FSAE Michigan: An inside look

"BJohnson11" (brettjohnson01) 05/20/2014 at 21:35 • Filed to: None

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I got back Sunday from Middle-Of-Nowhere Michigan (also known as "where Michigan International Speedway, and nothing else" is). My team had a tumultuous journey to get there, and a very eventful time once at competition. I'm going to give you guys an inside look into what competition was like. I'll try to cover everything without skipping all over the place, but who knows how that will work.

Day 1 (Wednesday): Weather was cold and rainy—A sign of things to come. Car got in late Tuesday night. Our driver got held up by snow in the Rockies, and had to drive for 29 hours straight to get the car to comp in time. Many, many thanks go to that man and his wife/copilot. Anyways, Wednesday is all about making it through Tech Inspection and getting settled. We set up our pit area, then around midday, brought the car over to tech inspection. We knew going in that, because of our seat, we probably weren't going to pass the broomstick test (used to measure clearance above driver's head in the event of a rollover). Sure enough, we made it through tech on almost the first try (though it took FOREVER. The inspector we had must have been a rookie, because he consulted every single rule with another inspector). We had to go back to our older, lower cut seat so that our tallest driver could sit down far enough to pass broomstick. Made it through, and that pretty much was Wednesday.

Day 2 (Thursday): Design judging day. Weather was still cold and rainy. Except colder. Our design judging time slot was around 1:30 PM, so in the morning, we tried to squeeze through brake, sound and tilt test. Tilt test is a two stage process. They fill your car with gas, put it on a tilt table, and tilt it first to 45 degrees. They check to make sure no fluids are leaking. Then they tilt it to 60 degrees to simulate 1.5g of acceleration, and make sure again, no fluids are leaking and that the car has a low enough center of gravity. THERE IS NOTHING HOLDING THE CARS TO THE TABLE with the exception of a safety strap. Yes, cars have tilted over. We had a loose hose clamp the first time, so we tightened that and all was good. On to sound. We run a single cylinder 450, and those are notoriously loud. All cars must be under 110 db (measured 1 meter away from the exhaust tip at a 45 degree angle with the engine at 7000 rpm). First time through we were at 113 db. Crap. Went back, richened the tune up at 7 grand to kill the noise a bit, and ran at 109.8 db. Woo hoo! We quickly tried to go through brake testing (must lock up all 4 brakes), but with brake bias issues and the fact that we needed to get to design judging, it had to wait.

Design judging is basically 4-6 engineers from industry hyper-analyzing every component on the car. It's as much of a "how well was your car designed" as it is "can you at least justify why you did this, what could make it better, and how well did you present it". I was in charge of our drivetrain (everything behind the engine, so gear ratios, differential, etc). Design judging went well, and we ended up getting 15th (tied with a few teams).

Before I move on to day 3, I have to mention the industry presence. They may as well rename the event "GM, Ford, and Chrysler central". GM had a huge presence (booth, some Corvettes, the new SS), and Ford had an equally large booth (new Mustang, Boss 302S, more). Plus plenty of manufacturers (Bosch, TRW, more). And they were all recruiting students HEAVILY. If you want the best, hire from FSAE.

Day 3 (Friday): Start of dynamic events! We quickly made it through braking test in the morning, threw the slicks on the car, and went right away to acceleration and skid pad. In acceleration, we ran about as fast as a heavy and underpowered car can run (our car is 450 w/o driver, with 50 hp. Oregon State, who won, is 350 w/o driver and has probably 75 hp). Skid pad is also tough, because it has little to do with driver ability and all to do with car set up. We ran a mediocre time (27th in skid pad, 41st in accel), and a lot of that is a result of a Torsen diff that, in its current configuration, causes horrible mid corner understeer. Next was autocross event in the afternoon. The weather today had been mostly cloudy with no rain, but the rain could have been coming. We took a gamble, assumed it would rain, and ran as early as we could. We put down a 60.3 second run (at the time was the fastest of the day), but the rain held off, the track rubbered in, and the fast teams were putting down 53s and 52s. But then, tragedy. Our second driver stuffed the car into the wall in the practice pit, demolishing our front wing and bending the crap out our front left corner of the suspension. Luckily, we had mostly fabricated spares, but it meant for a hectic afternoon of welding, fabrication, and problem solving. It broke at 2, we got it re-teched by 5:30, and in between was hell.

Day 4 (Saturday): Endurance day. With the events of yesterday, we had a little doubt that we would finish endurance. A Cal Poly SLO team hasn't finished an endurance race since about 2005, and finishing was a primary goal of ours. The weather was cloudy and gloomy, but we hoped the rain would hold off. It did, and we were able to get through endurance with decent times. Unfortunately, one of our drivers (same guy who crashed, he's fired) had a few off courses which add 20 seconds each to the overall time, and we didn't score all that well in endurance, but hey, we finished! The team was happy, tired, and ready for sleep. We ended up in 26th overall, which was close enough to our beginning of year goal of top 25. Very pleased with the result, motivated for next year, but ready for some time off.

