Sponsor News

team Swinburne would like to officially thank Cummins for their involvement in Swinburne F-SAE. Sponsorship provided by Cummins has helped us to deliver on and off the track in 2007 and 2008 and for this we are grateful. Cummins are a multinational company with a very strong prescence in the Asia-Pacific region, delivering excellence in the area of large scale commercial and industrial diesel engines for use in areas such as trucks, power generation, agriculture and mining to name a few. We look forward to working with Cummins again in 2008 and invite you to visit the Cummins website via the link below.

http://regions.cummins.com/au/pages/en/index.cfm

08/05/2008-AS

team Swinburne 2007 Results and ts_08 Update

In July 2007, the formation of team Swinburne 2008 began. Students interested in motorsport, people who already had a minor role and other interested engineering sudents all stepped up to the challenge of F-SAE 2008. Initially, we came together to assist team Swinburne 2007 to complete the ts_07 car, but the new team also began work planning for ts_08. With the 2007 team completing manufacture of the ts_07 car in November, and testing beginning, conceptual design and drawings were created to form a foundation for the 2008 car.

The Formula SAE Competition on the 13th – 16th of December 2007 culminated all the efforts of the 07 team with a completed car ready to hit the track. On the Friday, the car passed all safety tests, the tilt test and braking test with no major problems. The team then completed the design and presentation event, with the team finishing 6th in design. However, in the presentation event, the professional display from team Swinburne, with the unique clear body showing the internal features of the car, proved to be what the judges were looking for and we took 1st place.

On the Saturday of the event, the weather took a turn for the worse, making for wet conditions under which the acceleration, skidpan and autocross events were run. First off was the acceleration event, with ts_07 staying straight in the slippery conditions to eventually finish in 4th for the event. With the weather constantly changing, from sunshine to rain, ts_07 was taken onto the skidpan for the figure eight event. In the afternoon, the autocross event was held on a slowly drying track. For the first run, wet tyres were used with good success, but in the second attempt, a gamble was made to try slicks to get some more speed out of the car. This gamble payed off, with the car finishing a close second, and putting ts_07 in a good position for the Sunday endurance runs.

Sunday arrived, and brought with it a cool, dry track for ts_07 to complete the final events. On the first run in the endurance event, problems with the steering meant a slower car and a stray witch’s hat knocked off a wire on the shifter system that led to a DNF in the first run. With a few hours before the second run, the team got to work fixing the problems on the car, with the car ready to run for the second drive on the endurance course. Into the second run on the endurance course, a loose airline fitting led to the shifter system becoming inoperable, and a spin finishing the day for ts_07. Overall we finished 11th in a field of twenty two, which was a good result considering the DNF in the endurance event which makes up many of the points for the weekend.

With the completion of the 2007 F-SAE event, team Swinburne 2008 set about analysing the positives and negatives found in the 07 event, to make a stronger and more robust car for 2008. By the end of the 2007 competition, the team for 08 had grown to 35, a much larger team than previous years. Many students on the team are completing F-SAE as a final year project, while other students from different years of an engineering degree, to robotics and mechatronics students are taking on the project to gain experience in the team environment, while assisting on the car with the knowledge they have learned in their time at Swinburne.

Over the summer break, while many students were holidaying, team Swinburne 2008 spent countless hours at university studying the theory of each of the individual subsystems, and piecing together an initial design for ts_08. A new path was to be made with ts_08, with the move to a carbon fibre monocoque chassis, a newer Honda CBR 600RR motor, and a host of innovative new ideas to make ts_08 the car to beat for 2008. Also over the summer break, the chance was given to members of the team to actually drive the ts_07 car at the Morwell hill climb track, to give valuable hands on experience of the car actually operating, and to perform testing of components to assist with the design of ts_08.

With the beginning of the university semester at the end of February, final designs were being completed for ts_08. Currently the car is being assembled in CAD form, to get final placements and packaging correct, whereby then manufacture of components can begin for ts_08.

2007 Competition Results

24/03/2008 - AS&CW