

Shifting Gears: How a dedicated team of students built a world-class race car - BlackJack
http://makezine.com/magazine/make-37/shiftinggears/

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hhandoko
I was involved in the Australasian Formula SAE competition back in 2002. In a
gist, it's pretty much a startup experience, condensed.

It was my penultimate year at University, and I was looking to gain some work
experience. I worked mainly on the marketing side (e.g. website maintenance,
newsletters, video collages, etc.), but was also involved in some component
fabrication and QA + compliance.

It was my University's first entry into the competition. The core team has
tried to raise funding for the previous year's competition unsuccessfully.
They did finally secured some funding from the University, but still had to
raise quite an amount to cover the $50k needed to build / complete the car. We
raised some cash for operating expenses from BBQ sizzles, raffles, etc. The
bulk of the car was built from in-kind sponsorships (e.g. free / heavily
discounted materials, free fabrication services, free use of CNC machines,
etc.).

We managed to get a car together in the last-minute, and flew over to Adelaide
to the Mitsubishi testing grounds for the competition. Unfortunately, our car
didn't finish on the endurance stage. If only we had another week, we could be
spending that time tuning the engine management system for fuel efficiency :)

However, it was quite impressive to see what the other University teams had
achieved. University of Western Australia in particular, fielded a formula SAE
based on a carbon-fibre monocoque chassis whereas others built the standard
alumunium / alloy spaceframe. From what I've heard at the time, they've
managed to invent a chemical curing process for carbon-fibre composite,
instead of the normal vacuum oven process. From my recollection, they took
first place that year.

One thing that struck me just now, we went to the local Go-Kart track in
O'Connor (Perth) for some driver training and selection. The guys at the track
kept a hall of fame with the name and age of the drivers. I was 0.23 seconds
off from our team's fastest driver, but apparently the record is held by some
kid, faster by almost a whole two seconds from our fastest driver. I should've
remembered the name, but I'd like to think it was Daniel Ricciardo, reassuring
myself that my Go-Karting skills isn't all that bad after all :)

~~~
atmosx
Daniel? :-) He had his first win yesterday in Canada. Really awesome
character, he was crying at the radio. I race too, on a Lotus Elise, but I'm
_really good_ at it.

