Gator Motorsports Forum

Hi guys,

Given that the competition is this week, I'm surprised that the chatter has died down around here. I'll start this thread in the hopes that someone will update the alums and sponsors on the progress of the trip to Michigan. I know from Mike that the team is already in Michigan (at MSU) but I don't know much else.

Hi Ben,

We are at East Lansing at the moment testing with MSU. Testing has been mostly uneventful so far. The MSU team members have been extremely gracious hosts, giving us a large space in their shop and allowing us to use their equipment. We're making sure to clean up after ourselves and help their team any chance we can get. We made sure to reinvite them to test with us in Florida during spring break.

The car is tech-ready. Our scales show that we'll be weighing in at around 410 lb this year, a massive improvement over last year, and also setting the all-time low weight record for our team (which we believe is held by Dan's 2008 car at 450 lb, and I believe Ben's 2000 car weighed in at 454 lb).

It's currently 45 and raining. We're hoping for no rain during comp because this has been our first rain testing all year. I'm inside at a coffee shop working on the business presentation as Kathy and myself will be presenting in a couple days. Can't really say I'd like to be outside with the rest of the team in this weather.

MSU is struggling again this year. They got their car running for the first time about a week ago. They didn't compete at all last year because they couldn't get their monocoque done on time, and this year they definitely cut it close. They ripped a diff out of the car yesterday when their driver missed a shift, and are currently working furiously to get a drivetrain back in the car. They destroyed a $1200 diff bearing (note: our entire bearing budget for the year is around that number) but they luckily have a backup.

Casey Glenn (previous team sparky) arrived by train yesterday. He's currently working with Fred and Patrick to get the harness cleaned up and ready for comp. Luther's dad will be arriving by plane this afternoon.

Ben - the MSU team was definitely impressed with our master cylinders. Their brakes guy spent an hour obsessing over our superior pedal/master arrangement. Thanks for the help this year. The car brakes like a dream.

We'll be leaving East Lansing tonight to hit early registration and head to our Brooklyn hotel. We'll most likely give the car one final "tech inspection" before the real thing tomorrow - we want to make it through on the first time!

I'm surprised that the chatter has died down around here.

Most of the team is too busy to be on the internet! I'll try and keep this thread going - if I find time I'll post some updates. Thanks for checking in with us; we hope to make our Alumni proud!

Thanks for the update Lane.

The team's got big shoes to fill:

2008 ... 450 lbs ... 9th place
2000 ... 488 lbs ... 4th place (*)
2010 ... 410 lbs ... ?

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(*) updated per Ben's correction

The specification sheet we provided for the 2000 vehicle data listed the vehicle at 216kg (476lbs).

If I remember correctly, our full-fuel competition weight, measured at tech, was 488lbs.

Chunky, but reliable.

Good luck guys!

Greetings from Michigan, the Great Lakes State,

We got early registered last night and we're on our way to MIS now. The car was made fully, 100% tech ready (we hope ) last night so there was no late-night working in the trailer at the hotel. The plan is to roll up, unload the car, and take it to tech.

We got our design queue list last night - it looks like we seriously rocked the PDR. The only school that looks challenging is Toronto (for those of you who don't know Toronto is sort of like us. They have a few top-10s in recent history but have never managed a podium). Everyone else is a bunch of no-names. Now we have to back up that PDR with what we actually know. But no Stuttgarts, UWAs, or TUGs in our queue.

Hope to post results on tech-in sometime tonight.

P.S. Bonus points for recognizing my greeting

I hope you guys take advantage of your favorable design "que-ing" and prepare more for design in MI than you did here before leaving. Please don't try to wing it, which I believe is what most are planning to do. To do well you need to have a logical discussion of how you designed your system prepared to pitch to the judges. If you just walk in hoping to answer their questions, the design event will not go well.

Good luck in tech. Please post an up update at the end of the day.

Mike

I should mention that we have a twitter that is being updated frequently (pics too!)

twitter.com/ufsae

No updates to twitter in about 7 hours, how'd tech go? Testing at MSU go well? Any issues still unresolved like oil pressure? For Eddie, if you show an oil pressure curve in design, make sure to show one with the well defined knee curve that doesn't display any dropouts. How much did she weigh?

We have not weighted in yet, latest guess puts us between 405 and 415 based on the final scaling at MSU.
MSU Testing was more of a shakedown and driver prep than anything else. We spent alot of time making sure the car was 100% tech ready, which paid off greatly as the only issue we had was a silly little rule about sub-strap belts for reclined seating positions but we have remedied it.

Tilt, Noise, and Brake are tomorrow, followed by Cost, Business, and then late afternoon design.