Oregon State Formula

Hello from grey Brooklyn Michigan!

Today was the first day of GFR’s first competition!

At 7:00 am we were at the gate, waiting in line for the 8:00 am opening. Those of us waiting in line with the trailer were pretty haggard from the 48 hour drive from Corvallis, but we were still able to register quickly and get 4th in line for technical inspection. Getting an early spot in tech inspection is really important for competition because it lets us concentrate on static events as well as the tilt, brake and noise tests tomorrow. With 120 teams registered for the event, getting through tech early is going to let us relax and concentrate on the events in the coming three days.

After a smooth technical inspection, we went to the weigh station, and weighed in at 314 lbs (143 kg). This makes us one of the lightest cars at the event, and right around the weight of the OSU09 car. Pennsylvania State University seems to be the lightest car so far, weighing in at 291 lbs (133 kg). With still many cars to get through tech, it is certainly going to be an interesting competition.

Some pictures from today:

Oh, and by the way, in our 48 hour drive from Corvallis, we managed to destroy both a tire and fender off the trailer: (Pictures coming)

[UPDATE: Top half of monocoque 1 is complete: see end of post]

Yesterday we just completed registration for our sixth event in 2010, Formula Student Austria! As OSU placed 1st and the DHBW-R placed 3rd last year, of course GFR had to return!

GFR is currently registered for:
Formula SAE Michigan May 12th-15th
Formula SAE California June 16th-19th
Formula Student (UK) July 15th-18th
Formula Student Germany August 4th-8th
Formula Student Austria August 11th-14th
Formula SAE Italy September 3rd-6th

For the Americans, this means two months in Europe. For GFR it means 6 chances to take home first place!

But it also means we need we are going to need more financial support. Each event has an entry fee varying from €750 (about $1020) for Formula Student Germany to $2000 for the US events.

If you are interested in donating, please contact:

GFR, Oregon State University: Hillary Shoop
hillary.shoop@global-formula-racing.com

GFR, Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg: Christian Hensel
christian.hensel@global-formula-racing.com

Thank you all for your continued support!

Some pictures as the build progresses:

Top half of monocoque 1 complete

Part 1 of 4. Best part of mass production: refining the process and getting quicker every time. This will bond with the first lower half produced to form the OSU monocoque. The DHBW monocoque will quickly follow.

-Trevor

German host school DHBW Ravensburg takes 3rd

Results from FSA:

Overall
1. Corvallis(OSU) 918,57
2. UAS Graz 775,57
3. Ravensburg 772,18
4. TU Graz 763,38
5. TU Munich 736,07
6. Zurich 730,00
7. Loughborough 711,05
8. UAS Munich 670,90
9. Schweinfurt 626,12
10. UAS Hamburg 622,43

We are very excited that years of hard work have finally payed off with OSU Formula’s first ever overall win. With our friends at the BA racing team finishing with a strong third place overall, the mood around here is pretty upbeat. The day’s summary follows below:

As usual the day began at a bright and early 7:30 am for the drivers’ meeting, covering the rules and operation of the day’s events. While Bill and Jeff were in the meeting, the rest of us carefully inspected the car to ensure it was safe to run after the last night’s rear brake rotor change. We were able to slip into line for the practice track before the drivers had returned, letting us warm the car up and prepare for autocross. Jeff hopped in the car and looped the practice track a few times. In addition to preparing himself to drive, this exercise also let us bed in the brakes and put some residual heat into the tires. As Jeff came off the track we rolled directly into the tire covers and then off to autocross. Race engines were revving as we waited for the first cars to run. With the temperature already in the 80s, lap times would drop drastically as the first cars layed rubber down along the track. TU Graz was the first team to run, posting a 45 second lap on their second try. This lap went un challanged until ETS put down a 43 second lap. After 5 or 6 cars had run, Jeff went out and nailed two solid 44 second laps. With a competitive time in, we brought the car back to the pits. We would wait until just before the end of autocross to send Bill out, maximizing our chances of a winning time.

By 11, autocross was preparing to close at noon. Bill too ran the practice track, and rolled over to autocross and suprised us all with the top time of a day, a 42.39. The team was ecstatic as Bill had bested the top four cylinder cars with our little single on a high speed track that should favor the bigger cars.  Having finished out laps, there was nothing to do but wait as the remaining teams ran their second drivers, shotting to beat our time. Lap times did continue to drop, but no one could quite catch Bill’s best time. Mathias, in the BA Ravensburg car was however able to slip into a close 42.94 lap to take second in autocross. Naturally we were thrilled that both cars would be in the top starting order for endurance.

