Media
UWAM Express
Issue #45 October 2008
From the Project Manager
October has been the most exciting, busy and insane month of 2008. It seems I say that every month! After UWAM’s first ever September launch, we have been busy at work getting the car ready for racing. This month’s newsletter is a Formula SAE-Australasia Competition Special with details of the event including maps, links, day-by-day breakdown and much more!
Along with the preparations for the competition, we haven’t abandoned our Community Outreach scheme, attending the Wembley Downs Fair which is held every October.
So, here we mark one month before the competition we have been working so hard for. It looks like November will be, without a doubt, the toughest month of all with the competition from the 27th – 30th November!
Michael Talikowski
Wembley Downs Fair
On Saturday October 25th, several of the busy UWAM team members travelled to the Luita Street Reserve for the Annual Wembley Downs District Fair. Having been cloudy and gloomy the previous day the weather turned out to be great and the general public obviously took full advantage of this.
Throughout the day we had a good flow of people coming through to look at the display, ranging from families to prospective sponsors and drag car makers to classic car owners. All in all it was a very successful day, further putting UWA Motorsport and its sponsors known to the broader community.
We had a great time representing the team and are already looking forward to next year’s event!
UWAM Welcomes Norman MacLeod of MacLeod and Associates Pty Ltd.
The team would like to warmly welcome and thank Norman MacLeod for his gracious offer of support for the team. Through UWA Motorsport’s Sponsor Items™ scheme, individuals or companies can contribute by offering to purchase pre-arranged item/s according to what the team requires the most at the time.
Norman’s kind contribution to purchase some much needed tools has come at a vital time as the team prepares itself to defend its title at the Formula SAE – Australasia competition in Werribee, Victoria.
MacLeod and Associates provide consultancy services in the areas of Mechanical Engineering, Oil & Gas and Hydrocarbon Process industries.
Thank you Norman MacLeod!
Thank you Coventrys Redcliffe
We would like to send out a big thank you to Greg Phenna from Coventrys Redcliffe for his generousity in supplying the team with tools for the up and coming competition at a great price. Coventrys has been helping UWA Motorsport for many years now and we are very appreciative of their aid.
Thanks Coventrys!!
Thanks UWA Motorsport Alumni Club
Ever since the beginnings of the UWA Motorsport team in 2001, there have been an ever-increasing number of ex-UWAM members who continue to play a role in the team. But not until this year has this group of special people affiliated itself as an official club.
Thanks to a core group of alumni from past year’s teams, 2008 marks the year when the UWAM Alumni becomes the real deal. The purpose of the club is to maintain and develop relations between not only past team members with each other but to also provide an invaluable knowledge base for the current team. But it seems that providing knowledge isn’t the only thing they are able to give!
The Alumni Club offered its services in repairing the shipping crate that returned from the US in a damaged state. An extremely valuable resource to the team, especially with the upcoming competition in Werribee, it desperately needed some expert attention. And there certainly was no better group of people to fix it! The repairs were headed up by Lachlan Tomlin with the help of Nando Guzzomi, Johno Lowe and Paul Livanos. The crate looks like new thanks to the efforts of the Alumni Club.
The team is extremely grateful for the help of the official UWA Motorsport Alumni Club and look forward to a close relationship in the years to come.
Thanks guys!!
Formula SAE Australasia – a competitor’s perspective
The Formula SAE competition in Werribee, Victoria is one heck of a thrill, and not just for the drivers! The whole experience of the competition; the building of the car, the months leading up to the event and the preparations, not to mention the challenge of competing is a fantastic ride. Since it is merely weeks until the big event I thought I would shed some light on how the 10 or so days in Victoria look like for team UWAM
Friday 21st/Saturday 22nd – Last days in Perth
These days are usually the tying up of loose ends while still in Perth. With the crate and race-car having been transported to Werribee by our loyal sponsors CEVA Logistics we have almost a week without the car to prepare ourselves for what lies ahead. Often these days are used for practicing for some of the static events that occur at the competition such as the all-important design event. This year, many of us fly out of Perth early on Sunday morning and arriving at Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport at about 6pm EST.
