Anyone else going to Le Mans? I just had a look at the weather forecast online, I think I'll definitely be packing the waterproofs.

Anybody here have a Racing-Underground invite they'd like to PM me? I was sure I'd been invited before but I must be thinking of something else.

The idea of the Foundation course that Brunel offers is to get people from different education backgrounds all to the same level to start the full course.

At college, I took an AVCE in Engineering instead of A-Levels, nowadays my course would be called a National Diploma. When I applied to Brunel they advised me to take the Foundation because of my college course and I chose not to. In hindsight it was a mistake not to take it, because I struggled through the first two years as a result.

What I'm saying is that if you take your Diploma in Motorsport, you'll still be able to go to Brunel and take a good MEng in either Mechanical or Motorsport Engineering.

Don't worry about tuition fees, as all unis will charge the same (the maximum) and as such unless you're rich they'll be paid for with student loans. When you're done, if you get a decent job you'll be being paid enough that the student loan payments aren't really noticed.

It depends what uni you're looking at in Swansea. I looked round Swansea Institute and while they have lots of cars to play with, I was underwhelmed by the course and their equipment. The proper Swansea uni is a good uni, but I didn't know they had a Motorsport course. With any Motorsport course at uni check that it's called "Motorsport Engineering" not "Motorsport Technology" or anything else and make sure it's accredited by the iMechE. Go for a course that offers a MEng, as BEng degrees are seen as very base level, and the extra year is worth a lot.

Also go for a course with a placement year. Brunel has a very good placement office, and they will help you loads to find a placement. They have a lot of links with companies in motorsport and general engineering and generally a few Brunel students (myself included) find good placements at F1 teams each year.

Quote from sam93 :

Ok then. I've emailed Brunel Uni about how I could get into their Motorsport Engineering course by using the path I'm planning on taking.

Good move in emailing Brunel. I don't know if it's still the case, but the Motorsport course was the only one in the country accredited by the iMechE when I started. The year long Foundation course they offer would be good to get a basis before you start. I know a few students who took it before the main 5-year course.

The course shares almost every lecture with the standard Mechanical Engineering course. It only really differs in the last two years, where the Mech Eng students take a module on renewable energy, while the Motorsport students take Race Vehicle Design.

It's a very academic course to begin with, which is exactly what you need to get anywhere. Hands on skills can be learnt in a day on the job, but years of learning in principles of physics and engineering can't.

I worked with some students from Motorsport courses at other universities, and found that they were generally pretty limited in their knowledge. They seemed to seriously underestimate the knowledge required to get by in the field.

edit: Me and Tristain aren't trying to bring you down. We're trying to point out the difference between courses for an engineer and those for a mechanic/technician.

Last edited by spookthehamster, Sat 29 May 2010, 16:30.

Tristan, stop talking crap. You're scaring the boy! (Now I'm going to as well)

Motorsport Engineering can be a decent course, you just have to study it at the right place (and have the right attitude). You should know that, as we both went to the same uni.

However, I don't think I'd want to study it anywhere else than here, as every other uni dumbs it down with too much cars and not enough knowledge. Good if you want to be a mechanic or technician, bad if you want to do real engineering.

As such, I'd still recommend Mech. Eng. degrees at every other uni.

Sam, seriously try to get proper qualifications. I'm sure you can wangle your way into a college to do maths/physics/something else (product design/electronics?). Committing to motorsport so early shows a narrow mind, and if you ever want or need to change jobs you'll be at a disadvantage. Given how quick teams can go bust, you need to be versatile.

The absolute best way to go about it is college -> uni Mech. Eng. (MEng, MSc) degree with a year placement in industry. Any other way will be much harder, and might shut off a lot of opportunities. Big teams will only hire people with 'real' degrees to proper engineering roles, but you stand a chance as a technician/mechanic/manager otherwise.

With regards to the car, get an MX-5 or Mk1 MR2.

Then we should get an Alfa convertible added to LFS to show off just how flexible cars can be.

Anyone who owns an Alfa Spider should try this:

• Park your car on uneven ground
  
• Open door
  
• Attempt to shut door
  

Quote from 5haz :

Teams agree to ban F-ducts for 2011

Another nail in the coffin for technical advancement in F1, absoluetly ****ing ridiculous. :arge:

Hardly, more like another avenue for expensive research into areas with no relevance to road vehicles closed.

Before you complain about technical regulations in F1, remember that F1 has always been about technical innovation within a set of rules. The rules are always written only with the present technical possibilities in mind. As new possibilities come along (wings, active aero, tc, double diffusers, f-ducts, etc) that go against the original spirit of the rules, they are rewritten to clarify the ideas.

What F1 needs is a push towards road-vehicle relevant technology, as that is what will bring manufacturers back to the sport. The proposed rules for a smaller, 4cyl, turbocharged DI engine with a rev limit are just the thing.

Cheap headphones are alright if you don't have any experience with headphones that are actually good.

Jays make a really good range of headphones, all of them are good and not all of them are expensive.

Those videos really show the problem in BTCC, and I agree that it's almost all limited to Plato and Neal. Without them I think the whole championship could change for the better.

Quote from 5haz :

Its because the cars have too much grip for the amount of power they have and are too evenly matched, the only way past is to shunt and thats why the likes of Matt Neal and Jason Plato are some of the more successful drivers.

