Despite IDsketching.com's best advice, another update

A recent posting on IDsketching.com, also syndicated on Core77, was of the opinion that maintaining a blog was the worst sin a design student can make. According to them, a personal blog was a form of self-mastabatory aid and should be avoided like the plague, with the eager student instead spending the time to further develop ideas. Good advice it may be, but a giant 'meh' is coming from me. Heres the latest for the SAE car...

Sprint auto parts Rally SA 2009

Sprint auto parts Rally SA finished last night, and by all accounts it was a successful event for us. Did we finish the event? Yes. Is the car still in one piece? Yes. Did we learn a lot? Yes. And did we have fun? Hell yes!
Whilst we lacked the outright speed of our more experianced competitors, we made up for this with consistent performance which saw us take 3rd place in our class, P6, and 24th outright in SARC. Whilst these results probably arent much to write home about, I think they are pretty good considering Ive never read pace notes before, David hasnt driven for 3 years and neither of us have ever competed in this car before.
The event started Friday night with the spectator Super Special stage around the Angaston oval. This was good fun although our slight off road excursion over the finish line was exciting - all the rally hardcores were laughing at my shock, I guess you get used to this sort of thing after a while.
Saturday kicked off with the Golfields and Tweedies stages, both fast blasts through the Barossa area. We saw 175kmh on one dirt straight down Goldfields which, for a dirt rally virgin, certainly got the blood pumping. After service we then headed into the Mount Crawford forest for the first of 4 passes, and this soon became my favourite stage. Long straights and sweeping bends down logging roads punctuated with 90deg turns in and out of the forest and the odd jump and water splash to keep things interesting. With a power steering system that was mysteriously loosing fluid we then raced over Mawsons Row and Kenton Valley, two stages held around the breathtakingly stunning Basket Range area in the mist and fog and then into another service. With another half litre of fluid added for good measure we then got significant air time over a jump in Mount Crawford again, before tackling the Mount Gawler stage - made even more interesting by our lack of pace notes. We then finished the day with another two runs around the Super Special stage knocking two seconds off our Friday night time- without the off road excursion of course!
Biscuits was due to be the first stage on Sunday morning, however this was cancelled due to the extremely slippy condition of the road, so slippy that 4 cars went off the road and hit the same fence in Recce! We cut straight to the Cromer stage before having yet another run over the Mt. Crawford spectator stage. After another service (and yet more power steer fluid) we tackled Honeysuckle, Kanmantoo and Charleston plus, all located around the Nairne/ Kanmantoo/ Harrogate area. Although messing up the pacenotes, Kanmantoo was another favourite stage of the event as it involved a massive jump, racing close to the freeway in the opposite direction and crossing the main Adelaide/Melbourne train line twice! After the last service, we tackled Mount Crawford for the final time. This was our best run of the event as we were really pushing the pace and exploring the limits of the car. We passed two cars in our class broken down and took 50 seconds from the car in front of us - very nice! Sadly this turned out to be the last stage of the event after Eden High was cancelled due to a big crash.
All up we had a great time, learnt a lot and made a lot of bad politically incorrect jokes (sex, homosexuality and disability being the main themes). Many thanks also to our service crew Adam, Simon, Zee and Mike - we couldnt have done it without you!

Testing times at Cromer - Rally SA '09

Well, we just got back from our test session at Cromer forest, located in the Mount Crawford forest not far from Mount Pleasant. Although we had a short day, it proved to be invaluable as it provided some good seat time in the Regacy as we tried some different suspension settings and tire pressures. In fact the only problem we encountered was that my Terraphone intercom speakers in my helmet ceased to work, I'll purchase a new set tomorow so hopefully that should sort that. Doing 150kmh down a little muddy dirt road and then scandinavian flicking into a 1st gear hairpin is fun...

Another cool moment was the chance to meet and speak with Neal Bates and Coral Taylor. As it turns out they were the only other crew testing with us, and it was really good to spend some time with them and have a close look at their S2000 Corolla. Its an insane little beast, and sounded incredible tearing around the little 1.7km test stage. The speed they were carrying through some corners was unbelievable... although they are seeded 1st which explains a bit. Anyway, bring on Friday night!

