Well done! Good to see another person taking the plunge I passed mine a little over a month ago now. Need to sort out a race! LOL

Although it was tempting to stay in the beer halls, we did go elsewhere! Berlin was brilliant and will have to return next year I think. We're also going to go to Munich for Oktoberfest.

Went to Autostadt in Wolfsburg too. I went when I was younger, but I don't think I noticed quite how many VAG cars there were on the roads of the town! A little bit scary in some ways...a bit like VW have been brainwashing the population. LOL Couldn't help but wave when I drove past the exit to Braunschweig too. Shame you'd already escaped to Panama. Hope you're having fun there and haven't been car jacked or anything yet!

Bit of a late update from me but I've been having fun traveling around Germany after the competition. Munich beer is just too damn good! LOL

To answer the question about an actual FSAE car compared to the MRT5:

In some ways similar, but also not. I can only obviously comment on my teams car because I haven't driven any of the others. The main similarities is the acceleration and gearing. 99% of all the cars have similarly short gearing. The main differences are grip and turn in. The MRT seems to understeer horribly and feels very low on grip. The real cars are in fact the opposite really. They're very positive on turn in and we were pulling 1.6G in the corners despite not having the best tyres (we're still developing them with Dunlop). I believe Warpers team, Lions, pulled 1.7Gs last year at Silverstone. No idea what their data says this year, but I would guess it's similar. Our car had issues with exit oversteer which was a bit interesting at times!

You'll get a decent idea of how they handle by watching the recorded coverage from Germany.

http://www.formulastudent.tv/play.php?vid=313
This is me driving in the sprint (fast forward to half way through....we're number 11 in the blue, white and red). We weren't super fast unfortunately, loosing out in the second sector.

http://www.formulastudent.tv/play.php?vid=336
Half way through again for Warper and his Team Mates awesome runs. Very well sorted car!

I had a look at this at the MotorShow on Sunday. They had a chassis with the bodywork off and I have to say, from an engineering perspective, it's very nice. I think comparing it to a 7 is a bit unfair. It's similar in looks to some extent, but it's built very differently. I have to say, I though it would have been lighter than 750kg, and it's a shame it's so expensive, but the suspension design is very good....far better than a 7 and far far better than an Atom.

Coned off parts of Brooklands, Luffield and Woodcote. See here for the bit used: http://www.formulastudent.com/ ... A77E/0/FS2008SitePlan.pdf

That doesn't show the slaloms and gates though. It was a lot more open than last years track. Quite good fun in places actually!

It's been absolutely ages since I've been on here, but I was reminded about this place after talking to one of the Lions Racing guys who turned out to be Warper :P (Hi btw!)

Lions had a really unlucky fire during their driver change which thankfull didn't damage the car or Christopher who was in it at the time (apart from breathing in a lung full of extinguisher powder) but did mean they got pulled. The marshalls were being super vidgilent checking for fluids, and after months of issues sealing our diff, we were pleased to find it lasted the distance whithout loosing any oil.

We had pretty much our best result ever considering the strength of competition in the last few years with 11th overall. The team had an 8th back in 2003 but that was without an endurance finish, something which would relegate a team to the mid 20s these days! We haven't finished endurance for 5 years now and it was for this reason that myself and my team mate took it fairly easy and were 12th fastest which to be honest, actually surprised us considering it was purely our aim to finish within the 133%. We also won the Honda R&D Most Desirable Engineering Product award which came as a big surprise, but a great honour. It also meant we went on a tour of the Honda F1 facility in Brackley with Lions who won the most professional team award also from Honda.

Anyway. We have some work to do on the car before Germany. Since we know we can make it now, we're going to work extremely hard on setup and will be going for top 5 in sprint (we were 6th last year in Hockenheim) and top 10 in the endurance. The car is a bit oversteery on the exit at the moment (brilliant for drifiting....I shall post the vid on YouTube of my sprint run :P) and the TC needs a bit more work.


Me negotiating the final corner of the sprint


Doing the driver change. Fastening a single seater harness whilst still wearing your gloves doesn't work!


Crossing the start finish line

Scawen,

Much better BF1 sound thanks As you say obviously still a WIP, but it's getting there. I'd say the biggest thing that needs to change is higher up in the revs. It sounds too electronic and needs to be a little less digital if that makes any sense.

