carbon fiber over. Finally the car is starting to look more car-like.

The motor back off the dyno.



This years frame is just about finished, just a few final bars and the suspension tabs left.

Front:


Rear:


Shaun showing off his new pedal assembly.



Mark (Bobbles) working on the lathe.



One of the suspension bosses during production.



The finished product (The piece on the right threaded onto the endlink. These pieces will be press fit, then welded onto the end of the control arms giving us plenty of suspension adjustment).



Laying out the patterns for the bodywork. The pieces are cut out in Styrofoam, glued together, then shaped by hand into the final shape of the body part.





Mark D. cutting out the pieces on the bandsaw.



Some of the completed components.



One of the sidepods on the frame (remember, the Styrofoam is just a mold).





Here you can see a before and after of the shaping process. The front is completed while the back is the new pieces.




We have ordered a few new parts that should be coming in soon, and progress should be getting quicker and quicker. Saturday is going to be really busy, and we have another meeting on Monday due to not having class.

Until then...

y8s

iTrader: (8)

awesome, though I prefer blue or pink foam because it's easier to sand. plus you can get it at home deep

coastertrav

Yeah, I agree, but this stuff was free...

y8s

iTrader: (8)

i miss college.

i still have a "free" roll of kevlar in my basement

coastertrav

LOL.

Yeah we have two freezers full of prepreg carbon fiber at the shop, and I happen to have half a kitchen freezer full of the same here at my house (if it warms up to room temp it will start to cure). I'm just trying to think of something to make with it...