Sunday 23rd/ Monday 24th – Settling in
For the following 9 nights we call Carter Cottage our home. Carter, as we have abbreviated it over the years, is a bed and breakfast Inn that we book out to accommodate the 30-odd students and supervisors from UWA each year. Its close proximity to the competition venue and ample space make it perfect for our needs. Not only does it have space for the people staying there but there is also an area for work to be done on the car.
The people staying at Carter are treated to home-style cooking with one person put in charge of keeping the troops well-fed. This person gets the honourary title of Iron Chef UWAM. For the past two years, Johno Lowe, one of the many awesome members of the UWAM Alumni Club, had cooked for over 30 people for 10 days! That is no easy task but Johno has always managed to impress with his culinary skills. This year, Simone Boekelaar, Marketing Manager from UWAM team 2007 has graciously put her hand up to take the batten from Johno. Many thanks Simone!!
Monday is when we pick up the car from the transport depot and bring it back to Carter to prepare it for testing. The following days are critical to the car’s state of readiness in that they are the final few before the car is presented to the competition judges for technical inspection.
Tuesday 25th/Wednesday 26th/Thursday 27th – Testing and registration
From Tuesday onwards, the clock ticks down to when the competition begins and there is not a minute during the day or night where nothing is being done on the car. A 24-hour shift roster is established with people being placed on either a day or night shift to ensure time is used effectively. A team of people are designated to work on the car while others are assigned other tasks. Often the final years also use this time to practice design event which is a heavily weighted static event held on Friday 28th.
Once any issues with the car have been rectified, it is taken out to one of two testing venues to ensure the car is ready to race. Thursday, before the technical inspection is conducted is the last day that we can run our car outside the competition venue. After scrutineering, no team is allowed to test their car.
Thursday is also when driver registration occurs, where all the drivers of the race teams are briefed and registered. Technical inspection also starts on Thursday giving teams the chance to pass scrutineering early.
Friday 28th – First day of Competition
This is where it all starts in that each team has to complete a number of tests and inspections to determine whether their cars adhere to the rules and are safe. The following tests and inspections are conducted on Friday with the order varying depending on circumstances.
- Driver gear scrutineering (includes checking race suites, helmets, gloves and shoes for holes and signs of wear)
- Fire exit test – A driver must be able to exit the car after being fully strapped in less than 5 seconds. Last year, driver Fred Goh managed to get out in an amazing 2 seconds!
- Car scrutineering (involves a number of checks such as ride height, roll hoop bracing angles etc.)
- Fuel test for leaks
- Tilt test (the car is tilted at an angle of 60⁰ to horizontal to mimic 1.7G’s lateral acceleration. This is to check for leaks under lateral loading)
- Noise test – (this is to ensure that the car complies with noise rules whereby the maximum noise level allowed is 110dBA at a certain engine speed and with the measuring device a certain distance from the muffler)
- Brake test - (the car must be able to lock all four wheels at the end of a straight
Along with this there are the three static events at the following times:
10:30am – Cost event – This event is basically an exercise in showing the judges that the engineering that has gone into building the car has also taken into account budgeting and costs. The judges have with them the cost report that we have already submitted and if they have any queries they will quiz us at this event. The judges also ask us to describe the manufacturing techniques used in some of the purchased items that are on the car.
2:00pm – Presentation Event – This is a presentation of a business plan to a panel of mock executives running an imaginary manufacturing firm. The idea is to convince them that our team’s design is the best and will suit the needs of the amateur, weekend, autocross racer. This is usually in the form of a power-point presentation to the panel with prepared speech, slides and handouts.
4:20pm – Design Event – the Design Event simply an evaluation of the team’s engineering ability in designing and building the race-car. The panel of judges are often specialists from their respective area of motorsport/engineering. The event appears quite casual with judges and a select group of team members simply talking around the car. This is less of a presentation and more to give students the chance to show off their designs and engineering knowledge.