As in Germany, the endurance run order in austria takes the reverse finishing order of the autocross, running the fastest cars and the end of the day. This meant that both OSU and the BA Ravensburg teams would wait until nearly 6 pm to run the endurance event. With little left to do but inspect the cars before endurance, both teams relaxed.

Endurance started at 3 pm. Still with little to do, the team watched the other cars circle the track. TU Vienna was the highlight of the early runners, stalling four times on track in the first two laps, only to restart whenever the corse marshalls approached to pull the car off track. Team members could be seen wearing shirts reading “Fuel to noise converter” in reference to the outstanding racket the car made every lap. According to the announcer the car passes the required sound tests because the engine is unloaded. Under load on the track, the noise level increases considerably, in addition to loud crack of backfires every half lap or so. Still they were fast on track, even slowly catching TU Graz.

By 5:30 we were getting ready to run. We would start directly after the BA, but had to fuel the car before the run. As we fueled up, TU Munich, Longborough University and the BA circled the track. Longborough was fast, but after the driver change TU Munich quickly caught up. In an attempt to escape the inevitable pass by Munich, the Longborough driver over-cooked a corner exit and spun the car, allowing both Munich and the BA to pass. The BA sucessfully changed drivers soon afterward, brining a cheer from the students around the track. As Longborough finished, Jeff was allowed to enter the track about 1/4 of a lap in front of Munich. While Jeff drove fast and clean, Munich was able to catch him and pass.  When Munich finished, only Jeff and Mathias were out on track, about 1/3 a lap apart. Mathias was continuously getting quicker, but far enough back from Jeff to finish before catching him. As Jeff rolled into the driver change, we watched with anticipation. Bill swapped seats with Jeff, and roared the 450 cc engine to life amid cheers of the team. The only car out on track, Bill clicked off consistantly quick lap times until the end of the stint. With little to announce, the race commentator commented repeatedly how Bill the driving instructor would show us all how to drive and “how they hang the hammer” in Germany (or as we say, drop the hammer). When Bill pulled in to finish, it was all over. The last cars had ran and the scores were done. We would have to wait until the awards cermony to know the results.

The awards ceremony in austria is similar to that of the German event. Dinner is followed by speeches from the event officials and lots of awards are handed over.

At the end:

OSU:

1st in Presentation
1st in Autocross
1st in Endurance
1st in Fuel Efficiency
Best driver award: Bill Murray
1st overall in dynamic events
1st overall

DHBW/BA Ravensburg:

1st in Special Event
2nd in Autocross
2nd in Endurance
3rd in Acceleration
3rd in Skidpad
3rd overall 

-Trevor

First day of dynamic events is complete and we have results for three events:

First in presentation
Fourth in acceleration
seventh in skidpad

The day started at an early 7:30 am with the driver’s meeting. The main topic of the day was the schedule of the events, while allotted only an hour and a half for skidpad, but three hours for acceleration. The teams would be hard pressed to get both drivers through with two runs.

As soon as the meeting ended, we rushed off to skidpad. We wanted to be one of the first cars in the dynamic area so that we could warm the engine and prepare to enter the track after 5 or 6 cars had dusted it off and layed some rubber down. Andi was the first in the car. Unfortunately only the total skidpad times were displayed. Since only the second lap of each skidpad direction is scored, the overall times don’t tell us anything about our actual score in the event. Regardless, Andi looked fast, and said he felt very happy with the car. By this time, we were running out of time on the skidpad. The event was closing at 10:30, in the next 25 minutes. We skipped the practice track and headed immediately into the second driver line. Cars poured off the practice track and into the first driver lane, so much so that we were afraid we wouldn’t get Chris in for his runs before closing time. We did end up getting two more runs in before 10:30, and despite a communication error with the officials (they forgot to pull the exit cone, and Chris couldn’t exit the track after his run) we finished 7th. We moved on the to the acceleration run, and with Chris were able to place 4th with a time of 4.223 seconds.

We are still waiting on scores for the Design event and the FSA unique “Special Event”. The greatly anticipated additional dynamic event turned out to essentially be a 0-100kph-0 competition, with a 75 acceleration run immediately followed by maximum braking in order to stop the car within a 25 m long box. While it forced the teams to change their strategy and car setup to accommodate the new event, it rewards peak power and braking performance instead of agility and cornering performance upon which our car is based. Bill did two runs, both nearing 95 kph at the gate and stopping in the box. While the performance was near the maximum capability of the car, the times were only midpack. Without completing any additional runs with a second driver, we called it a day.

