Report: Orion Racing India at Formula Student Germany 2008

jalsa777 · 8th September 2008, 22:50

This is a long overdue report.

About us:

We, Orion Racing India are a team of engineering students from K. J. Somaiya College of Engineering, Mumbai.

We take part in the Formula Student competition held at Hockenheim in Germany.

This was the second year that our team participated in this competition.

The team comprises of Mechanical and Electronics Engineering students.

Our aim is to showcase Indian Engineering talent on the world stage, and this is a very good platform to do that.

About the competition:

This competition is organized by SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) and is called Formula SAE (FSAE).

Is is organized in various countries like USA, Italy, Great Briton, Australia, Japan and Germany.

We take part in the German competition because if fits in with our academic calender and it is also considered to be the toughest FSAE event.

The event was held from the 6th to 10th of August, 2008.

It is an engineering design competition for engineering students.

The aim of the competition is to give students on-field exposure and help them become better engineers.

The competition consists of two types of events viz. Static events and Dynamic events.

Static events:
These consists of events like, Design event, cost report, Business Plan Presentation, Style event.

In the design event, the judges give points for technological innovations and also they test the knowledge of the participants.

The business plan presentation consists of the teams trying to convince a group of investors to invest money for commercial production of their car.
It involves the teams preparing detailed reports of the costs involved, the potential market, the duration of recovery of investment made, etc.

Dynamic Events:
These consist of Acceleration, Skid Pad, Autocross, Endurance and Fuel Economy.

To be able to compete in any of these event, one must first pass scrutineering.

This is where the German event is considered to be the toughest,
the scrutineering is extremely tough to pass as the scrutineers are thorough professionals and go through the car in extreme detail.
It also consists of tilt test, brake test and noise test

The judges there are very very experienced, most of them are from F1 or other world renowned racing series.

We had Toyota F1 personnel judging us in the design event.

Thus, this gives us very good exposure and helps us establish contacts with the who's who of the racing world.

There were a total of 78 teams participating in the event this year.

For more details please visit: Formula Student Germany: Home

About our car:

We call our car 'ITANTA',
which means shinning and bright in sanskrit.

Car specs here: index

Our Performance:

Considering our experience and given our budget, are performance was good.

We could have done better, but unfortunately luck wasn't really favoring us.

I'll give a day-to-day account:

Day 1:
We set up our camping area.
Couldn't go for scrutineering as all the slots were full.
Just got a feel of the whole competition, enjoyed the Hockenheim Ring, talked to other teams and saw other cars.

Day 2:
Went for panaromic photograph of all teams.
Went in for scrutineering, that went for 2.5 hours and we came out with a long list of corrections.

I'll mention some of those:
1. As we had learnt from mistakes made the previous year, we had used lock nuts through out the car. That was fine, but they were nylon lock nuts. In the brake parts and some other parts which get heated, the nylon can melt away, so metal lock nuts to be put there.

2. Our suspension a-arm mountings did not have any scope of front-back movement. But, under heavy acceleration and braking, there should be some allowance given or it could lead to shear forces on the A-arms, so, that had to be corrected.

3. There were other minor corrections. Although they were minor, some of them were time consuming as to we had to disassemble a lot of parts while doing so.

We we spent the whole evening and the whole night in correcting these things.

Day 3:
With very little sleep on us, we started the day with the static events.
The business plan presentation went really well,
The design and cost events were good too.
As soon as we finished that back to scrutineering.
They were happy with the work, but on further inspection to that parts that were left out earlier, out came another list of small but time-consuming corrections.
Again the evening and night was spent working in shifts.

Day 4:
Start of dynamic events but couldn't participate as scrutineering was still not done.

. Missed skid-pad, acceleration and autocross.
went for scrutineering again in afternoon and we passed this time. relief for the whole team.
Tilt-test (where they tilt the car to 60 degrees on either side with the tallest driver sitting, they check for toppling and any leaks).
We sailed through the tilt and noise tests.
But come up with a problem with the brake test.

Will give you some insight in that:
One is not allowed to run their car at anytime during the competition, not even in their pits.
The engine can be run only in designated engine test area and that too while the car is in stands.