Saturday 29th – Dynamic Events
Saturday is the day where the cars are analysed in a series of dynamic events. These include:
- Skid-pad (50 Points) – a driver must drive a figure of eight in both directions with the times recorded. This tests the car’s ability to corner on a flat surface with a constant radius turn. Teams get ranked and points assigned depending on how far away their time is from the top team’s times.
- Autocross (150 Points) – the driver must drive a course consisting of tight corners, hairpins and short straights with the best time being recorded. The autocross track is often quite similar to the endurance course. Again, points are assigned depending on how far away the team’s best time is from the top team’s time.
- Acceleration (75 Points) – this tests the car’s ability to travel 75 meters from a standing start in the best possible time. Each team gets four attempts at posting a time, with two different drivers getting two attempts each. The fastest team gets 75 points with the rest of the field getting points based on their times with respect to the fastest time.
Saturday is also the day when design finals are held from when the top teams chosen from the preliminaries on Friday. These teams are given the chance to compete for the full number of points.
Sunday 30th – Endurance and Fuel economy.
Sunday is reserved exclusively for the final event, the endurance race. This is the biggest test of a team’s ability to build a fast and reliable race-car. The event is described below.
Fuel economy and Endurance (50 & 350 Points respectively) – These two are run at the same time in that the fuel economy (amount of fuel used over the 22km run) is measured during the endurance event. There are two heats for the endurance with one morning session and one afternoon session. Each run is done by two different drivers, where each drives the car for 11km around a set autocross course after which they get 3 minutes to switch drivers and do another 11km. The best of the two 22km runs, out of the morning and afternoon session is used to score the 350 points. After each event, depending on how much fuel each team has used, a fuel economy score is given out of 50 points. The team that used the least fuel after 22km gets the 50 points with trailing teams getting points in a similar fashion as the other points allocations.
This time, the presentation will be held soon after the final endurance event on Sunday at Victoria University.
Monday 1st December – Sleep!
The Monday after the competition weekend is usually a time for us all to sleep and be thankful that the competition has come to an end. After packing the crate to be shipped back to Perth and cleaning Carter, we give ourselves a chance to relax and reflect on our efforts of the past year. Some of us leave Carter on Monday while the rest of us leave on Tuesday to sleep further!
Spotlight on Sponsors
Robert Cameron and Co. has been a long time supporter of UWA Motorsport providing us with high grade Aluminium in bar, tube and billet form. We are greatly appreciative of all the guys at Robert Cameron and Co who are always more than happy to help us, sometimes at short notice!
Robert Cameron and Co are specialists in machining and cutting while also selling aluminium in various grades. They also designed and build the fantastic GeoCam Bandsaws.
Thanks Robert Cameron and Co!!
Contact Robert Cameron and Co.
27 Stiles Avenue
Burswood 6100
Phone: 08 9361 2533
Email: sales@robertcameron.com.au
Kinetic Suspension Technology was founded in 1989 by inventor Chris Heyring. Located in Dunsborough, WA, Kinetic have been a huge supporter of UWAM for almost all of our existence. A number of our graduates have also gone on to work at Kinetic!
Motorsport has seen Kinetic assist Citroen to 3 consecutive World Rally Championship titles and helped Mitsubishi dominate the Paris-Dakar Rally. However, the Kinetic suspension system was seen as too great an advantage and has since been banned.
Since 2002 Kinetic have provided UWAM with significant financial support and assistance in developing our data acquisition systems, an area in which we remain a FSAE leader. In 2004, Kinetic provided the team with an exclusive licence, hardware and technical support in our attempts to apply this unique suspension system to our open-wheeled race cars.
This year, Kinetic continue their unwavering support of the UWA Motorsport team.
Big thanks to Stuart Price, Chris Revill, Ray Munday and everyone at Kinetic Suspension Technology.
Contact Kinetic:
Kinetic Suspension Technology
Website: http://www.kinetic.au.com/
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