Autocross and endurance will both be run tomorrow. With any luck we can repeat our autocross performance from Hockenhiem and set ourselves up for a dynamite endurance performance.

-Trevor

First impressions of the first Formula Student event in Austria are pretty good. The event is held at the Wachauring near Melk. The sceanary is absolutely beautiful, as the track sits near the top of a hill overlooking the nearby town and the massive Melk Abby built in the 1700s. In reality the location and climate is not unlike the Willamette Valley in Oregon, with the exception of the mountainous background.

The track itself is pretty cool as well. Configurable into a variety of tracks and undulating over multiple elevation changes, the course also features sprinklers and fountains to wet portions or all of the track for driver training courses. The published endurance and autocross track looks like it will have a pretty significant hill, so our drivers will have their first chance to try a new type of course at this competition.

We spent today on the design and presentation events, as well as putting the car through technical inspection. Everything here moves at a little slower pace than at FSG as one would expect for a first year event. Unfortunately it meant we waited until 2:30 to start tech inspection, and had to squeeze the inspection, tilt, noise and brake tests in before 8 pm close, while simultaneously going to the design event at 4 pm. While the end of the day was a little rushed, we were able to get through tech and feel pretty good about our design performance.

Some other curiosities about FSA: There is no cost event, and its 75 points are split between 25 more points for the endurance run and a 50 point dynamic “special event”. No information is released about the special event until it happens tomorrow, but we’re betting is has something to do with the sprinkler/fountain capabilities of the track, and some sort of driver challenge, as there is an award for best driver.

The whole event here is a little more laid back than either FSAE CA or FSG. With only 24 teams and less organized event in general, everyone is relaxing a bit. TU Graz has even put together a mock formula car from a toy shopping cart and various items found in the pits and piloted by the weasel mascot from UAS Graz.

Still, despite the fun atmosphere, this is a competition and we came to win. We have already competed with most of these teams at FSG, and our primary competitors from that event are not at FSA. With a lot of hard work and a little bit of luck, we can do very well here. Stay tuned for updates here and on the official site at www.fsaustria.at

Tomorrow is the first day of dynamic events. We will run acceleration, skid pad and the special event. Autocross and endurance will be run on Saturday.

-Trevor

Pictures can be found at FS Total and pictures and video at FSA official site

Well, the ending was not all sad. We received the Audi award for Best Lightweight Concept. While we were the lightest car at competition at 147 kg (2 kg lighter than Delft), that is not the only reason we got the award. Audi engineers spent about 45 minutes with our students talking to them about the design decisions that were driven by the goal for lightweight. So, our team was pretty happy to have such nice recognition.

The awards ceremony at Formula Student Germany is quite the experience. They have a large room with tables and about 1500 or so students and faculty advisors eating dinner and drinking beer, sponsored by Mahle. When the awards are called, the students go the to front to collect the award, and there is much cheering and celebrating, as well as snippets of rock songs (e.g., “We are the Champions”, “YMCA”). Students have school chants. When we were called to the front, the students did the Beaver chant, “O, S, U, Go team fight, fight, fight!”.  Everyone who was there now knows who OSU is and that we have a good car and a good team.

The students should now be on their way to Austria, so we look forward to hearing about more successes!

-Belinda Batten

5:30 p.m. in Germany: Sad news, Beaver Racing Fans, we didn’t finish endurance. For a play by play, read on…

It’s 3:54 p.m. in Germany, and we’re counting down to the cars with the fastest autocross times yesterday. About a third of the cars that have run thus far have completed the endurance race; 11 out of the first 27 or 28 were stopped on the track. The lap times are getting faster. The first cars of the day were doing anywhere from 70 – 90 seconds per lap. For the last hour, we’ve been seeing high 50s and low 60s per lap. The lowest so far was a 54 something from Western Australia University.