Rally SA '09 - before the fun starts

Well, we're now in the week of the 2009 Sprint Auto Parts Rally of South Australia and preparations are coming along nicely for our debut. Figured I'd stick up some info for the one, maybe even two, people who might ever read this!

First, the car. Its a 1989 Subaru Legacy RS Turbo thats been prepared to class P6 specs. Its running a full cage, DMS coilovers all round, a Link computer, boost controller, external wastegate and straight cut gears on 1st and 2nd. Its not the quickest thing out, but with 146kw and approaching 400nm of torque at the wheels its certainly enough to get us into trouble!

I am co-driving for David Rudzitis, and this will be my first time on gravel and my first competitive rally. We're simply out for fun, to learn about the car and each other and to hopefully finish the event. As proof of this the car is stickered with nerd memorabilia (a Larsens biscuits sticker on the fuel door al la Top Gear, Borat stickers on the fenders, Ejector seat stickers and a team name that relates to a hilarious video on collegehumor.com).

A busy week ensues - a day of testing, a full day of recce, ceremonial start, super special stages at the Angaston oval on Friday and Saturday nights not to mention the actual rally itself. The car seems to be as ready as it will ever be, so an enjoyable week is ahead!

AIPP 9hr endurance pedal prix race on the Clipsal track

On Sunday 26 July UniSA Motorsport (the Formula SAE team) fielded a vehicle in the AIPP 9 hour pedal prix race at Victoria Park under the guise of Team UniSA. The deal was struck at the last minute, and 3 weeks ago a brand new Formula Tri-Sled racing trike was delivered to us ready for preparation. After a few late nights the trike was ready for a quick late night run down Seaview road and then trailered to the event (with the addition of some Borat stickers of course!).

Everything was against us for the race, the biggest disadvantage was that we only had 4 riders, compared to 8 allowed by the rules - this would mean a lot of seat time for each of us! Whilst we were all reasonably fit, none of us had done any training for the event and apart from my quick late night runs none of us had actually ridden a HPV before the race.

Despite the fact that I was stuffed beyond belief, I had a blast. Sitting on the grid whilst the national anthem was played was memorable, as was the actual start itself. Perhaps the best memory of the race was speeding down the front straight at night, in spitting rain whilst following and passing a whole host of other HPV's, taillights flashing in the dark and water spray. Really just makes me want to go proper endurance racing...

In the end we started the race from 18th position on the grid, and 18th position in the open class. After 9 hours of racing we came 17th in class out of 23 (making up one whole place!) and placed 43rd overall. Not too bad considering our lack of experiance, and the fact that our HPV wasnt a terribly effective weapon in the open class. Cant wait for the 24hr in 2 months time!

MSCA Super Sprint Round 2 Mallala

After a gap of a few months, round 2 of the MSCA super sprint series took place on Sunday 5 July at Mallala. Whilst I didnt manage to beat my fastest lap in the little Alfa, it was certainly good fun. Practice and round 1 took place in the dry, however I spent these sessions trying out some new techniques including left foot braking around turn one. In the end the best lap was a 1.28.3, a little off our 1.27.7 best lap. However with the new spherical bearings in the front end and the right conditions a 1.26 isnt really out of the question.

Then the rain came in... and my god was it fun. Semi slicks in the wet means the limits of the car become much lower, vastly increasing the fun! A few times into turn 3 the back would come around, so you'd just wind on the opposite lock, feather the throttle and drive it sideways rally style through the corner... front wheel drive remember!

It was amazing how the faster cars slowed down in the wet, meaning we jumped a long way up the field. Although passing slower cars was a lot of fun, on one lap I was chasing a clubman close through turn two and it decided to spin in front of me. Trust me it was very close as he spun back and nearly t-boned me as I sped through.

All up a fun day, and bring on August 16!

Concept sketches of the Formula SAE car

Heres some concept sketches of the UniSA Formula SAE car. These sketches show a few different design directions, and in true designer fashion theyre being uploaded at 4am. My next move is to circulate these around for feedback, and make the changes based on what people tell me. I really like the Naked look at this stage though.