Iowa State’s mini open-wheel race car – still missing its body panels, paint and sponsor decals – recently took another test spin around the Jack Trice Stadium parking lots.
The students of the Iowa State Formula Team who spent the past year designing and building the $30,000 car, had lots of data to collect and plenty of questions to sort through as the prepare to take on 79 teams during an international competition next week:
● How’s the engine running? Is the fuel/air mixture too rich? Too lean? What’s the best way to optimize power and speed?
● What’s that bang when the car races across the parking lots? Are the engine mounts flexing and causing the chain to snap? Or is the engine’s valve cover smacking against the car’s firewall?
● Are there any more leaks? Did yesterday’s oil leak get fixed?
● And how can the gear shifting be improved? Does the car need a new shift lever? Or could Jim Rasmussen, a senior from Audubon who’s studying mechanical engineering, come up with a quick fix?
It was a good time for team members to look for answers.
“Better now than in competition,” said James Whisler, a senior from Eagan, Minn., who’s studying mechanical engineering. “We’ll learn from this and move on.”
Iowa State’s formula race team is ultimately moving on to the June 16-19 Formula SAE California competition at Auto Club Speedway, the home of southern California’s NASCAR races. The annual competition is sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers and features five racing events: acceleration, cornering, autocross (a quick and curvy half-mile course that can be raced at average speeds of 25-30 mph), endurance (a 13.7 mile race that features top speeds of 65 mph) and fuel economy.
The teams also try to impress judges during a technical inspection, a cost and manufacturing analysis, a business presentation and an engineering design contest.
The past two years, the competition has been a challenge for the Iowa State team. Last year, starter and clutch problems forced the team out of the big-points endurance race. Two years ago, the team thought it had the beginnings of a good design, but was never able to overcome engine problems.
“This is the best car I’ve seen since I’ve been on the team,” said Kyle Dickinson, a senior from Urbandale who’s studying mechanical engineering and is in his third year on the team.
Dickinson especially likes how much easier it is to work on this year’s car. The single-cylinder, 450-cubic-centimeter, Yamaha motorcycle engine, for example, can be installed in the car in just 22 minutes. That’s potentially a big boost in the team’s manufacturing and serviceability score.
There are other improvements: electronic fuel injection, a lighter single-cylinder engine instead of the four cylinders the team used to run, a mechanical shifting mechanism instead of a tricky electronic system, and a chassis that features more aluminum parts and pieces that reduce weight.
But what’s it like to actually drive the car?
Well, it can be frustrating. Whisler and Nick Poduska, a recent mechanical engineering graduate from Lisbon, took turns in the cockpit during a recent test session. Both had problems with the shifter. And both said the car felt “squirrelly” as it came up to speed.
Even so, Dickinson said taking the wheel of a mini race car that goes 0 to 60 in fewer than four seconds “is a blast.”
Contacts:
Kyle Dickinson, Formula SAE Team, (515) 201-3695, kyled@iastate.edu
Jim Rasmussen, Formula SAE Team, (712) 304-2915, jamesr@iastate.edu
Mike Krapfl, News Service, (515) 294-4917, mkrapfl@iastate.edu