Some additional notes: GM fired up their C7.R. Good god. I have some pics of the better teams running endurance, and I'll try to upload the videos of them running and of the C7.R. Lots of cool teams there (Damn Germans are good!), lots of nice people, and seriously, MIS is in the middle of nowhere. We ate at the same restaurant (JRs, highly recommended) three nights in a row.

Oregon State (GFR)

U Michigan: Crazy Aero package

More UM

TU Graz (from Austria). They have a custom built AMG engine that puts out about 95 hp.

Looks like Graz's car again. Cant tell.

Axel-Ripper > BJohnson11 05/20/2014 at 21:47

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Great job! My old team (Kettering) didn't do too hot for various reasons mostly due to lack of a few highly experienced members from last year.

Also, unless GFR did something big with their engine package they're barely making 50 hp. They just put it down REALLY well and can drive the shit out of that car.

NoahthePorscheGuy > BJohnson11 05/20/2014 at 22:02

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This is hilarious, i've been looking at Cal Poly SLO and am extremely interested in FSAE...

Mind if I i nterrogate ask you about the school at some point?

I actually may be visiting it this weekend.

desertdog5051 > BJohnson11 05/20/2014 at 22:38

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MIS is in the middle of nowhere. Holy crap man, where you from? Love you write up, but ??

Montalvo > Axel-Ripper 05/20/2014 at 22:54

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I saw Kettering struggling to get through tech but I was able to catch them finally pass brake test. There were a lot of teams with some interesting engine choices. A few lucky teams got some AMG bits and the winner of endurance was running a 250 cc go cart motor. The aero packages a lot of the bigger teams use help put the power down and plant the car but they can also be a hindrance because when they cone they have a tendency to carry it with them for a while. If you have a capable driver with a lot of seat time in the vehicle those cars can really fly. I forget which team it was but one of the Germans had over 3000 km clocked in testing, that is ridiculous and downright impressive.

Axel-Ripper > Montalvo 05/20/2014 at 23:09

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Sure you don't mean the efficiency winner? Endurance winner was, well, GFR. Also, Kettering last year at Lincoln beat a 250cc go-cart in efficiency with a 450. But yeah, its pretty cool how varied everyone is.

And the German teams usually have ridiculous amounts of testing when they show up to Michigan. Their cars were built to compete in FS Germany last year, so they test the remainder of the year and show up over here very well sorted, while readying their new cars for FSG.

Montalvo > Axel-Ripper 05/20/2014 at 23:23

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Efficiency winner was Lafayette because they were running a stock Suzuki 450 with a stock tune. You are right, I mixed up endurance with design and it was Oregon state who won endurance. The German teams have budgets easily in excess of half a million or teams with like a hundred people.

BJohnson11 > desertdog5051 05/20/2014 at 23:35

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I'd say MIS is bad just because it's populated enough around the area that you'd think there'd be more stuff around, but the closest town is Brooklyn, with a whopping population of 1200. Sure, there are other small towns around it, and it's only about an hour or more to Detroit and near Toledo and stuff, but it's pretty out there. And there was seriously no places to eat.

I grew up in St. Louis, MO, so I'm used to how spread out the midwest is compared to California where I am now, but it was pretty podunk out there.

BJohnson11 > NoahthePorscheGuy 05/20/2014 at 23:43

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Yea ask away. I'll answer questions here, but if you do visit and want to talk/get shown around, let me know. Saturday I'll be up in the machine shop working, and I think our car is getting back Saturday so you'd be able to check it out.

Without getting too into it, Cal Poly is an amazing school, and if you're in state, you can't beat the price (though it has been steadily rising).

Are you a senior or a junior?

BJohnson11 > Axel-Ripper 05/20/2014 at 23:45

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Yea I was a little surprised about Kettering, because I saw their car last year and thought it performed really well. I talked briefly with one of the guys on the team, and he mentioned that the success last year was kind of surprising, and I think they lost a lot of seniors.

GFR I thought made a little more than 50 hp, but 75 does seem high. Still though, a 350 pound full aero car is insane.

BJohnson11 > Montalvo 05/20/2014 at 23:47

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Yea I know TU Graz runs a "student-designed" custom AMG turbocharged inline 2. Makes about 95 hp.

The car Axel-Ripper references in response to you was UC Berkeley, and they basically built a go-kart. Super light car (around 300 pounds I want to say), 250cc engine. Agile, but I don't remember them being insanely fast last year at Lincoln.

NoahthePorscheGuy > BJohnson11 05/20/2014 at 23:47

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Junior in wait for it....