Testing can be done in testing area but only after passing all safety tests.

Now, we had blown our engine around a month before the competition. We imported a new engine from the UK, but is arrived just a day before the car was to be shipped. So, the car had never been run with the new engine.

The aim of the brake test is to lock all your wheels and come to a complete stop. The engine has to be running at the end of it to qualify.

During the brake test we found that the clutch wasn't proper.

On opening it up we found that some of the plates had worn off. (its a multi-plate, wet clutch).

Also, the new engine had a special sports clutch, the older one had normal clutch. None of the other teams had a sports clutch. This clutch has a special locking mechanism not present in the normal one and also thicker clutch plates.

On consulting other more experienced teams, we figured out that we had to keep the last plate with special locking mechanism, and can replace the other plates. But, we had to mix and match the sports plates and normal plates until we had the original overall thickness. This consumed the full night.

The clutch damage was attributed to bad oil. But, we don't know and wont until the car comes back.

Day 5:
Passed brake test. Hurray.
And just about made it to our endurance slot. THE ONLY INDIAN TEAM TO RUN ENDURANCE

. That was nice. It was a first time for us. We couldn't not compete in any dynamic event last year.

The endurance run was amazing, great experience (I was driving).
We were the crowd favorites.
Unfortunately the dream run had to end in the third lap with a wheel bearing failure. (Attributed to a silly mistake, not naming what, lol)

The day ended with mixed feelings, amazing cause we participated in the endurance, and not so good as we know we could have done better, had it not been some overlooked things and some silly mistakes.

It all ended with the amazing Mahle Party, (venue, the above pit VIP area in a normal F1 race. This is where the awards, team briefing, design and cost events, and the canteen was).
Beer on the house and great music and great crowd. All feeling were washed away with the beer. cheers:
After that party ended at 3am, TU Delft continued the party at their camping site with beer on the house too. So, we partied till 6.30 am.

Those were the best 5 days of our lives.

Conclusion:

We learnt a lot from this. We will be back next year with a much improved car. And will participate in all dynamic events.

We have learnt from our mistakes. Already started with the new car.

Visit us at index.

These are pictures from the official FSG website, more pictures will follow tomorrow.

And, we need your support and support from the industry, to progress the way we wish and chase our dream to put INDIA on the podium of Formula Student Germany.

(mods please excuse me for exceeding the 2 smilies limit, couldn't help it)

maddy42 · 9th September 2008, 11:26

@jalsa This was really long overdue man. Great writeup man. Cheers for you and your team. So which place did you qualify in man?

PS: Your pic is there in the Go karting place in powai right?

mjothi · 9th September 2008, 12:53

Excellent work. Congrats.

Quote:

Day 5:
Passed brake test. Hurray.
And just about made it to our endurance slot. THE ONLY INDIAN TEAM TO RUN ENDURANCE . That was nice. It was a first time for us. We couldn't not compete in any dynamic event last year.

Quote:

We could have done better, but unfortunately luck wasn't really favoring us.

Hurray, keep up your spirits. You have a long way to go. Your hard work will earn those in short days to come.

jalsa777 · 9th September 2008, 21:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by maddy42

@jalsa This was really long overdue man. Great writeup man. Cheers for you and your team. So which place did you qualify in man?

PS: Your pic is there in the Go karting place in powai right?

thanx.

which pic are you asking about?

GTO · 10th September 2008, 12:04

Kudos to your team's spirit! That is a heck of an opportunity, not to mention the exposure gained from such an international experience. I am not surprised that Germany would be the most difficult, considering their prowess in automotive engineering.

Too bad about the blown engine. Which bike engine was it? And what engine was imported from the UK? If you don't mind sharing, how much did it cost you to build the car, and how much of it was covered by sponsorships? I trust further testing is in order prior to next years event.

rranjith_kum · 10th September 2008, 12:11

Great report
Delft univ from netherlands won right ?
Congrats once again your team car looks awesome !!

