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sand-eel

posted on 21st Jan 09 at 21:47

I think doing a motorsport course has put me off too :( far to complex and fast paced for my likeing, just want a nice 9-5 job TBH.


mattyross

posted on 21st Jan 09 at 21:43

quote:
Originally posted by ScottBeck
So what jobs are you currently in now

i do not want to persue a career related to automotive technology or motorsport- formula student may have even put me off.
however, the skills that i learnt during the vehicle development and the event itself were invaluable.

i enjoy motorsport, but would not like to persue it as a daily job- i would like to maintain it as a hobby instead.

quote:
Originally posted by Mase
Are you going to be involved with the formula student team for your final year project? Yeah Ramnik was a good lad, think he works for Honda now....

although i don;t want to join the team for another year, i want to return my knowledge of the event and development process to the new members. i don;t think i want to commit myself to the car again unless my final year project involves part of it.

quote:
Originally posted by davcohen
was wondering if the Jap team went for a Vtec unit lol
with the engines are you limited to what you can use?

vtec haha. a few teams use single cylinder engines that perform incredibly well; lightweight and compact units.
i remember that the single cylinder vehicles sometimes had real problems starting- at least we had a 1 in 4 chance of getting it right.

we used a MOTEC engine control unit and a custom wiring loom on our engine, it was a nightmare to configure.
i have some horrific audio clips that i recorded whilst we were trying to start the engine for the first time in a small underground room.
at first, we entered the wrong firing order before having to slowly dial in the correct timing.
it was pretty funny seeing and hearing foot-long flames flash from the inlet ports.


davcohen

posted on 21st Jan 09 at 18:53

was wondering if the Jap team went for a Vtec unit lol

with the engines are you limited to what you can use?


Mase

posted on 20th Jan 09 at 23:26

Yes, as they were re-developing the sheaf building, we had to go up to psalter lane to do our projects, which was a nightmare to be honest! Yeah i will have finished in June, after 5 years up here! Are you going to be involved with the formula student team for your final year project? Yeah Ramnik was a good lad, think he works for Honda now....


ScottBeck

posted on 20th Jan 09 at 23:19

So what jobs are you currently in now


mattyross

posted on 20th Jan 09 at 17:56

quote:
Originally posted by tom_simes
Matty, if I'm not confusing you with another team from Fs 2007, didn't you re-fit the engine the night before, and hadn't been able to test it until it was started for the noise test?

no mate that definately wasn't us :lol:
scruteneering was a total nightmare for the team however, as none of us had event experience.
we missed every single event on saturday as a result of both queuing and struggling through scruteneering.
the engine noise test was the only test that we passed first time.

the biggest safety fault with the car was the lack of driver head/ helmet clearance.
i was the largest driver that had to be tested during scruteneering.
i immediately failed due to roll-bar clearance; in the event of a roll i would have broken my neck.
i was really disappointed, but i did a lot of the development testing in sheffield prior to the event.

a team member travelled to meet an associate at the noble factory in leicester (?) on saturday night to make the emergency repairs.
he managed to source the steel tube and bend it into an approxiamte shape, before welding it at the event on sunday :lol:

during the early development testing, the seatbelt harnesses were mounted too low enabling them useless.
i remember driving the car with a single self tapping screw securing the seat to the chassis and an exposed battery between my legs.

quote:
Originally posted by Mase
Matty, I'm at hallam aswell, doing MEng Mechanical Engineering, I wish I'd have done Formula Student last year now instead of the BMFA Heavy Lift Challenge! I recognise Ramnik from your team, he did the first two years of his degree with me then I went on placement and he went straight into his final year!

As far as I'm aware that chassis was not used again, I was building our model aircraft in the room next to the formula student guys last year and I think they had another built, similar in design though. I do feel sorry for you guys on the team as it just doesn't appear SHU can supply the funds like the other uni's in the competition. I think with what we do have to hand tho, its not half bad!


hello mase, it is a small world! :D yes i remember ramnik, he worked on the suspension system with matthew tomlinson (the other driver teamed with myself during the testing photographs).
he was a good guy, we all had a lot of fun and laughter in the garage- there was only a handful of us working on the car over the summer holidays prior to the event.

i think the night before the competition, we spent 17 hours in the garage, before getting four hours sleep and leaving for silverstone.
we were satisfied that we had the car in competition state at 10pm and decided to go for a celebratory meal afterwards.
when we returned to lock the garage, we noticed an oil leak on the floor under the car- to our horror, the sump nut had been over-tightened and stripped it's thread.

we had to take the sump pan off, but in order to do that we had to take the entire exhaust system off including the manifold.
it was an absolute nightmare, but provided special memories looking back at it.
we performed a little burnout in the garage/ loading bay at 4:00 in the morning to raise our spirits.
i never saw the new chassis that was made, i think it was storred at the psalter lane workshops as opposed to the garage at the sheaf building.
i will be returning in june, but i think you may have finished your course by then.