Ohio.

I'm interested in engineering and business. My dad works with a lot of startups and says a surprisingly high number of kids he has worked with have come from Poly SLO.

desertdog5051 > BJohnson11 05/20/2014 at 23:49

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Have to agree. Used to Live in MI. Went to NASCAR and IndyCar/Cart races every year, Even USAC Stocks, If you know what that is. You do need to bring supplies with you to that place.

BJohnson11 > desertdog5051 05/20/2014 at 23:54

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There was a Speedway in town that came in handy when we sheared off a brake bleeder screw (long story). So that was useful! I think the weather also dampened (pun fully intended) my view of the area. I could see it being a nicer place in nicer weather.

BJohnson11 > NoahthePorscheGuy 05/20/2014 at 23:56

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A lot of employers hire CP SLO guys because of the whole "learn by doing" motto of the school. From what I've heard from recruiters and people in industry, engineers from our school are just a lot more job ready and hands-on than kids from other schools.

I know Tesla, SpaceX, Apple, and a lot of the big West Coast companies hire heavily from Poly, and even more so from FSAE kids.

WhiskeyGolf > BJohnson11 05/21/2014 at 00:44

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Memories! Tough luck with the "wall interview". Seems to happen to everyone, well except the Germans... FSAE is all about building experience so hopefully your next event is even better!

Axel-Ripper > Montalvo 05/21/2014 at 07:30

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Yeah, ETS had that kart motor, wasn't sure if someone else did too. And I've seen firsthand how crazy some eurobudgets are. We hosted Esslingen one year... So nuts, and their guys barely knew how to machine things (Was all sponsored). For some teams it is more of an exercise in project management vs manufacturing.

Axel-Ripper > BJohnson11 05/21/2014 at 07:33

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Yeah, myself, our hyper attention to detail chief engineer, and the guy who was pretty much our sole engine program for 4-5 years all graduated this past year. Last year's car wasn't really that good it was just built like a tank and had one hell of an engine. I know they're trying some new things with the engine, and from what it sounds like it was some electrical issues and for some reason it basically dumped all of the fuel into the engine (that's why they failed endurance: out of fuel).

NoahthePorscheGuy > BJohnson11 05/23/2014 at 12:09

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so what do you study (engineering I assume) and do you have any friends who study business? How difficult do you think it would be to study some business and engineering?

BJohnson11 > NoahthePorscheGuy 05/23/2014 at 21:11

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I'm ending my third year as a Mechanical Engineering major (at Poly though, it's tough to get out in 4 years flat. I'll probably be here either 4 and a quarter or a full 5). I have a few good buddies that are business majors (if you do go here, live in the general dorms. You meet way more people from different walks of life than you would in a major-specific dorm).

I know we offer a "4+1" (most likely ends up 6 years total) that offers a minor in business, though I admittedly don't know much about it.

NoahthePorscheGuy > BJohnson11 05/23/2014 at 21:18

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on my way to SLO right now. Think tomorrow you might be free for a bit and be able to meet up for a chat?

BJohnson11 > NoahthePorscheGuy 05/23/2014 at 21:22

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Yea. I work up at the machine shop on campus (also where the Formula car is housed) from 9-1, so I'm not sure what your schedule is, but I'm free after that. If you wanted to see the car, we could meet up there to talk (the machine shop is also one of the biggest draws to Cal Poly for engineers), or we could really meet anywhere. I'll send you a message (if I can figure that out) with my phone number so you can text me. Easier than communicating via Oppo.

BJohnson11 > NoahthePorscheGuy 05/23/2014 at 21:25

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Don't know how to message. Reply once you've got my number down and then I'll delete this post.

NoahthePorscheGuy > BJohnson11 05/23/2014 at 21:27

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reply

BJohnson11 > NoahthePorscheGuy 05/23/2014 at 21:29

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Cool deal. Yea just shoot me a text tomorrow when you're free. Even if you stop by while I'm at work, I'll have some time to talk and show you the car. Just let me know.

SandZR2 > BJohnson11 05/31/2014 at 03:13

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Great write up and congratulations on your overall finishing position. I just got on the CPP FSAE team and my first comp is going to be Nebraska in a couple of weeks. Do you have a particular subsystem that you specialize in?

BJohnson11 > SandZR2 05/31/2014 at 11:13

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This past year I was the manufacturing lead, so I oversaw all of the work done on the car and made sure the car got built. This coming year, I'm taking over as drivetrain lead (so differential, half shafts, etc).

uofime > BJohnson11 06/13/2014 at 09:34

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IIRC Berkeley did pretty poorly at Lincoln last year, I heard they lost their sim raceway sponsorship because of it. The car had a solid axle and their suspension design wouldn't let them lift a wheel so they couldn't turn very well between that and their small engine were rather slow in all the events.