There are typically around 3 or 4 cars on the track at any time. When one car finishes, another is let onto the track. If they run the way they did last year, when it gets down to the last 3 cars (Stuttgart, us, Delft), they will let all cars finish, and then have us come on one by one. Flair for the dramatic. Our partners from BART will be one of the last cars before they clear the track as they finished fifth in autocross.
One of our students just walked by with a Beaver flag, and our students are together at the side of the track in orange shirts. Our drivers, Jeff Delany and Bill Murray, are watching the other cars, waiting for their upcoming turn.
4:04  One of the good 1 cylinder cars, RMIT from Australia, just got pushed off the track. They’ve been top finishers in worldwide competitions the last five years, so this must be really tough.
4:15  Loughborough from UK has just stalled on the track and is being pushed off.
4:20  The announcer just said that BART (our partner team) is the next car on the track, that they are warmed up and ready to go.
4:22  They’re on the track—you can tell because BART has a really great (and obnoxious!) air horn and each time the car passes, there is no mystery which university is cheering. The car looks great and Jonathan is driving well; lap times are about 60 seconds. He just got passed by Vienna, one of the cars that have been out for awhile and warmed up, which slowed down his time.
4:32  Vienna is having problems, it is sputtoring around the track. They received the indicator that they are on their last lap, but it looks like they are out of the race.
4:33  BART and U. Michigan are on the track. They announced that they will run Stuttgart, us, Delft and Helsinki—the top four teams—out on the track together. So, BART and U. Michigan have the track to themselves.
4:35  BART is off the track for the driver change.
4:36  BART is back on the track for the second set of 11 laps. Matthias is a really fast and strong driver—he and Bill won the endurance race in the OSU car at LA.  Matthias’ first lap time is 59.147.
4:38 Matthias’ time, 58.541; Michigan’s times are 60.1, 60.6 for the latest laps.
4:39 Matthias’ lap time,  57.621. Michigan, 60.978
4:40 Matthias, 57.668, Michigan dropped to 59.888
4:41 Matthias down to 56.97, Michigan is 60.09 with 3 laps to go
4:42 Matthias 57.59, Michigan, 60.074
4:43 Matthias 57.484, Michigan 59.966
4:44 Matthias is up to 58.526, Michigan’s last lap, 59.357
4:45 Matthias is on the track by himself now. He ran a 59.146 lap. I hope their car isn’t haven’t problems as I’m surprised that Matthias is slowing down.
4:46 The announcer is getting the crowd hyped for the last heat. Two cars with 1 cylinder engines (us and Delft), two cars with 4 cylinders (Stuttgart and Helsinki). Meanwhile, Matthias is racing around the endurance track all by himself. Time: 58.694.
4:48 The BART car is having a problem that’s slowing Matthias down in one of the corners. He just got 58.739, and got the last lap signal.
4:50 Matthias has finished and everyone is off the track. The announcer is saying that the next four cars will be held to 30 seconds apart in their entries onto the track. First Helsinki, then Delft, then us, then Stuttgart. The announcer is having the crowd cheer for the team they think will win, it’s really exciting!!
4:51 Helsinki is on the track; here comes Delft; here comes OSU!!! The car looks great. Here comes Stuttgart. The four fastest autocross cars of the competition on the track. As Jeff passes, the BART team blows the horn for him. First lap times are: Helsinki 60.472, Delft 58.573, OSU 60.649, Stuttgart 57.251. Stuttgart probably has their faster driver in. I think the other teams are holding the faster drivers for the next set of 11 laps.
Next lap:  Delft 58.03, Helsinki 56.728, OSU 58.472, Stuttgart 55.462
4.54 Delft 57.179, Helsinki 56.116,  OSU 57.788, Stuttgart 54.209. The crowd goes wild at the fast time. The announcer goes through each group of 4 lap times, and the crowd almost holds their breath.
Delft 58.245, Helsinki 55.582, OSU 57.495, Stuttgart 54.2
The announcer is pointing out that the singles will use less fuel, so we could actually win the race because of better fuel economy.

Stuttgart passes us at 4:56 p.m. with a lap time of 54.607. Jeff’s time is 59.299, Helsinki: 56.965, Delft 55.839.
4:57 Helsinki 57.193, Delft 55.367, Stuttgart, 54.003, OSU 57.722. Jeff is being really consistent and isn’t hitting cones. He’s doing a great job.
4:59 Delft just passed Helsinki; Delft: 56.101, Helsinki 60.2, Stuttgart 54.146, OSU 57.101.

5:04 The announcer is trying to keep the crowd entertained as the cars are off the track for driver changes; the track is amazingly quiet. He said nice things about Jeff that this was his first time driving endurance, and what a place to do it.
5:05 p.m. Delft is back on the track. First lap time: 57.498.  Helsinki is on the track.
5:06 Bill is on the track. Helsinki’s first lap time is 57.066, Stuttgart is back on the track. Lap times: Delft 56.8, Bill looks good at 57.264, Helsinki 56.736, Stuttgart 57.749.

Next lap: Delft 56.425, OSU 57.031, Helsinki 55.613, Stuttgart 55.294

Delft 56.242, OSU 55.781, Helsinki 54.9, Stuttgart 55.007
Delft 55.833, Helsinki just passed us. Bill is hot on his tail. Helsinki seems to have a problem, and now they’re off the track, Bill is pulling away from Stuttgart who got backed up behind us as Helsinki slowed.

Stuttgart was right on our back because of Helsinki’s problem, and then the course workers made us pull over so that Stuttgart could pass. The crowd really booed at that. Bill is really speeding up behind Stuttgart. Helsinki’s gear box has failed.  On no, our muffler has just fallen off. They have not stopped us.
5:14 I’ve lost track of who’s in what lap. Stuttgart, 55.7, Delft 56.145, OSU 58.013. We were just pulled because the car is too noisy. Cannot believe it.

We’re left with a straight head to head of Delft and Stuttgart.
5:15 p.m. Something has just happened to Delft. They have lost power, and Stuttgart is being left on the track as the last car.  They are still running 55 ish second laps. They are almost on their last lap. They have clearly run the fastest endurance race of any car here. The crowd is silent.
5:18 p.m.: Last lap for Stuttgart.

And the endurance race is over.

The team will pack up and head back to Friedrichshafen to prepare to head to Melk Austria for another competition next week, so stay tuned.  We’re really happy for our BART partners. We expect them to be at least in the top 10 overall if not the top 5.

-Belinda Batten

Many things at Formula Student Germany are done just right. For example, the endurance race day is full of anticipation. The cars are organized into three groups based on their autocross time. The group of fastest cars goes last, so throughout the day, one sees the lap times decrease as the faster cars run, and as the track gets hotter–if the weather is nice. We are really lucky to have a sunny day, as they were forecasting rain. Based on our second place autocross time, we will be in the very last group of three cars, with Uni Stuttgart and TU Delft.  So, the team has been hanging out in the pits today, watching the other cars on the track, and visiting with other teams. We’re having many visitors to the pit to see exactly who the OSU Beaver Racing team is!

-Belinda Batten

Today was the first day of the dynamic events. Both acceleration and skidpad, are run in the morning, with autocross taking place in the afternoon. Weather in the morning was difficult to read. The sky was clouded, and drops of rain fell sporadically. Everyone was trying to predict the weather, to decide when to run. Drive too late, and you could get caught in the rain, ruining laptimes. Run too early, and later runs might be faster. We chose to put a skidpad run in early, locking in a safe, but slower time. Chris reported that the surface was very slippery, and we could see that the figure 8 track was far from flat, causing the car to loose grip over the transitions. After a few runs in the practice track we headed to acceleration. Chris put down a 4.3 second run, considerably slower than we were expecting, but on par with the runs of the day. Again, there was very little grip, so we decided to hold off the second drivers while other teams layed rubber down on the track, decreasing laptimes.

By noon, we were ready to head back out. Both acceleration and autocross closed at 1 pm, and we wanted to get a run on the practice track before clocking the final laps in both events. Unfortunately, skidpad was still slow, although Andi improved 0.1 seconds on Chris’s time. We were rushed getting to acceleration as we had to cross between dynamic areas and change drivers, but we made it in line by the cutoff time of 12:45. Trevor’s first run was our quickest yet, running the 75m length in 4.28 seconds. Still the car was capable of much more, so we looped around for a second run. As we were about to grid up for a second run, the warning light on the dash lit up. While the problem wasn’t terminal (the light was set wrong, indicating a false overheating condition), we were forced to the back of the line for turning off the engine. The clock struck 1 pm while we were waiting in line, killing our chances at a second run.