[Edited on 20-01-2009 by mattyross]

[Edited on 20-01-2009 by mattyross]


Mase

posted on 20th Jan 09 at 15:14

Matty, I'm at hallam aswell, doing MEng Mechanical Engineering, I wish I'd have done Formula Student last year now instead of the BMFA Heavy Lift Challenge! I recognise Ramnik from your team, he did the first two years of his degree with me then I went on placement and he went straight into his final year!

As far as I'm aware that chassis was not used again, I was building our model aircraft in the room next to the formula student guys last year and I think they had another built, similar in design though. I do feel sorry for you guys on the team as it just doesn't appear SHU can supply the funds like the other uni's in the competition. I think with what we do have to hand tho, its not half bad!


tom_simes

posted on 20th Jan 09 at 00:24

Matty, if I'm not confusing you with another team from Fs 2007, didn't you re-fit the engine the night before, and hadn't been able to test it until it was started for the noise test?

I was there in 2007 with Swansea University.

If I remember rightly, the truck shown below was owned by TU Graz, and they had driven it over from mainland europe specifically for the event :lol:



In 2007, our car looked like:




Then we entered Class 1(200) in 2008, where a chassis from the previous year is re-entered, but with modifications.

My dissertation, and therefore section of the car, was to re-design the suspension outboards.

I decided on the specifications such as wishbone size, castor, kingpin inclination, location of the balljoints, scrub radius, mechanical trail and steering tie rod placement.

I then had to select hubs with the correct PCD for our current wheels and check their strength using finite element software, and design the entire upright, bearing housing, steering brackets, rear tie rod brackets, camber adjustment and brake assembly from this.

My final designs were:

Hub (from a Honda TRX 450 quadbike):



Front uprights and brakes:





Rear:





And the final car at the 2008 event:


RCS

posted on 19th Jan 09 at 21:17

quote:
Originally posted by mobby
any idea on the cost to make it?


Our budget this year is around £7k.


sand-eel

posted on 19th Jan 09 at 21:16

Some teams have an massive amount of sponsorship money, can't remember what the team was called but a german one was sponsored by Audi and cost about £75000 I think to build, made from a 100% carbon fibre monocoque.


sand-eel

posted on 19th Jan 09 at 21:13



This is one of ours from a few years ago was good fun.


Mobby

posted on 19th Jan 09 at 21:11

any idea on the cost to make it?


RCS

posted on 19th Jan 09 at 20:57

I stayed away from Formula Student during my undergraduate course - you could tell the people on the team were not committed enough to see it through properly and I didn't want a project that failed!

I'm starting to get involved with the engine side this year though as I'm teaching most of the students that are working on it. They seem to be making good progress - chassis has been designed and built already!


mattyross

posted on 19th Jan 09 at 20:27

quote:
Originally posted by bieransri
looks awesome fun. what course do you do and where?

thank you. i am studying BSc-Eng CADT computer-aided design technology at sheffield hallam university.

i joined the team voluntarily during my first year for practical activity and a chance to put my skills into practice.
i am currently on an industry placement year at rolls-royce aerospace, but will return for my final year in june.

i do not know the state of the car currently, i will not be surprised if it has been broken for spares and/ or scrapped.
it is a real shame; the competition requires students to design and build the racing car during their spare time,
but the car cannot be used in competition for more than two years.

when i return to my studies, i will consider designing the new chassis for students to use in 2011..


bieransri

posted on 19th Jan 09 at 20:09

looks awesome fun. what course do you do and where?


mattyross

posted on 19th Jan 09 at 19:55

follow on from ed's thread posted on saturday 17th named "a jr style project thread..."
http://corsasport.co.uk/board/viewthread.php?tid=475515

quote:
Originally posted by ed
Stick them up matty. It is pretty interesting stuff seeing something go from CAD to an actual car!

unfortunately for ed, i don't have the initial CAD models that were used to design and analyse the chassis immediately to hand :lol:
i thought that i would make a photographic thread to depict the milestone stages throughout the development programme in 2007.

during september 2006 i moved to sheffield hallam university to study a 4 year BSc-Eng in CADT (graduation date 2010).
i applied to become a member of the SHU racing team. SHU racing was a self-run, self-funded, entirely voluntary organisation within the university.
the team was entirely responsible for the design, manufacture, testing and maintenance of a one-off, single seated, mid-engined racing car.

the car was designed and built to compete in the MSA formula student championship.
the 2007 championship took place at silverstone during july 2007.
we competed against other universities within the UK, along with several universities from around the world.

















































me :look:




















































apologies for not providing any form of explination between the photographs;
i will be more than happy to answer questions and genuinely look forward to any comments that you may have.

i was going to post this on the message board years ago after the event,
but didn't want the team efforts to be slated at what has to be seen as technically a relatively poor racing car.

nevertheless, we all put in a lot of hard work and effort and had a lot of fun :thumbs: