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Originally Posted by Planar_head /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Does a F-SAE car even get to that speed? Or were you just testing forces?
On another note:
I'm suprised no one figured out that it was a Bullitt sooner.
So, darcyb62, what supercharger are you thinking of dropping in?
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Our car's top speed is around 150kph, so yeah, it is useful to have.
We compete in hillclimbs at the end of the year after F-SAE comp, so the aero package works very well there. Our team is regularly one of the top-runners at these events, beating out other formula cars with much more powerful engines and more expensive components.
From wind tunnel testing:
The rig's a bit ghetto, but it works well enough for the data to be valid. Final endplates will, obviously, not be made from MDF panels. And there'll be a rear wing mount actually going to the car
. That is the actual chassis though on the rig though.
Figures suggest this year's aero package should kick ass
Compared to last year, this year's package has much more downforce and little more drag. In freestream tests (ie Wings only) we were getting some comparatively insane numbers.
There's a big debate on whether aero packs should run on F-SAE cars. From my perspective, I think its an interesting technical exercise and I see no reason why NOT to run one if you can make it work well. We're pretty lucky in that we can run CFD to come up with a reasonable approximation, then verify the data in a wind tunnel with the actual car.
Since we're not running insanely fast, drag isn't as big of an issue as you'd believe.
There are bit and pieces of bodywork missing on the car atm. Also, the nosecone is messed because the actual 2009 one couldnt' be made up in time, so we're using an old nosecone hacked up to fit reasonably well. Results should, obviously, improve with the final 09 nosecone since its much narrower and encloses more of the nose structure.
At the end of the day, F-SAE is a great techincal exercise, and really teaches us stuff that normal engineering students would never know. Unlike them, we actually see where all our class theories come into play in a real engineering exercise, and its very rewarding if you're willing to put the hard work in.
Throughtout the last 3 days, I've only had about 6 hours of sleep total thanks to the crapload of stuff that needs to be prepared for testing, but after a long sleep you wake up and look back at it as a rewarding experience.
I highly suggest anyone here that does engineering to join their uni's F-SAE team. You won't regret it one bit.
