This is a beginers guide to what the FSAE competiton is all about.
What is FSAE?
The Formula SAE ® Series competitions challenge teams of university undergraduate and graduate students to conceive, design, fabricate and compete with small, formula style, autocross racing cars. To give teams the maximum design flexibility and the freedom to express their creativity and imaginations there are very few restrictions on the overall vehicle design. Teams typically spend eight to twelve months designing, building, testing and preparing their vehicles before a competition. The competitions themselves give teams the chance to demonstrate and prove both their creativity and their engineering skills in comparison to teams from other universities around the world.
Example:
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List of Teams that are registered for FSAE California:
http://www.sae.org/servlets/collegiateC ... N_NUM=null" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
FSAE Vehicle Design Objectives
For the purpose of this competition, the students are to assume that a manufacturing firm has engaged them to design, fabricate and demonstrate a prototype car for evaluation as a production item. The intended sales market is the nonprofessional weekend autocross racer. Therefore, the car must have very high performance in terms of its acceleration, braking, and handling qualities. The car must be low in cost, easy to maintain, and reliable. It should accommodate drivers whose stature varies from a 5th percentile female to a 95th percentile male. In addition, the car’s marketability is enhanced by other factors such as aesthetics, comfort and use of common parts. The manufacturing firm is planning to produce four (4) cars per day for a limited production run and the prototype vehicle should actually cost below $25,000. The challenge to the design team is to develop a prototype car that best meets these goals and intents. Each design will be compared and judged with other competing designs to determine the best overall car.
What happens at a FSAE competition?
The teams compete for points in several static and dynamic events:
Static Events
Sales Presentation 75
Engineering Design 150
Cost Analysis 100
Dynamic Events
Acceleration 75
Skid-Pad 50
Autocross 150
Fuel Economy 50
Endurance 350
Total Points 1,000
Tech Inspection:
Part 1: Scrutineering. Make sure the cars comply with the rules, driver equipment check, and driver egress test (from fully race ready position to both feet on the ground in less than 5 seconds)
Part 2: Tilt Table. With driver in the car the car is tilted to 45° and check to make sure no liquids are leaking. Then the car is tilted to 60° to check roll stability, the car must not want to roll (simulates 1.7 g’s).
Part 3: Noise, Master Switch, and Brake Testing. The sound levels are checked at an RPM set by the engine being used and measured from ~20 inches behind the exhaust. Max dB is 110. Then they test to make sure the emergency kill switches work. Finally for the brake test they must start at a standstill, accelerate hard for a set distance and then mash on the brakes. All four wheels must lock up to pass.
Sales Presentation:
The objective of the presentation event is to evaluate the team’s ability to develop and deliver a comprehensive business case that will convince the executives of a manufacturing firm that the team’s design best meets the demands of the amateur, weekend, autocross/Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Solo II racing market and that it can be profitably manufactured and marketed.
The judges should be treated as if they were executives of the manufacturing firm. Teams should assume that the executives represent different areas of a corporate organization, including engineering, production, marketing and finance, and thus may not all be engineers. Presentations will be evaluated on the contents, organization and visual aids as well as the presenters’ delivery and the team’s response to questions. The presentation must relate to the car entered into the competition although the actual quality of the prototype itself will not be considered as part of the presentation judging.
Cost Presentation:
This event is comprised of two (2) parts:
Part 1: The preparation and submission of a written report (the “Cost Report”), which is to be sent to the Cost Judges prior to the competition.
Part 2: A discussion at the Competition with the Cost Judges around the team’s vehicle. This evaluates not only the cost of the car, but also the team’s ability to prepare accurate engineering and manufacturing cost estimates.
Engineering Design Presentation
Before the competition, teams must submit a design report and a spec sheet (
http://www.sae.org/students/fsae-designspecs.xls" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) which is essentially a resume of their car contained within 4 pages and an excel sheet for the judges to prepare for live judging with. At competition the design presentation is where the judges ask questions about the car, design philosophy, why they chose what they chose, and general design knowledge that the team members should know from the design of the car. Teams are allowed to have design folders, computers, presentation boards and testing samples as aides for their design presentation. (This is the event that strikes fear in the hearts of all FSAE students because judges can be very harsh if you don’t know your stuff)
Acceleration:
Pretty self explanatory, from a standing start the cars must accelerate for 75m (82 yards). Regular autocross timing is used so reaction times do not matter. Two drivers from each team get to drive and each driver gets two runs. Points are calculated based on a formula and the team with the fastest time gets the most points.
Skid-Pad:
The skid-pad is two 50 ft (Internal Diameter) circles set up next to each other. For one run a driver must take two laps on the right side and then two laps on the left side. The second lap from each side is timed. Using these times lateral acceleration is calculated and used as the basis for points. Cones count for 0.25 seconds and any cone that is hit counts, regardless of which lap it was hit on. Going off course and incorrect lapping are automatic DNFs. Two drivers from each team get to drive and each driver gets two runs.
Autocross:
Same format as a local autocross, although the corners are much smaller and tighter. (keep speeds down because the cars have a tendency to break) Two drivers from each team get to drive and each driver gets two runs. Cones are worth 2 seconds, an off course (DNF) is given for a car that does not re-enter the course prior to where it left it or for a car that goes all four wheels off of the pavement. Only the fastest time for a car matters, regardless of the driver. Points are based on the fastest car’s time and also determine when the team will run during the endurance.
Endurance:
Uses a course that is similar to the autocross course except the start and finish lines are linked. Each team has two drivers, the first drier does the number of laps equivalent to approximately 11km (6.83 miles) which is typically 10 to 12 laps. Then they have a driver change and the second driver completes the same number of laps. The course will have up to 10 cars on it at a time. There are passing lanes that teams are flagged into if they are being caught by a faster car. This portion of the event uses "Papa" Cal Club flaggers and autocross workers. This is the most stressful events for the cars, testing the design limits of the cars. In 2007 at FSAE West we pulled dead/broken cars off course with a golf cart until the golf cart went dead and we ended up with something like 12 dead cars on course at the end of the event. One car caught fire, several suspensions broke, and many cars succumbed to the Fontana heat. The endurance is always exciting and surprising. Points are awarded based on the total elapsed time for both drivers, plus penalties (2 sec for a cone, 20 sec for an off course) minus the driver change time.
Fuel Economy:
The fuel economy of the cars is tested during the endurance event. Before the endurance the cars are filled up to a fill line. After they finish the endurance they return to measure how much fuel it takes to fill the car back up to that fill line. The car with the best fuel economy gets the most points. (To score in this event they must first finish the endurance)
As a CSCC Volunteer What Do I do?
CSCC is in charge of the people that work the dynamic events. The job is almost identical to working course at our local autocrosses. We need to keep track of cones and DNFs. You can volunteer for one day or both days of dynamic events. If you are saying to yourself “darn, I can’t take a day off of work for Friday but I really want to go” that’s OK, volunteer for Saturday only. The schedule can be found here:
http://students.sae.org/competitions/fo ... hedule.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. Friday is acceleration and skid-pad in the morning and autocross in the afternoon. Saturday is the endurance. As a volunteer you get free lunch, a free t-shirt, and a front row seat to watch some very unique cars race around the course.