If you need a particularly good reference, this is as good as you're going to find anywhere :P

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcJxuXHD3t4

I think the main thing is the sound needs to change through the revs. You get a sort of harmonic resonance IRL at certain revs.

I really like the new sounds.....apart from the BF1! It's about an octave or two too low. It's great that there is some bass there (anyone who's heard an F1 car IRL will know what I'm talking about), but there needs to be another layer on top. As it is, it sounds like it's revving lower than the F08!

The 4cyl cars are great IMO. Far, far more realistic than before. 8k rpm actually sounds like it should (listen to the numerous Civic or Integra Type R videos on YouTube).

A step in the right direction IMHO

Quote from v4forlife :

its not very loud then. if you took it to bruntingthorpe, the noise limit is 88.5 db, i know this cause i got kicked off when i was down there and took my nc30's can off and did a lap or 2 of the pbtt.

LOL. I think the noise limit must be different for the kart track...well either that or they turn a blind eye. That car really, really struggled to pass the noise limit test at competition which is 110dBA. I think it was 115dBA the first time they tested it too and only got through by adding some more baffles in the can. The measuring technique is very iffy too. You could actually pass the test with an open exhaust (ie just a straight pipe) if you angled it in the right place.

There tends to be a bit of power understeer, but generally I was very impressed. I'm only maybe the second or third proper driver to have driven any of the cars, so more often than not setup tends to get overlooked.

I wouldn't trust a lot of the guys who drive the cars to race wheel to wheel. Most have never done any competative driving before! LOL.

I think it's a shame that there aren't more rounds. It's getting bigger though. There are now German, Italian and Finnish comps throughout the year to add to the various US ones and the one in Aus every year.

It's plenty fast enough as it is! Even with the restrictor it runs 80bhp and at 220kg it means about 3s 0-60. As I said...it's entered in the same competition as the MRT5 on LFS (McGills Formula SAE car from 3 years ago or so). We run the softest tyre compoud Avon make btw...so grip is very good!

Not meaning to boast or anything :P I've been a member of our Formula Student team at Uni for 2 years now, and as I'm playing a more active role this year, got a chance to drive one of the cars today. Took it to Bruntingthorpe and despite almost boiling our engine due to a fan problem (don't ask!) I got 5 laps round the kart circuit there which was fun.

Very different kettle of fish to a kart (closest thing I can compare it to being a kart racer myself :P). Power delivery is a lot more meaty and where a kart would normally be topping out the thing was just getting going. Obviously suspension makes a difference too. Very composed over the kerbs (you can see me testing them out there ) and it's interesting to get used the sensation of dive and squat. Generally I was very impressed though

As I'm sure you'll be bursting to know.......yes...lfs does indeed compare pretty well. The only thing I would say is that the FSAE car in the game has a hell of a lot more rear end grip than the real thing, but otherwise it seems pretty close. The way it turns in is very similar and the way it will power understeer is also very similar. I just wish our car ran as smoothly as the one in the game!

Please anyone...would love to race you guys Am I too late?

I was gonna do this, but didn't realise I needed a pass. The guys invited me yesterday when I was playing.

If there's anyone around still..any chance of the pass?

I'd say you'll do more damage to your engine hitting the rev limiter in gear because the momentum of the car can pull it over the limiter and everytime it cuts the ignition it shocks the whole thing a lot more as there's shunt in the gear and transmission system. I'm not sure where you get the idea that the stresses are greater on it when the engine has no load. If the engine is turning at 8000rpm, the acceleration forces on the pistons are exactly the same whether under load or not.

On the whole it's not good to hit the limiter at all. Some are pretty soft and controlled by the ECU preventing any more throttle opening, but when the engine literally bounces off the limiter you're putting some nasty loads through the crank and bearings. It's not to say the engine wouldn't rev any higher, but in any engine it's set to prevent any damage from loads the bearings/crank/gudeon pins aren't designed for. Most engines will be ultimately limited by the point at which their valves start to bounce. You'd probably start doing damage to the bearings etc too, but the ultimate limit is usually reached when the springs can't return the valves quick enough.

Taking pictures on behalf of my mate Alex Morgan and his (Dads) team Macob Motorsport I race with Alex in karts at Uni and he's seen some of my photos so was happy to ask his team manager to sign the form for me

Yeah that's right. Apparently she 'won' the 'So You Want To Be an F1 Driver' thing. Kind of says it all when it comes to the motivation behind the whole program! Still...I shoudn't really bad mouth her, as I expect I'll be meeting her LOL.