What happened to the previous year winners Universitat Stuttgart ? from the website results I guess they too suffered from a failure ?
You would have built a cost report for submission right so can you put up that ? put it up if you think you can share it

maddy42 · 10th September 2008, 13:23

@jalsa its one from your go karting races buddy.

jalsa777 · 10th September 2008, 21:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by GTO

Too bad about the blown engine. Which bike engine was it? And what engine was imported from the UK? If you don't mind sharing, how much did it cost you to build the car, and how much of it was covered by sponsorships? I trust further testing is in order prior to next years event.

it was a CBR600 F4i. It is with the car on the ship right now. Will get it fixed as soon as it comes back. then we will have 2 engines.

this car will be tested extensively as soon as it comes back, and designs for next year will incorporate our learnings.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rranjith_kum

Great report
Delft univ from netherlands won right ?
Congrats once again your team car looks awesome !!

What happened to the previous year winners Universitat Stuttgart ?
You would have built a cost report for submission right so can you put up that ? put it up if you think you can share it

yeah, TU Delft won, they threw a great party for that too.
Stuttgart suffered a drive chain failure with just 3-4 corners left.
They would have won otherwise.

I will have to consult my team, only then can i give you'll the cost report.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mjothi

Excellent work. Congrats.

Hurray, keep up your spirits. You have a long way to go. Your hard work will earn those in short days to come.

thank you

below is the stuttgart driver sitting with his broken chain, you can see the emotion on his face

@maddy: no, all pics are from hockenheim

rranjith_kum · 10th September 2008, 22:02

thanks pal!!
Do you have pictures of the Stuttgart team car and others, I happened to see a video in you tube, their car is fast !!
do you guys also have a video in you tube or similar kind ? why not share the link

sabret00the · 10th September 2008, 22:18

@ Jalsa : Congrats to you and your team for making India proud in the world of motorsport. Truely, amazing effort and equally nice photographs to complement the report.

HKS · 21st August 2009, 13:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by jalsa777

This is a long overdue report.

How did you fair in the race?

jalsa777 · 22nd August 2009, 19:31

hey HKS,

this year was a mixed year.

Technically, it was excellent. Design wise the car was very sound, the judges called it the best Indian Car ever and were surprised by its on track performance.

We cleared scrutineering on time, so, could participate in all the dynamic events, which was good.

But, we did not achieve as much as we wanted to. Our performance was not so good to gain us significant points. And we did not score very well in the static events.

A detailed report will come soon.

For 2010, we are focusing on outright performance, now that we have all the basics sorted out.
Our whole design approach has been changed from
"Finish on time, clear scrutineering"
to
"Finish on time, make a fast, light car"

nitrous · 22nd August 2009, 20:26

I like your approach and the way the car is evolving.

