Formula SAE

Wow, there is alot going on in a small space, it looks like a road version of those mini sandrails except for the suspension. It would look just like an F1 car if it had the spoilers. How much fuel does that nose tank hold?

haha we actually have a large shop and a lower dyno shop, but with 5 cars, it starts taking space.

but the nose is not a tank, but a impact attenuator as required in the rules

, I thought that was an odd place for a fuel tank.

[Thomas]

Originally Posted by lutach

I like the Formula SAE, but isn't there a budget cap? ...

There are no budget limitations for teams, at least not in the rules. The maximum price of 25'000 USD per car was only a theoretical number for the cost event, where you had to calculate your production cost for 1000 units per year (including every single screw and assembly operation).

I asked Castle to build an ESC for us, 30s LiPo and 500 A, but they are very busy.

[lutach]

Originally Posted by Thomas

There are no budget limitations for teams, at least not in the rules. The maximum price of 25'000 USD per car was only a theoretical number for the cost event, where you had to calculate your production cost for 1000 units per year (including every single screw and assembly operation).

I asked Castle to build an ESC for us, 30s LiPo and 500 A, but they are very busy.

I'll send you a few links of some good things . I urge you to ask the places for sponsorship as some of the items can be costly. Is your team only going to enter in the electric only class or are you going for the hybrid one?

[Thomas]

Let's see if I can paste this article in here:

Since global warming and dependency on foreign oil are popular problems nowadays, my FSAE team AMZ has decided to replace the Japanese engine running on wood waste by electric motors full of rare-earth magnets.

While there are many different solutions of placing the components in a car, I would like to show you our layout.

Furka's exterior is pretty similar to our previous car simplon:


The biggest difference between combustion and electric drive is not the electric motor, but the batteries. We have designed two battery containments, roughly 25 kg each, which are mounted to the sides of the monocoque and covered by sidepods. These containments incorporate additional side impact structure and a pair of chunky relay switches to protect the batteries, or their environment respectively.



The power from the batteries is directed into the rear section of the monocoque, where it feeds two motor controllers. The rear wheels are driven independently with two chains.



The rear section of the monocoque can be detached from the front, including the entire rear suspension and drivetrain. By placing the motors in the center, we were able to design a pullrod setup. To reduce parts count and weight, we integrated the sprocket mount into the aluminium tripod housing and the jacking point is enclosing the anti-roll bar.



We're looking forward to seeing you at the competition.

Thomas

www.amz.ethz.ch

[Thomas]

It's working. At 215 kg (with full batteries), it's even lighter than expected.
See a video of the shakedown and rollout here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tLzXR-P0ng



We have tested with 500 A per motor, it was a bit quicker than the old ICE car, but we broke a motor on the second day. The brushes simply soldered to the brush holder.



More info: http://www.amz.ethz.ch/

AWESOME! Wow!

Will have a look at your website right now!

[Thomas]

Last weekend, we won our first competition at Silverstone. We were almost as fast as the best combustion cars. Has some problems with the controllers, top speed was limited to about 80 km/h.
You can see the endurance run here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN_Kbes4-4o That was with a current limit of 350 A per motor. During autocross, we allowed 500 A, which made the traction control work a lot more.



Picture gallery: http://www.amzracing.ch/amz/galleryD...?folder_id=843
Read what we're up to on Twitter: http://twitter.com/amzracing
Press release from the organizer: http://www.formulastudent.com/Files/...%20release.pdf

Regards,
Thomas

[Thomas]

For our new car Novena, we have developed and built two brushless outrunner motors which produce well over 30 kW and weigh roughly 10 kg. The batteries are 36s4p LiPo with 13.5 Ah each. The gearbox is also completely student-designed. I myself have developed the carbon driveshafts.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...0576106&type=1

[Thomas]

This year, AMZ Racing built an even faster electric FSAE car: umbrail. It has two student-designed motors with 40 kW each, 5 kWh of LiPo batteries, a complete aero package and weighs just 170 kg.

http://www.racecar-engineering.com/n...leration-test/

[zeropointbug]

Wow, I would love to do what you are doing. How do I get there>?

[Thomas]

It's a student design competition, so you would have to be a student. Me personally, I was studying mechanicl engineering at ETH Zurich. Actually, I graduated last year and am not part of the team anymore.

There is an FSAE competition in Canada:
http://formulanorth.com/
http://www.facebook.com/formulanorth?ref=stream

I'm sure they are happily welcoming volunteers. So even if you're not a student, you can be part of the event.