A Small Victory at Detroit

 

For the first time in the history of Formula SAE at University of Delaware, our team finished the Enduro, the climax of the five-day international competition held at the Ford Proving Grounds north of Detroit, Michigan.  A team of eleven, including students, alumni and the advisor, made the 1300-mile round trip.  A group of eight students drove nearly non-stop in a large rented box van containing the precious car, followed by a UD minivan.  The journey to Auburn Hills took nearly eighteen hours to complete, since the navigator stipulated that no tolls were to be paid.  This decision, luckily, was overturned for the ride home, which took the more-standard ten hours.

The competition comprises a design presentation, a cost report presentation, a technical inspection, a “tilt test” in which the car is tilted on its side at 45 degrees and must not leak fluids (or flip over!), a braking competition, an acceleration competition, a skid pad competition, an autocross competition, and finally an endurance-economy competition of approximately 45 minutes, covering two stints of eleven laps of a roughly one-mile course.  None of the competitions can be undertaken until the technical inspection is completed.  Last year, at the California competition, the UD team completed all events except the Enduro.  Halfway through the event a lug nut was determined to be loose, and the team was disqualified.  As a result, the securing mechanism was redesigned for this year’s competition.

On Wednesday morning, we looked good.  The presentations were given, and the car was prepped for competition.  Technical inspections began on Thursday, and the students assumed this would be an easy trial because the car had passed at the previous competition.  This proved to be an extremely poor assumption…  Tech, as it is called, can be difficult and unfortunately can also be up to the whim of the individual inspectors looking at the car.

Here’s how it works:  The car goes into an inspection area, and a group of judges closely examines the car looking for safety infractions, rules violations, things they would have done in some other way, etc.  Essentially any “suggestion” they make must be implemented before the car passes tech.  The car went through the first time with only minor issues—a few gaps in the bodywork around suspension members, some trim around the seat belts, small and relatively easy things to fix.  The fixes must be made back in the team’s pit, which is a 20-minute push from Tech.

So the car gets rejected, the fixes are made, and the car moves to the end of the line to await re-inspection, which takes a few hours, and time slips gently by.  On the second round, since there is a different set of judges, a whole new set of “infractions” is found, and the process is repeated.  It doesn’t much matter that the first judges, or those at the previous competition missed them; they need to be fixed, and so goes the loop.

Now it was 2:30 PM Thursday.  The braking, acceleration, and skid pad competitions closed at noon on Friday.  Now for the fun part.  One of the judges decided that the fuel filler neck was not constructed in accordance with the rules.  The rules stipulated that the neck had to be at an angle of zero to 45 degrees from vertical.  While our neck was at 15 degrees, it also curved to allow the cap to be mounted flush with the bodywork, at 90 degrees from horizontal.  While the judges agreed that this was not a safety issue, they did insist that it be remedied, since the rules showed a straight tube.

The fuel tank is an aluminum fabrication with the filler neck welded on.  It contains roughly 3 gallons of fuel (and was full), along with a foam insert to minimize sloshing, and is mounted under the driver’s seat.  After an hour or so, it was removed and we took it to the Lincoln Welding booth, where free welding services are offered for consultation.  We were told that it could be welded if we could find a new pipe for the filler neck and if the tank was filled with water to prevent explosion.  We begged the required tubing from another team, cut up the tank and filler, and filled it with water, then waited in line for our turn with the welder.  Carl from Lincoln Electric did a wonderful job, and the tank was good to go by 5 PM.  Only one problem.  It was full of water.

Despite protests from the advisor, the solution to the water problem was to let the tank dry out overnight.  How the foam in the tank would magically release thousands of water droplets through the 1-inch filler neck was beyond comprehension, but that was the decision made by the team members, i.e., worry about it the next day.  It was of little surprise the next day, when the fuel tank was installed and filled with gas, that the engine would not start.  All the fuel lines were full of a murky water-gas mixture, and time was running out.  The solution was to use the fuel pump to pump the remaining mixture out, fill the tank with fresh gas, then repeat this process until no more water appeared.  This took until noon, so the first three competitions were forfeited.
 
Next was the Tilt-Test, which we passed after some application of duct tape.  We barely got the car ready for the Autocross and finished mid-pack.  Friday was over, and all that remained was the Enduro.  Unfortunately, the differential was making some rather bad noises, the axles were somewhat loose, and a series of dents in the housing appeared during the Autocross indicating loose metal objects within!  Nothing could be done, but we did realize that if the differential leaked fluid (as it had in the 2005 competition) we would be disqualified.  As a result, the entire housing was wrapped in duct tape several layers thick, so that even if the internals let go, the leakage would be minimized.

So on to Saturday, and the Enduro.  Amazingly, the car ran flawlessly, and 45 minutes later we had completed it, something only 36 of 106 entrants managed to accomplish.  Overall we ranked 57 out of 106, which is better than any year previous.

For next year, an entirely new car will be constructed for what we are sure will be an entirely new adventure.

 

by Steve Timmons, Formula SAE Team Advisor