S&T Racing 2009 First Drive FSAE

[Gric87]

nice car

[steelbluesleepR]

i am a former member of the missouri S&T formula SAE team, and yes, the wings do a LOT for the car. it does indeed prduce drag, but there is 500lbs of downforce at 88mph, or enough for the car to drive upside down (without a driver that is...). this car went on to do VERY well in the FSAE 3-race season, and winning overall at virginia.

[corotor12345]

@steelbluesleepR

Dude, I'm 17 years old, and I'm truly devoted to cars in every aspect possible. I'm a good student, but I live outside the USA. Once inside one of these universities, what does it take to be part of the team that develops a an FSAE car? It's my goal for college, so any info would be very appreciated =) thanks

[fatqwert200]

@steelbluesleepR but you know the average speed of the car at turning is around 20 to 30 so in all thats why this idea was rejected on our team. it would have been for style points but nothing else as we were formula hybrid

[hellbent345]

@steelbluesleepR

saw this car performing, wasn't very good. there is a reason noone else uses wings, the flow separates below about 50, giving really poor downforce characteristics with a continued drag penalty. Considering the tight courses the cars are tested on, they vary rarely travel above 30, let alone 50. They do go faster in the acceleration test etc, but thats a straight line! These reasons and more are why most intelligent fsae students opt to run without wings (including us at obr)

[BCStudent89]

@hellbent345

I want to point out that the UK competition probably has the slowest courses of any official competition and that even Michigan is relatively tight compared to the one in California, so I wouldn't be so quick to make sweeping generalizations about average course speeds. Considering that they have won Autocross 4 times in the past 3 years, they probably have a decent idea of what they are doing. My understanding is that they also test all of their cars at a full scale wind tunnel.

[LukePAUS]

Meyerowitz, if the cars travel fast enough for drag to be a consideration - they travel fast enough for useful downforce generation.

I'm sure UMR have quantifiable data that suggest wings make them quicker, otherwise they wouldn't have included them on the car.

We've got to justify every design on the car at design event, and if you don't have sufficient data backing up your choice, you'll lose points.

[navdrum001]

nice, about the wing comment, in some events the cars do go about 80mph which is quick enough for aero effects.

The engine sounds like its lacking torque. It takes time for the wheels to spin up on the exit. Like you said, first run tho, very impressive machine.

[meyerowitz89]

Genuinely guys im not having a dig. but how have you worked out that those wings are gonna give you any downforce at all. at the events u wont get to over about 60mph. do u not think there just causing more drag than anything usefull. does look good though guys.

[ktmcf121]

i assure you that the engine runs just fine. it's a combination of poor sound quality and some..... "proprietary" exhaust tuning.

[Kasper314]

Its the first run. If it is something wrong i am sure it will be fixed

[LLOONI]

is it a problem with the sound, or does that thing have a wicked misfire?