Baltic Open, Tallinn 26. – 28.08.2010

Posted on September 1, 2010

Driving on public roads, drama, excitement and fun. That is briefly what Baltic Open offered for us this year. We had two cars this time on the starting grid, FS008 and FS010.

The event started by driving public roads for about one kilometre from Tallinn University of Applied Sciences to Freedom Square of Estonia. National TV filmed on scene and we managed to get their attention when burning rubber with the FS008. At the destination our cars were on a stand in a small scale exhibition.

On Friday during testing session was the time for drama. After rapid oil leak the back end of FS010 burst into flames on track. Luckily the flames didn’t make much damage to the car and the “flaming arrow” was on track after two hours of repairing and system checks. However, something fishy was going on with the shifting system and we had to drive mainly the rest of the event with one gear.

On Saturday were sprint and endurance and in the evening the end ceremony and party. Tallinn won with their new car and we finished in 4th and 6th place. As a bonus, team Tampere got special thanks from the organisers of Baltic Open.

Formula Student Austria, Melk 11.-14.08.2010

Posted on August 20, 2010

At the venue team faced a bit of a surprise in the vehicle technical inspection. Because of regulation interpretation there, team had to weld about 50 cm more steel tube to the frame to qualify for the race. Actual competing sessions went okay and we made even our new acceleration record of 4.17s/75m. Gradually also adjustments with the car seemed to be working, but team had to retire in endurance driving session after driver change. Conditions were extremely hot and caused overheating with the engine. Overall placement in the event was 26th, still much to improve.

Before our next event, Baltic Open, Tallinn 26.-28.08.2010, team is searching for a place for testing to finally fix reliability issues with the car.

Formula Student Germany 4.8. – 8.8.2010

Posted on August 12, 2010

Everything doesn’t always go as planned. For starters, team struggled to assemble the car before the event in Germany at Hockenheim begins. Car was finished just in time, although a lack of testing time meant serious troubles for the team at the venue. After fixing petrol leaks and a broken bell crank during the event, finally it was inevitable to retire in endurance driving session when A-Arm from the rear of the car broke down.

Final position for the team after colourful event was 57th which is a huge disappointment for us.

Team is now preparing for the next event in Austria (11. – 14.8.), hopefully we can do a solid performance at the venue and reach a much higher end result.

Bodywork building up

Posted on June 20, 2010

We are now building up the most visible parts of the car – the fibreglass bodywork. These parts required careful designing and dedication throughout the spring and the summer. Finishing works are now in progress such as grinding and coating, but hopefully we get things right and see cool and practical bodywork this year.

Fabrication of the bodywork molds wasn’t possible without the help of our sponsors, Titako, Valimoinstituutti, TUT, TAO and Huurre, so special thanks for them.

In other areas the car is still under construction as well, which means we are behind schedule. Suspension components are now ready for installation, electronics needs to be finished and few engine components assembled. Some critical parts are still in machining which means we are not able to get the car on its wheels before we get them ready for installation.

Engineering, technology and hard work

Posted on May 31, 2010

It’s been a while since the last post and many things have happened. Travel arrangements have now been made and costs calculated. We decided to commit our racing calender as one trip because the competitions are quite close to each other in the calender. Since the whole journey would be about 7000 km across Europe and some team members are present for the whole journey we bought a Volkswagen minibus to cut costs. Also a van has been rented for transportation of the FS010 and necessary equipments.

Couple of weeks ago we were at Tatech in Pirkkala to test, compare and adjust different components of the engine in the dynamometer. Especially our main focus was to get our variable length air intake manifold to work properly. Special about the intake manifold is that it’s rapid manufactured by Laukamo from our designs and development. Everything worked well and as an end result we managed to get 92 hp power with smooth 70 Nm torque from the engine.

There is still a lot of work ahead before the races. Team is now occupied by the reports such as cost and design report, which must be made for the competitions in time. Also the construction process of the car is in progress and picking up speed towards summer. Hopefully we can begin testing on track after couple of weeks…

Kaanaa Karting 5.5.2010

Posted on May 6, 2010

We decided to go out on wednesday evening to have some fresh air after working tightly with our project in the workshop. At 4.30pm we loaded a van borrowed from our school with our old FS008 race car, stack of supplies and tools and set the course to Kaanaa Karting outer circuit. Our intention was to gain driving experience for new eager members of the team and to see how potential drivers for the upcoming events manage to perform on the track.

When we arrived to the venue after driving about 45 km from Tampere, we unloaded the van, refueled FS008 and inspected that everything worked properly. Weather was quite cold and there was a possibility for raining, but luckily the sky cleared and the track stayed dry. The car worked well throughout the driving sessions, only some adjustment to the throttle were made.

Especially for new members of the team these driving sessions offered unique driving experience, which they received well when pushing the car to its limits on the track. Also couple of spins and some driving off the track were seen, but luckily the car stayed intact and we were able to drive full time till 8pm when our time was up. Thank you Kaanaa Karting!

Frame painted

Posted on April 28, 2010

We got the frame from painting last week. Our partner, Avant Tecno did the paintjob for us.
New FS010 frame is about 9 kgs lighter than last years frame, with better stiffness.

First post

Posted on April 21, 2010

Spring means busy times for the team. Within the next few weeks we should get our new frame from powder coating and aluminium parts from anodizing and get the engine prepared for dynamometer. During these tasks we are collecting funds for our operations by changing summer tyres for cars owned by personnel and students from our school as well as helping our school moving in after renovation at I-wing.

We are also comparing different travel arrangements for the upcoming events in our racing calendar. For this year our racing calendar consists of three competitions abroad, which are held during August. Practically, this means that our team and our creations are on the road nearly a whole month before returning home from our expedition of conquest.

Racing calender 2010:

• Formula Student Germany 4.-8.8.2010 Hockenheim, Germany
• Formula Student Austria, 11.-14.8.2010 Melk, Austria
• Baltic Open, 26.-28.8.2010 Tallinn, Estonia

Drivers had maintained their driving skills during the winter by testing our old car FS008 on ice (using ice tyres) and by driving a small indoor track with karting cars. Now we are waiting frantically for the outer circuits to open and to begin testing…

Hello world!

Posted on February 26, 2010

Welcome to renewed Tampere UAS Motorsport website. Stay on tuned!