For the past 4 years, I've been helping BYU begin and develope a racing program. This year I was in charge of designing our Formula SAE race car's suspension and steering subsystems. It was a very intense project, only 8 people to design, build and drive an open-wheeled car from scratch in only 10 months! 
We just got back from our competition at the California Motor Speedway, where 80colleges from around the world competed in several engineering static and dynamic events. 
I got to drive in the skid pad event (all my year's of go-kart racing helped me be the fastest driver on the team... or maybe it's because I haven't grown since 8th grade!) It is such a thrill to drive! There is so much traction that as you go through a corner, pulling 1.8 g's, your mind has a hard time focusing on the road - it makes your senses all crazy! It's awesome! (average high performance car, like Porsche 911 pulls about .92 g's in the corner) 
We did really well and got 6th in the design event! We ran into several problems throughout the week, but were able to overcome adversity and get our car on the track (the other schools probably thought it was funny to see college kids always praying around their car!)
This experience not only taught me race car vehicle dynamics, but I learned so many other skills. Presentation, documentation, cost analysis, manufacturing tolerence and compliance concerns, effects of stiction, driver safety and ergo, importance of fundamentals... and how many people can say they built a sexy race machine from scratch... I can!
2 comments:
finally! you posted something! :) Nice job! and yes, it is very very sexy. Good job on getting 6th! that's awesome!
I have no idea what stiction is, but congrats on the races and especially on the experience. That will always be a great memory of your college days.
BTW Jake, did you just jump out in front of the cars with those shorts, rather than using a checkered flag? ;o)
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