Bullshit, the WTCC manages to be exciting and even have a little rubbing without the blatant attacks from BTCC. Neal and Plato are successful because they're dicks and know they are famous enough to get away with it.

Every race I watch I think it's got better, then someone (almost always one of those two) will come in and use somebody else as a brake to get through and knock them out.

Collard didn't deserve what he got from Neal.

I can't stand the standard of the 'racing' in BTCC, especially from the likes of Matt Neal. So many of the drivers think it's acceptable to just shunt someone off the track instead of making a real attempt at a pass.

The MSA needs to get a lot harsher on collisions, because it's not going to stop until people get punished.

For everyone about to say "but that's racing!!!!11". No it isn't, at least not anywhere outside of banger racing. If I was working with one of those teams, I'd be very angry to see all my hard work ruined by some idiot driving into my driver from the side/rear.

Quote from e2mustang :

ti or tii?

Neither, it's a 1502. Was looking for a 2002tii but this came up at an insanely low price and I couldn't refuse.

Picking it up on Sunday, can't wait.

Quote from Intrepid :

In F1 it's widely acknowledged a driver doesn't make a huge difference in result. It's mainly car based.

However series like GP2 and others are single make and sold as true 'driver talent classes'. I personally feel they are the complete opposite. All these classes do is hide the fact that wealth can buy good results under the veil of so-called 'driver equality'.

Wealth buys results in all forms of motorsport.

Quote from Kid222 :

[/LIST]
That's interresting, i've heard only about his pwnage in some south american touring car series, but none about those.
Still, it's surprising they've signed him instead of someone more experienced, who could help them develop the car. Nick Heidfeld could be good in his place, but he's already in Merc.
I'm definately looking forward to see how this US F1 project turns out in the end.

When somebody is paying you to hire them it can be quite convincing.

Stefan GP are becoming quite something: Yesterday they were saying that they've shipped a car off to Bahrain, even though they aren't entered in the championship. Today they've announced that they will be testing at Portimao this month, having hired Kazuki Nakajima!

Quote from pearcy_2k7 :

So if you had an awesome car part, that no-one else has thought of and it was easy to replicate like say 2 weeks to make it, you would have it on the car at this test??

At this time of year it's way too busy to be copying other teams. Many of the teams will already be working 24 hours a day trying to get their own cars ready, they simply don't have the time to be trying to figure out the designs of the other teams and then adapting them. Like I said before, the launch car is a bodged together vehicle; quick fixes will have been made to get around issues caused by parts that weren't made in time or parts that are only just working. The car at the first race won't be much better, and it's only a couple of races in when the car is properly sorted. Then teams will be starting to implement things they've seen on other cars.

However, they will have a department watching the other teams already to try to figure out as much as they can of what their competitors have done over the winter. They won't really make any decisions based on their research until after the first race when the true pace of the cars is first shown. The time between now and a few races in when the parts are first raced is used to properly evaluate the idea, adapt it to their own car, simulate it and its effects on the whole car (wind tunnel, cfd, etc), build it and then test it on a Friday at a race event.

For once I'm with Intrepid.

It's way too late and the teams are far too busy to start developing some 'trick parts' just because they've seen them on other cars.

That sort of thing comes after they've sorted the problems from the first race car, which itself is just a bodge of the problems they encountered with the launch car.

Something as fundamental as a diffuser could also take a huge effort to implement. For example, Red Bull switching to the double diffuser was a huge effort, and even then they did it in two stages.

What do you mean TC sound? F1 TC would cut ignition in individual cylinders, which made the horrible noise you'd hear outside the car. The TC in the FZ5 will work either by reducing the throttle or braking the driven wheels, which wouldn't really make much of a noise.

The driver got no audible warning because it didn't matter. The only warning noise drivers get is a beep telling them when to shift up/down.

If we're making things more realistic we should get shift beeps on the top-end race cars. F1 drivers get beeps through their earphones telling them when to shift.

Annoying as hell, especially if they come at the wrong time.

Quote from Blas89 :

I heard a joke once: Man goes to doctor. Says he's depressed. Says life is harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world. Doctor says, "Treatment is simple. The great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go see him. That should pick you up." Man bursts into tears. Says, "But doctor... I am Pagliacci." Good joke. Everybody laugh. Roll on snare drum. Curtains.

I must have that wallpaper in very big.

Also, I'm looking for a little app like iStat Pro for Windows instead of OS X. I want to monitor temperatures/memory/CPU etc while I'm in 7.

Thanks.

I remembered one of them studies something like Agricultural Politics, which I think is only offered at BOKU.

I'm trying to find some people I met on holiday a while ago, I know they were all students from Vienna.

Does anyone know how many universities there are in Vienna? So far I've found BOKU and the Institute of Applied Arts.

Quote from MAGGOT :

I don't think you understand just how many individual parts are on one of those things... it's not like building IKEA furniture.

Not as many as on an F1 car, and it's not unheard of for a team to switch tubs over the course of a weekend.

That said, it's still interesting to watch and compare with the build at work.

It still has too many 'what-ifs' to guarantee a good place.

We have to remember that this is Piquet, it would have been more suspiscious for him NOT to crash