Formula SAE 2008 PIctures

[Mullet Tuner]

Here are some pictures from Formula SAE 2008 @ MIS. HUGE thanks to Dan and Derek Schoneck for all of their work/input on the body work. We would have never got-r-dun if it wasn't for your guys' help.









The bottom car is from Austria. (Tu Graz) The international teams really go all out for this competition. I was speaking with a few of the guys and they said there is over 150,000 in that car. There are other with similiar budgets, but this car really stands out IMO. Full carbon monocoque, carbon wheels/axles/suspension/intake, etc. The wheels alone are ~3000 a piece, and they have 3 complete sets. Anyways...

Unfortunately the bolts that hold the sprocket to the differential sheared in the endurance race and put us out (no repairs allowed) this was pretty much the last thing that we thought would break on the car, we piss pounded it for about a month before competition and there was never a problem with the differential. Due to that failure, we finished mid field (~125 cars) overall. If the car would have held up for the endurance race, I am rather certain that we would have finished in the top 25. Oh, and the E85 was actually E94. That plays hell with the tune when you are running open loop full time. You would think that when you are being held to a strict 130+ page rulebook to compete in this competition that the fuel would actually be what they say it is going to be. :idiot:

[ejholmgren]

that paint job is tits

[gixxer]

Good job, that looks awesome.

[Shaun]

Congrats, car looks bad ass!

[RayK]

Nice job on the car. Any plans available for building one? Looks like an awesome project.

Did the bolt loosen up causing them to shear?

[Mullet Tuner]

Thanks guys, it was a blast, even though it was by far the most stressful year of my life.

Ray, I am guessing that is what happened. Theoretically, the forces that the diff sees shouldn't be nearly enough to hurt the bolt. There are 3 aircraft grade 3/8 bolts that secure the sprocket to the diff. We should have inspected and replaced them while the car was disassembled for paint....hindsight is always 20/20. It really is not possible to build one of these cars without a full machine shop, and a lot of money at your disposal. The shocks and axles for this car are ~4,000 alone. For one person to build it, it would take years if you are doing all of the design and machine work. For those interested, we made 84/43 (HP/TQ) and the car weighed in at 422 wet. We were hoping to come closer to the elusive 400 lb mark, but we ended up making some last minute changes that added 15-20 lbs.

[Mullet Tuner]

I wish I had a shot of the front swaybar. It is a 6 position adjustable blade style bar. It looks rather simple, but the calculations needed to design a sway bar that works well dynamically for a car like this were overwhelming.

[Macs Stang]

Looks good Dusty. Lets see some of the build pics...

[Mullet Tuner]

I don't have a lot of pics from the earlier stages of the build. I need to pull them off of mavdisk sometime....

[tim]

Badass man. Sucks to hear you couldnt finish.

Unrelated but I have a buddy looking for a roommate in the Hopkins area. I know you were looking to move up, thought I would throw that out there if you are looking to split the costs with someone.

[9GUY9]

Car looked great, I dig the paint

I know you had many many hours of time and stress into that car