I'm going as Media on Sunday! Yay Should be a good weekend. Lots and lots going on.....looking forward to gettting up close and personal with the Renault F1 car If you want someone to cheer for in the Formula Renault look out for my mate Alex Morgan. His female teamate is fit as anything too :P

I did a day at Thruxton driving an MG ZT, Merc SLK, Ferrari 360 and FRenault when I was 18 which was fun. I'd highly recommend using them as they're fairly liberal with speed...although FRenaults were max wing and rev limited. Having raced karts for a while now though there's no way I could do another driving day as I'd want to actually race....hence why I'm going to do a couple of season in the Caterham Super Grads provinding the race insurance isn't too rediculous :P Definitely worth while doing though if you've never driven a track though.

Anyone who has any sympathy for James 'the cock' Allen should read the following quote :P

"Kimi Raikonnen there struggling to control the car. It must take him back to the Finnish Fjords skidding around on the ice struggling for grip from his rear wheels"

TWAT!

This place may be worth a try:

http://www.itclear.com/monitors.htm

Got a Dell 17in LCD from them for my folks a couple of years ago and got excellent service. Some of their stuff is new and some is refurbished stock (ex demo and returns etc). The one I got was a refurb, but you wouldn't know. They have lots of great deals on new stuff too. There's a 24in Dell on their for £550. I know it's a fair bit smaller, but it is much higher res, and if say your gonna put the thing on a desk a few feet in front of you, then your really gonna notice the pixels on even an HDTV. If it's going to be wall mounted or something then it's not really an issue and I'd say go for the TV.

Goodmans obviously aren't going to be as good as say a top end Philips, Panasonic, Sony or Pioneer, but I'm sure it'll still be decent quality. Make sure you check out the viewing angles and how reflective the screen is though as it's a real pain when you have to be absolutely level with the screen to see it properly.

Also....just as a note to everyone in the UK especially. MAKE SURE YOU TURN THE THING OFF IN THE SUMMER when you're not using it! I've had the real annoyance of tiny thunder flies getting behind the lcd panel and backlight. One has now died there and is stuck, so I have a 3mm long black speck on the screen! They're attracted by the white and the heat and LCD panels ARE NOT SEALED so they can get in pretty easily. It's not covered under warranty either and IMO it's gonna be a big problem. I've already heard of people with 10 or 15 stuck behind the screen!

It does make me laugh the way people seem to think the removal of the mass damper has made them totally uncompetitive. It's balls. There is no way that something like that can give a car more than a couple of tenths of a second at best. Fundamentally the aim of the mass damper is to help the front of the car recover from riding bumps. This results in the front tyres being in contact with the ground a bit longer, and hence increases the exit grip. There is nothing illegal of backhand about it.

Anything an F1 team adds to their car has to be OK'd by the FIA. It's the same in any race series. It has been the case in the past that some teams have managed to slip things by, but it's usually electronics or the function of a part of the car (eg flexi wings) rather than a huge addition to the car structure. The thing is that as soon as a team complain the FIA have to start an investigation.

IMO Alonso is an awesome driver. He drives with so much understeer cause that's just his style. It doesn't mean he's any worse off for it. He's obviously fast like that, so it's not a problem.

Was that someone lapping someone though? No. Was it a silly overtake by the slow person? Yes. Is that in any way related to someone being slow and meaning the leaders crash when lapping them? No.

TBH thought, it's up to the lapper to lap the lappee, so try slowing down a bit and taking your time to pass. Anyone behind you will either do the same or crash. The Super Aguris are 5-10s off the pace of the rest of the F1 field and I don't see Schumacher or Alonso crashing into them. That's because they approach them with care, make sure they know they're behind, wait for a safe moment and then overtake.

A major part of being a good racing driver is having brains. Being fast is all very well, but if you can't pass through traffic or overtake someone well, then you aint gonna get very far. Some of the best drivers I know are on the pace but not the fastest. The guys who win are those who are awesome through traffic, considerate of backmarkers and have their head screwed on. If you go and race real cars or karts with the attitude that everyone slower than you should jump out of the way so as not to spoil your hotlap then I guarantee you won't win any time soon.

IMO, they were wrong to ban you if you were indeed just going slowly, and I don't agree with anyone that says you should race if you're too slow.