Team Meeting - July 2, 2009

After becoming re-acclimated to standard sleeping hours, the 2009-2010 WWU FSAE team has met to plan out the summer schedule and keep the momentum rolling. A schedule was determined which places testing as the main concern for the summer, and the design of the following year's vehicle to begin in September.

Also, the Porsche Club of America NW region will be holding an Autocross and Skills Day at Bremerton Motorsports Park on July 18th, which the team will be attending. We hope to see you there!

FSAE West Final Day - June 20, 2009

Western has finished the FSAE West event! For the second consecutive year, WWU has achieved a 6th Overall finish in the event. This was a hard fought placing, given the level of compeition in the field and the difficulties faced by the program in the months heading into competition.

Today, all the final event scores were posted, and Western placed as shown below-

• 5th in Design Event
• 6th in Enduro/Fuel Economy
• 7th in Presentation Event
• 8th in Autocross
• 13th in Acceleration
• 19th in Skidpad
• 5th in Cost Analysis and 35th in Vehicle Cost
• 6th Overall, FSAE West
  

The only event run today, however, was the Endurance event. In the morning, both Enduro drivers walked the course while the vehicle was final checked and the tools were loaded. The run order for WWU put V46 between University of Texas-Arlington and University of Oklahoma, two very fast aero cars. On the first run outing, the vehicle's shifter was broken due to a component failure which has yet to be inspected, putting the car in 2nd gear for the duration of the event. Even still, WWU put down lap times within 4 seconds of the fastest recorded time and right on the average lap time by the aero cars running around it. The second driver had a good battle with U of O's aero car, passing it and being passed by it 6 times. In the end, the team managed to pull off the enduro event with fast times and excellent fuel economy, pushing up the team's overall score.

WWU FSAE is proud to continue to be a top 10 finisher, but we realize we could not have achieved this without all of our sponsors, family, faculty, and alumni. The sponsors which made this trip possible were Porsche Club of America NW, BP Oil, Hexcel, Fiberworks, HP, Paccar Technical Center, Bellingham Technical College, Alpha Technology, RCS, Lafarge and Egge, Airtech, Deutsch, Speedmart, Fastenal, Henkel, Janicki, ACG, and Victory Lane Data. All of the members' families who have supported this trip are especially important, specifically the Kremsner family and the Hill family for all of their generous donations and support. As for faculty, a special thanks to Eric Leonhardt and Mark Dudzinski for coming to competition. A special thanks to the whole team- Erik Kremsner, Trevor Hull, Matt Hill, Eric Olausen, Seth Rich, Spencer Foote, Erik Nickerson, Andrew Grove, Mike Howe, Andrey Semenyuk, Matt Kelly, Kirk Koontz, Erin Kelly, Bill Mann, Camden Thrasher, Isaac Stark, Sharon Fisher, and all of the rest of the members who put in effort but couldn't make it down to West! Finally, a very special thanks to all the alumni who helped out- Eric Urness, James Waltman, Matt Nucci, John Furtado, Marshall Haggen, and Vedran Curgus.

Posted here is a link to Camden Thrasher's consistently updating folder containing pictures of comp. Check back often for new pictures! FSAE West Pics

FSAE West Dynamic Day 1 - June 19, 2009

Today was the beginning of the of the dynamic events for the WWU FSAE team and Viking 46. In the morning hours, accel and skidpad were run. With the help of all the teammates, appropriate vehicle settings and run times were chosen to best allow the vehicle to perform at optimum operating conditions during the events. The car put down a best time of 4.180 seconds in the acceleration event, making the team 13th place in this event. A fueling issue meant that the engine was not running correctly for the skidpad, yet the drivers still put down excellent split times in the 5.3 second range and average times in the 7.8 second range. Congrats to Bill Mann and Matt Hill for driving the wheels off of V46 in these events.