8th September 2008, 22:50	#1
jalsa777 BHPian Join Date: May 2006 Location: Mumbai Posts: 732 Thanked: 1,678 Times	Report: Orion Racing India at Formula Student Germany 2008 This is a long overdue report. About us: We, Orion Racing India are a team of engineering students from K. J. Somaiya College of Engineering, Mumbai. We take part in the Formula Student competition held at Hockenheim in Germany. This was the second year that our team participated in this competition. The team comprises of Mechanical and Electronics Engineering students. Our aim is to showcase Indian Engineering talent on the world stage, and this is a very good platform to do that. About the competition: This competition is organized by SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) and is called Formula SAE (FSAE). Is is organized in various countries like USA, Italy, Great Briton, Australia, Japan and Germany. We take part in the German competition because if fits in with our academic calender and it is also considered to be the toughest FSAE event. The event was held from the 6th to 10th of August, 2008. It is an engineering design competition for engineering students. The aim of the competition is to give students on-field exposure and help them become better engineers. The competition consists of two types of events viz. Static events and Dynamic events. Static events: These consists of events like, Design event, cost report, Business Plan Presentation, Style event. In the design event, the judges give points for technological innovations and also they test the knowledge of the participants. The business plan presentation consists of the teams trying to convince a group of investors to invest money for commercial production of their car. It involves the teams preparing detailed reports of the costs involved, the potential market, the duration of recovery of investment made, etc. Dynamic Events: These consist of Acceleration, Skid Pad, Autocross, Endurance and Fuel Economy. To be able to compete in any of these event, one must first pass scrutineering. This is where the German event is considered to be the toughest, the scrutineering is extremely tough to pass as the scrutineers are thorough professionals and go through the car in extreme detail. It also consists of tilt test, brake test and noise test The judges there are very very experienced, most of them are from F1 or other world renowned racing series. We had Toyota F1 personnel judging us in the design event. Thus, this gives us very good exposure and helps us establish contacts with the who's who of the racing world. There were a total of 78 teams participating in the event this year. For more details please visit: Formula Student Germany: Home About our car: We call our car 'ITANTA', which means shinning and bright in sanskrit. Car specs here: index Our Performance: Considering our experience and given our budget, are performance was good. We could have done better, but unfortunately luck wasn't really favoring us. I'll give a day-to-day account: Day 1: We set up our camping area. Couldn't go for scrutineering as all the slots were full. Just got a feel of the whole competition, enjoyed the Hockenheim Ring, talked to other teams and saw other cars. Day 2: Went for panaromic photograph of all teams. Went in for scrutineering, that went for 2.5 hours and we came out with a long list of corrections. I'll mention some of those: 1. As we had learnt from mistakes made the previous year, we had used lock nuts through out the car. That was fine, but they were nylon lock nuts. In the brake parts and some other parts which get heated, the nylon can melt away, so metal lock nuts to be put there. 2. Our suspension a-arm mountings did not have any scope of front-back movement. But, under heavy acceleration and braking, there should be some allowance given or it could lead to shear forces on the A-arms, so, that had to be corrected. 3. There were other minor corrections. Although they were minor, some of them were time consuming as to we had to disassemble a lot of parts while doing so. We we spent the whole evening and the whole night in correcting these things. Day 3: With very little sleep on us, we started the day with the static events. The business plan presentation went really well, The design and cost events were good too. As soon as we finished that back to scrutineering. They were happy with the work, but on further inspection to that parts that were left out earlier, out came another list of small but time-consuming corrections. Again the evening and night was spent working in shifts. Day 4: Start of dynamic events but couldn't participate as scrutineering was still not done. . Missed skid-pad, acceleration and autocross. went for scrutineering again in afternoon and we passed this time. relief for the whole team. Tilt-test (where they tilt the car to 60 degrees on either side with the tallest driver sitting, they check for toppling and any leaks). We sailed through the tilt and noise tests. But come up with a problem with the brake test. Will give you some insight in that: One is not allowed to run their car at anytime during the competition, not even in their pits. The engine can be run only in designated engine test area and that too while the car is in stands. Testing can be done in testing area but only after passing all safety tests. Now, we had blown our engine around a month before the competition. We imported a new engine from the UK, but is arrived just a day before the car was to be shipped. So, the car had never been run with the new engine. The aim of the brake test is to lock all your wheels and come to a complete stop. The engine has to be running at the end of it to qualify. During the brake test we found that the clutch wasn't proper. On opening it up we found that some of the plates had worn off. (its a multi-plate, wet clutch). Also, the new engine had a special sports clutch, the older one had normal clutch. None of the other teams had a sports clutch. This clutch has a special locking mechanism not present in the normal one and also thicker clutch plates. On consulting other more experienced teams, we figured out that we had to keep the last plate with special locking mechanism, and can replace the other plates. But, we had to mix and match the sports plates and normal plates until we had the original overall thickness. This consumed the full night. The clutch damage was attributed to bad oil. But, we don't know and wont until the car comes back. Day 5: Passed brake test. Hurray. And just about made it to our endurance slot. THE ONLY INDIAN TEAM TO RUN ENDURANCE . That was nice. It was a first time for us. We couldn't not compete in any dynamic event last year. The endurance run was amazing, great experience (I was driving). We were the crowd favorites. Unfortunately the dream run had to end in the third lap with a wheel bearing failure. (Attributed to a silly mistake, not naming what, lol) The day ended with mixed feelings, amazing cause we participated in the endurance, and not so good as we know we could have done better, had it not been some overlooked things and some silly mistakes. It all ended with the amazing Mahle Party, (venue, the above pit VIP area in a normal F1 race. This is where the awards, team briefing, design and cost events, and the canteen was). Beer on the house and great music and great crowd. All feeling were washed away with the beer. cheers: After that party ended at 3am, TU Delft continued the party at their camping site with beer on the house too. So, we partied till 6.30 am. Those were the best 5 days of our lives. Conclusion: We learnt a lot from this. We will be back next year with a much improved car. And will participate in all dynamic events. We have learnt from our mistakes. Already started with the new car. Visit us at index. These are pictures from the official FSG website, more pictures will follow tomorrow. And, we need your support and support from the industry, to progress the way we wish and chase our dream to put INDIA on the podium of Formula Student Germany. (mods please excuse me for exceeding the 2 smilies limit, couldn't help it) Attached Thumbnails Attached Images Last edited by jalsa777 : 8th September 2008 at 22:55. Reason: spelling errors
	() Thanks

