bored, killing time as i draw up and test a-arms for our formula SAE car, seeing if they will or wont buckle.



here's a pic of our car, and the main reason why i have had no life this semester. i designed the a-arms, rockers, drew the shocks, and set the car dimensions (wheelbase, trackwidths, roll centers, virtual swing arm lengths, etc).



here is a pic of our solid model. we start building it january 5th.

Inventor?

nope, SolidWorks 2003, FEA tests using CosmosWorks, flow tests for intake using FlowWorks



here is a pic of our assembled car with a driver:

smaller uprights = teh gooder



what is the spacing from the lower heim joint to the upper joint.

Doing one of my final projects for the semester on one of the popular SAE Forumla wheels. Rough right now. Will end up being three pieces consisting of a wheel center front, wheel center rear and wheel rim. Solids, obviously. I am but a mere graphics noob.

Whoa!! Long time no see...I thought maybe you were still hiding from the Beating Texas gave you! https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...1047683785.gif







Haha...sorry just giving you a hard time. Its hard not picking on the aggie when you grew up in Austin! https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...DIR#>/wink.png

i assume "heim joint" is a ball joint?



if so, the distance from lower ball joint to upper ball joint for the front upright is 9.5", and the rear is 8.5". the wheels are the same, 13" kodiaks with 20" hoosiers.

reynard uses 8.5 in front and 9.5 in the back...i really dont know about non-aero stuff, if you want suspension pics for really good ideas hit me up on AIM

were pretty much set/done with our design. camber is going to be adjusted at the upright using grooved plates, and castor will be adjusted using the male rod ends. we've run into most barriers by now; we're currently working on finalizing everything, printing out machine drawings, and ordering materials.



here is a pic of our camber adjustment:

2004 Queen's Formula SAE

in May at michigan all the nopistons.com members have to go out for drinks after. I haven't met anyone at this forum

is that Adams? we used Mitchell WinGeo for our suspension design. let me find a picture real quick...



here's a pic of our front and rear in wingeo:

yeah, that would be fun. ever been to big buck's brewery and tried the 10 beer sampler? https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...IR#>/bigok.gif



we also checked out "have a nice day cafe" and "clutch cargo" clubs. they were different than the clubs here in texas.

actually this will be my first year attending the michigan race day.



How do u like wingeo? what is the learning curve like? ADAMS/CAR is not fun at all. Half the time you wonder if the stuff Adams is giving u is correct.

yeah, in the past few years we have used Adams, and heard that there is a steep learning curve. it took me about a week of playing around with wingeo using the points of last year's car to get an idea of what it could do. i took simple measurements off of our '03 car, entered it in WinGeo, and surprisingly it matched almost exactly with Adams.



you can do a lot of cool stuff with wingeo, like set the roll center heights, VSAL, and A-arms lengths to get the camber change rates and limit roll center migration however you want. it will then set all the points for you.



we had the DOS freebody version and upgraded to the windows version for $250. good deal, well worth it, i can change points in a jiffy.



there are some bugs though, and hopefully Bill Mitchell will get those worked out for the next version.



Still, i totally recommend the software. our car wouldn't be where it is without it.

the time in michigan is the coolest though. well, the rain and sleet in the summer time suck compared to our 80 deg weather in texas, but it's still fun. the michigan road system also sucks.



but, being there is so much fun. 140 school from around the world, each representing different cultures and ideas. Some cars look good but break, some cars look cheap and win, and some aren't even finished being built. Most of the guys there are cool, and we always have a good time. it's like real racing, because it is real



also, the big 3 bring out some nice cars. last year, they had a viper comp coupe, ford GT test muel, crysler crossfire, and other nice cars sitting out there for our viewing pleasure.