 Welcome to our March 2023 Newsletter. This is a progress update from a few of our subsystems and overall team progress. Our car is on the ground and we are eager to begin testing! Keep an eye out for our public car reveal with announcements coming shortly on social media.  _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Car is on the ground! This past Saturday we bolted all engine, drivetrain, and suspension components to the chassis and successfully started B23 for the first time. The engine fired up on the second attempt and idled successfully a couple of attempts later. Here is a video of our first start! This is largely the result of hard work by our Engine and Electrical subsystems, namely Jake Johnson and Jason Chandran. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Engine  A major update to B23 over previous years’ cars is our new exhaust routing. In the past, the header routing directly to the side of the car with muffler pointing towards the front wheel was sufficient to keep our KTM 350cc motor just quiet enough. The 450cc motor we now run is loud enough to require a quieter exhaust system. Additional header length, a resonator section, and SuperTrapp muffler section have already made the car quieter right off the bat on first start.  To help shed the weight gained by the more robust exhaust, our intake is now one single piece fully made out of carbon fiber. The pieces were made separately and later bonded together. They are currently curing in position as can be seen in the photo above. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Aero   Aero has been hard at work especially over the past couple weeks. Almost every night a team of 5+ members have come out to make our vision of sidepods, sidewings, and side-mounted floor aero a reality. A large reason for this push to create side-mounted aero comes as a result of the exhaust and muffler being rerouted to the back of the car, freeing up the sides. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Electrical   Electrical has been making progress on our new steering wheel mounted display, experimenting with how to best use the new interface. This will be a huge step forward in allowing the driver to better interface with the car and digest information. Creating more durable and cleanly mounted wiring solutions has also been at the forefront of Electrical’s efforts, as seen in our new 3D printed ECU housing. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ Silicon Valley Auto Show + Society of Women in Engineering’s Mini University  A couple weeks ago we spent a weekend in the South Bay at the Silicon Valley Auto Show alongside San Jose State University’s Spartan Racing at the Formula SAE booth. We had a blast spreading the good word, shaking hands, handing out business cards and stickers, and rekindling our relationship with the good people over at SJSU.   We brought our car to SWE’s MiniU event to present alongside other UC Berkeley engineering clubs. Increasing diversity in the field of engineering is very important to us. We continue to attend outreach and recruitment events pushing to include individuals who align with underrepresented identities. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ It’s crunch time! Over the next few weeks, all content coming from us will be regarding updates in our preparation for competition. Make sure you are following our Instagram account at @calformulasae and our Facebook page at facebook.com/calracing so you don’t miss anything! |
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