9th September 2008, 11:26	#2
maddy42 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Coorg Posts: 2,131 Thanked: 1,328 Times View My Garage	@jalsa This was really long overdue man. Great writeup man. Cheers for you and your team. So which place did you qualify in man? PS: Your pic is there in the Go karting place in powai right?
	() Thanks

10th September 2008, 12:04	#5
GTO Team-BHP Support Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Bombay Posts: 70,496 Thanked: 300,299 Times View My Garage	Kudos to your team's spirit! That is a heck of an opportunity, not to mention the exposure gained from such an international experience. I am not surprised that Germany would be the most difficult, considering their prowess in automotive engineering. Too bad about the blown engine. Which bike engine was it? And what engine was imported from the UK? If you don't mind sharing, how much did it cost you to build the car, and how much of it was covered by sponsorships? I trust further testing is in order prior to next years event.
	() Thanks

10th September 2008, 12:11	#6
rranjith_kum BHPian Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Coimbatore/ Aachen Posts: 693 Thanked: 20 Times View My Garage	Great report Delft univ from netherlands won right ? Congrats once again your team car looks awesome !! What happened to the previous year winners Universitat Stuttgart ? from the website results I guess they too suffered from a failure ? You would have built a cost report for submission right so can you put up that ? put it up if you think you can share it Last edited by rranjith_kum : 10th September 2008 at 12:24.
	() Thanks

10th September 2008, 13:23	#7
maddy42 Senior - BHPian Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Coorg Posts: 2,131 Thanked: 1,328 Times View My Garage	@jalsa its one from your go karting races buddy.
	() Thanks

10th September 2008, 22:02	#9
rranjith_kum BHPian Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Coimbatore/ Aachen Posts: 693 Thanked: 20 Times View My Garage	thanks pal!! Do you have pictures of the Stuttgart team car and others, I happened to see a video in you tube, their car is fast !! do you guys also have a video in you tube or similar kind ? why not share the link Last edited by rranjith_kum : 10th September 2008 at 22:04.
	() Thanks

10th September 2008, 22:18	#10
sabret00the BHPian Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: YYC \| BLR \| CCU Posts: 692 Thanked: 55 Times View My Garage	@ Jalsa : Congrats to you and your team for making India proud in the world of motorsport. Truely, amazing effort and equally nice photographs to complement the report.
	() Thanks

22nd August 2009, 19:31	#12
jalsa777 BHPian Join Date: May 2006 Location: Mumbai Posts: 732 Thanked: 1,678 Times	hey HKS, this year was a mixed year. Technically, it was excellent. Design wise the car was very sound, the judges called it the best Indian Car ever and were surprised by its on track performance. We cleared scrutineering on time, so, could participate in all the dynamic events, which was good. But, we did not achieve as much as we wanted to. Our performance was not so good to gain us significant points. And we did not score very well in the static events. A detailed report will come soon. For 2010, we are focusing on outright performance, now that we have all the basics sorted out. Our whole design approach has been changed from "Finish on time, clear scrutineering" to "Finish on time, make a fast, light car"
	() Thanks

22nd August 2009, 20:26	#13
nitrous Senior - BHPian Join Date: May 2004 Location: UAE/Lon/Madras Posts: 6,965 Thanked: 325 Times View My Garage	I like your approach and the way the car is evolving.
	() Thanks