janicki

pnwr
acg

hexcel
paccar


kk

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Victory Lane Data








janicki

pnwr
acg

hexcel
paccar


kk

3m

cartbc













Victory Lane Data







RECENT NEWS
    
 

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!

 

Final Test Day - June 13th 2009

Viking 46 was tested today at Porsche Club of America NW Region's #4 Autocross for the final time before transit to competition. Due to the organizers' generosity, the team was able to bring in a few last minute donations and each driver received invaluable seat time. Throughout the more than twenty runs we were allowed to perform, a vehicle tune was arrived at which all four drivers agree is the best to date. Also, the updated fuel system installed during the weekend ran flawlessly throughout the day. Thankyou Eric Urness for your last minute aid and thankyou PCA for your tremendous and continued support!

As an aside, Vedran Curgus has posted up some pictures he had taken of us driving Viking 46 at Paccar Technical Center. Although they will be posted in our media section after return from competition, here is a direct link to those photos- Vedran Curgus, PTC

 

 

Preparation for Competition - June 12th 2009

The team has been working very hard to prepare Viking 46 for competition this year, happening in Fontana, CA from June 17-20. Viking 46 has been testing and refining for the last 3 weeks at Bellingham Technical College and Paccar Technical Center, which the team would like to thank for their continued support. On Saturday, June 13th, Viking 46 will participate in the Porsche Club of America NW region autocross held at Bremerton Motorsports Park, then begin transit to FSAE West in the early morning of Monday, June 15th.

The team would like to reiterate that competing this year has been made possible by the generous support of all our sponsors (most notably Porsche Club of America NW, BP Oil, Fiberworks, and Hexcel) and every alumni who has helped us along the way. We will do our best to provide mid-competition updates here, so please check in on us!

 

 

In the Process - Janurary 1st 2009


  The 2009 Team is working hard to meet the goals for this year. The car should be rolling by the middle of February and driving late March or early April. Overall design has been completed and with several changes to this years car the team is eager to get the car built and running to see the improvements upon last years design. Feel free to stop by the school shop in the coming months to see the progress of Viking 46!

 

 

Newsletter & Seattle Auto Show- Ending November 9th

  Check out the first Quarterly newsletter for the 2009 Team!

Don't forget to check out the Seattle Auto show and also read about our car on the show's website here:

http://www.seattleautoshow.com/

 

In the Media - August 31

  Over the Summer of 08 and after FSAE West the 2008 FSAE team has been featured in a few articles, follow the links below:

Here in WWU's News Archive:

WWU Vehicle Research Institute Teams Fare Well at Recent Mini-Baja and Formula Events

Here in the Western Front:

Sixth Place Finish a Formula Sae Team Best

Be Sure to watch the below video to hear about the FSAE West 2008 Competition!
The Nuts and Bolts of Western's Formula Sae Car

(QuickTime 7 must be installed to view)

Viking 43 was also on the Cover of Racecar Engineering recently for an article about Formula SAE, and the team is hoping that Racecar Engineering will soon have a full article on FSAE West! The magazine sample is HERE.
Here is an image of the cover,

Keep an eye out for more information from future magazines, and look here for updates on next years team!

 

FSAE West Finals - June 30

 Hello friends,

 I am proud to announce that the Western Washington University Formula SAE team has placed 6th overall at this year's West competition! In addition, we were selected as one of 3 teams to enter the final round of Design judging and placed third in the Design Event with judges agreeing it was the best looking car of the competition.

 We entered the first dynamic day with an overall lead in the static events but a few slight issues kept the car from performing at it's full potential. Nevertheless, we scored 7th in Acceleration, 6th in Skidpad, and 10th in Autocross that day. Saturday was the big event, Endurance, which accounts for 40% of the score and the event where our car failed last year.  Drivers Erik Kremsner and Adam Baxter were driving very well when on the last lap, 500 feet from the finish line, an official "Black Flagged" the driver because of concern about the damaged nosecone. The official held Baxter for around two minutes before letting him finally finish his lap, making this the first WWU team to finish every event of the competition in over a decade.

 We looked back at the goals we set at the beginning of the year; to build a car in a single year, to develop a new monocoque chassis, to finish every event of the competition, and to place in the top 10.  These seemed a bit unreasonable to many of us back in August, but we figured we might as well aim high. Well, the team accomplished every one of those goals, and has set itself in a position to win the event outright next year! We are all very proud of the car we have built and our performance this week.

 The team would like to extend a special thanks to WWU FSAE alumni Edward West and James Waltman, both of whom provided invaluable advice and help during all 4 days of the competition. We would also like to thank some family members that made our trip not only possible but also very enjoyable, including Norbert Kremsner, Greg & Sheryl Donohue, and Tim & Robin Urness. Special thanks as well to our platinum sponsors Janicki Industries and the Pacific NW Region Porsche Club of America for their substantial contributions and support throughout the year. Most importantly, thanks to each and every one of you for your support; we would not be where we are without you.

 The team is back in Bellingham and most intend to return with a new car next year.  A few members including Matt Nucci, Eric Urness, and myself will be graduating and moving on to the "real world" but we all feel that the lessons that Formula SAE has provided are priceless and we will continue to be involved as the team transitions to a new year.  Thank you for your support and cheers to a very successful year!

John Furtado
2008 Team Captain

 

FSAE West Day 2 - June 26

 Today was the second day of the 2008 Formula SAE West competition at California Speedway and the first day of scored events.  We are proud to announce that we have passed all 4 technical inspection events and have secured very successful finishes in all three static events.  The first event of the day for our team was the sales presentation, where a few members of the team present a business case for the production of our vehicle on a larger scale.  Members Axel Schmidt and Morgan Ferry gave an excellent presentation highlighting the high performance, low cost, and ease of manufacture that Viking 43 offers, incorporating an exciting 1 minute promotional video make by WWU student Chris Koser. Meanwhile, the rest of the team was working diligently to get V43 through the rigorous tech inspection and finally succeeded just before noon.

 At 2 pm, the team rushed the car to the Design event, where designers Matt Nucci, James Wright, Matt Kelly, and Marshall Hagen presented the most notable aspects of our car to a group of experienced judges including Claude Rouelle.  After design, the drivers brought the car to the noise and brake tests and passed on the first try for both events. At 4 pm, the team brought the car to the Cost Analysis, where we scored 38 out of 40 points on the presentation portion, and "well" overall.

 Finally, at 5:30, the nine Design Semifinalists were announced including Western Washington University.  Semifinals went very well and rumors have been floating online that the team will be entering one of the 3 spots for Design Finals for the first time in well over a decade!  We are all very proud of our performance at the competition thus far and excited to get the car out on track tomorrow. We will keep you updated as scores come in.