Before the second half of the day, some small changes were made to the engine fueling map which quickly solved the issue. The car was then quickly pushed over to the Autocross to begin running. First up was Trevor Hull, who put down a best time in the 46 second range. After Trevor's first run, slightly more fuel was removed from the engine map before getting back underway. Once this run was complete, Erik Kremsner was handed the car and put in another 46 second time. The combined effort of these drivers yielded an 8th place finish, which gives the team an 8th place run in the Endurance event tomorrow, right between University of Texas - Arlington and University of Oklahoma. There will be Endurance results and pictures tomorrow, wish us luck!

FSAE West Static Day - June 18th, 2009

Viking 46 and the WWU FSAE team were put through the ringer today. To start the day off, the car had to be run through tech inspection in the garage. Minimal modifications had to be made to run through tech, yet only one driver made it throgh driver egress before the car had to move.

Shortly after, the team moved to another garage for the Design Event. This was the first round of 3 to be held, which was a half hour session where the designers were rigorously questioned by industry experts in their respective fields. The team performed quite well in this event, but we'll come back to this later.

After finishing design, there were a number of tech issues to deal with. First, the rest of the drivers had to complete driver egress, which did not take much time. Next, the vehicle was rigged up to a tilt table and angled 60 degrees to check for fluid leaks, which the car passed the first time. While the vehicle was fueled for entry into the dynamic areas, the Presentation participants prepared for their event.

Team members also performed very well in the Presentation event, being told by the judges that they had taken the highest score of the day by that judge set. They were later told that they had achieved second for the day in that judging group, down by only one point to the best team in that group. Directly after this, the vehicle headed out to the dynamic area to be tested for Noise and Brake. Both were passed quickly, with V46 being tested at 105 dB and passing the brake test on the third try.

The vehicle was then quickly rolled over to the Cost event, where team members discussed the cost, labor, and assembly involved in creation of the vehicle. While scores have not been posted as of yet, the team felt comfortable that their performance went quite well and that the judges were impressed. Finally, at 5:00 pm the design semi-finalists were announced and WWU was selected as 1 of 7 semi-finalists! While this round lasted 1.5 hours, the team still felt that their performance was quite good, and scores will be checked in the morning.

Here is a small collection of shots from yesterday and today, courtesy of Camden Thrasher - Static Events

FSAE West Day 1 - June 17th, 2009

Today the team got settled in at our pit site in AAA Speedway in Fontana, California. The team fully registered, ran through initial tech of driving gear and wheels/tires, ran through official weigh-in (coming in at 467 lbs, only 6 lbs heavier than the previous vehicle on 10" wheels!), and got up to the front of the tech line by the end of the day, ensuring a speedy procedure tomorrow morning. After returning to the hotel and grabbing some dinner, the team prepared for static events by reviewing data and collecting research.

Tomorrow, the week's static events begin. Viking 46 will attend Design, Presentation, and Cost all in one day, after being final tech'd, so it will be a hectic day! More updates to come Thursday night.

Arrival in California Cont. - June 16th, 2009

After unloading the team and gear into the Ontario Hyatt Place hotel, several members traveled to Adams Motorsports Park in Riverside, CA to perform some final testing on Viking 46. Testing went well, and the vehicle was able to spend some time on track amongst the numerous Drift and Time Attack vehicles attending the evening session. After returning to the hotel, some last minutes checks were performed on the motor and an adjustment was made to the muffler to bring sound levels down. The team feels confident that Viking 46 is ready and complete.

The WWU FSAE team would like to extend our thanks to the Adams family for allowing us to make use of their facility and run our car there. Pictures of our vehicles and others running at this impressive facility can be found here- Adams Motorsports Park.

Arrival in California - June 16th, 2009

The team has now arrived at the Hyatt Place in Ontario and we are loading our gear into the hotel. There will be a full update, with pictures, tonight when the team is settled. Thankyou to the Kremsner's for all of their support in the last few days and getting us down here!