The autocross event was open the rest of the day, until 7 pm. Looking carefully at the weather, we correctly guessed that rain wouldn’t be a problem as we originally thought. We decided to run both drivers late in the day to maximize our chances of putting in fast times. After waiting in line for hours Jeff drove first, getting 58 and 57 second laps, but slid sideways at the end of the course, taking out a row of cones and making the course workers jump in surprise. While the raw times were fast, the cones added 2 seconds each, meaning a middle of the pack finish. As we rolled the car up to the line for Bill to drive, we held high hopes. Our host school, DHBW Ravensburg had already posted a very fast time, and in testing we knew Bill to be faster in our car. Could be beat them? Could be best TU Delft? Could be match Stuttgart’s incredibly quick time? We watched with bated breath as Bill circled the track with Delft. He came roaring into the final s-curves, narrowly missing the exit cones. A solid lap, within a second and a half of Stuttgart. Again, he drove out, now on our final Autocross lap. Stuttgart’s time stood at 54.188. Delft finished with a 54.884. Bill flew in, even quicker in the final sections… 54.307. We were ecstatic.

So the first day of dynamic events has put us back in the running. While our finishes in the static events were less than desirable, we have finished very competitively in driving. The endurance event tomorrow will be the deciding factor in this competition. With many very competitive teams vying for the top spots, it will be a very interesting race.

-Trevor

We started early today, waking at 6 am to ready the team and prepare for design at 9. We rushed for the next three hours, making sure every notebook was complete and every poster ready to display.
The design event is held in bays above the pits overlooking the track. We contemplated carrying the car up the stairs to showcase its (lack of) weight, but decided to lift the car to the second floor via the conventional method to avoid trouble from the event organizers.
Although it sounds interesting, the car elevator was really a forklift with a steel platform, and a rather jury rigged setup considering FSG is the premier Formula SAE/Formula Student event.

Overall design went well. While there were a few questions that we couldn’t adequately answer for the judges, overall the judges responses were positive. They were especially impressed with the weight of our car, which showed 145 kg on 3/4 fuel with the Ravenburg wheel scales. Eyebrows were also raised as we tilted the car on its side, balancing perfectly on two wheels.

It was really amazing to see so many of the world’s top teams all concentrated in one design area. While Bryan and Jeff defended the car in the cost event, the rest of the team browsed the other design bays. In one bay Western Australia was demonstrating their Kinetic suspension, a complex system of interconnected dampers, in another RMIT was showcasing the ergonomics of their monocoque, in a third Stuttgart had so many teammembers crowding around that the car was not visible.

After design and cost we lowered the car back to the pits. Since we still had not completed the tilt, noise, and brake check portions of technical inspection, these were first on the list of events for the car. Unfortunately, we were plagued with small issues throughout these events. In the tilt table, the car passed tilting to the left without trouble, but lifted the left front wheel on the right side tilt. While it is clearly stated in the rules that the car will fail tilt only if it begins to roll at the 60 degree tilt, we were told that lifting one wheel would fail the car. Unresponsive to our arguments that the wheel was lifting only due to the differences in front and rear roll stiffnesses, the inspectors told us the car had failed and sent us to the back of the line. While we were able to disconnect the front anti roll bar, we lost 40 minutes to sitting in line in the unbearable heat.

Weighing was next. We stood with bated breath as the car was rolled onto the scales. How much would it weigh, would we be lighter than TU Delft, known for their light cars? We were worried, but our concerns were unfounded. We weighed in at 147.9 kg, 2 less than TU Delft. Additionally, we expect to be the lightest car at competition.

Next up was the noise check. We passed easily, moving on to the brake check, and spending hours trying to get the rear tires to lock. The brake check requires that the car lock all four wheels at once to prove the car’s braking power. We normally tune the car to lock the front tires slightly before the rear, but we could not get enough force from the rear brake to lock the rear tires as well. After wrenching on the car in the hot sun for hours, we finally traced the problem down to a glazed rotor. With a little sandpaper and some elbow grease, we were able to resurface the rotor enough to pass on the second try after the repair. Since we had taken most of the day working on brakes, we had only a short window to use the practice track to scrub in our tires for tomorrow’s events.

By 8 o’clock the design finalists had been announced. They would be TU Delft, UAS Graz, TU Munich, University of Western Australia. While we would like to be in finals as well, all four finalists are top teams in the Formula Student world, many having won design or an overall competition. We will have to wait until tomorrow to see the scores for the other teams including ourselves.

Schedule for tomorrow (saturday) Acceleration and skidpad in the morning, autocross in the afternoon. With any luck, the weather will hold bright and sunny. This will allow us to drive in the practice track area before competing in events, letting us fully break in the engine and prepare it to race.

On a final note, The car is definitely turning heads, especially when driving. While we are up against the best teams in the world, we have the best car we’ve ever had. With any luck, we still have a shot at being competitive. GO BEAVS!

-Trevor