well, our chassis is complete, with nomex currently being installed.



our A-arms are 95% done



our rockers are 60% done



our rear uprights are 75% done



we have a new prototype shifter installed in last years car for testing



we are testing thermal forming for our plastic body



and now for picture 1: 2004 chassis

 

and my A-arms and the jig:

 

and one of our welders: Bennett Ford

 

and finally, a picture of our engine lab and the previous year's cars:

 

You win.

 

wow.



We just finished our CFRP a-arms. Prototype Car for torsion testing.



I just finsihed all the suspension analysis, along with steering geometry.



During the next week (spring break) the team will be running 3 CNC mills and 1 CNC lathe non stop to catch up.



=)



Sorry can't say more... Project Manager will get upset.



Engine is in the dyno room (we have our own engine dyno - superflow 901), suzuki DRZ400 single cylinder with TEC3.



What is your projected wieght? we are shooting for 375 wet.

 

What would you guys think if a 8 hour enduro race was organized for any year SAE race car (must conform to SAE rules for that year) at a local race track?

 

carbon fiber, eh? nice, we looked into it, but were scared of epoxy failure. we found a cheaper, easier way to lower the weight from last year's A-arms. i expect this year's A-arms to weight about 4 lbs less than last year's.



We modeled our chassis in Adams using beam and pin joints, and designed it to 5 times the stiffness of our suspension, measured hub to hub. it is the first year that we have modeled it correctly, so and as a result we lowered the chassis weight 15-20 lbs. we will do a torsional test once our uprights, spindles, and hubs get completed, maybe next month? we'll see if it agrees with the Adam's software theory.





yea i was the geometry man for our team. we finished that last semester, but at A&M we have the advantage that our FSAE project doubles as our senior design project, and we get 5 upper level credit hours for it as we work on it over the course of a whole year.





When is your sping break? ours starts like march 19, and we hope to be finished by then with construction so we can disassemble, get it painted, and put back together for testing. hopefully we can enjoy spring break and not do school, but that has never happened in the past.





I understand, i'm keeping silent about the details of our shifter (modeled after UTA, we've got inside info, LOL), our body construction, and my A-arms.







Yeah, we have some 30+ year old dyno that a grad student finished upgrading last year. it's sweet and works great. We are using a yahama YZF 600 cc motor and fuel injecting it with a motec controller. last year we got like 40 ft-lb of torque and like 70 hp. i think?





we're shooting for 450 lbs wet, which will be 50 lbs less than last year. our car's wheel base is 2" shorter than last year, and it is 1" shorter in front and rear tracks.





we ran at the SCCA nationals in kansas last semester in september i think it was. uta was there, but their carbon fiber body kit didn't help them that much more than us. our 2003 car handled better

 

Man, I wish we had formula SAE at U of Iowa. All we have is the SAE buggies. They suck my *****. Can't mod **** on them!!!

 

but yeah... looks good. good luck on the next season.