LUFSAE
Lakehead University's Formula SAE Race Car Team Driven to Succeed
By Ryan Clark, LUFSAE Communications Manager
Ryan Clark, now a 4th year EE student, first volunteered in 2008 to lead the design and assembly of Lakehead’s FSAE race car electrical system. He now assumes the role of Communications Manager, assisting the team in project management, advertising and fundraising.
Our engineering students come from all across Canada, as Lakehead allows college transfer students to graduate with an engineering degree in as little as two years. Our teams tend to have a very strong work ethic, as most members have a college diploma and work experience to couple with their growing passion for automotive design.
Each of the race car’s twelve subsystems is divided amongst groups of degree project students. With limited funding, we naturally strive to better our odds of success by building a large team of experienced and resourceful students, each responsible for raising all of the money required to follow through with their system designs. Last year’s team consisted of 20 degree project students and 17 volunteers; this year’s team consists of 35 degree project students and 24 volunteers.
Lakehead University FSAE, aka Thunderwolf Racing was first started in December of 2007. Most of the team’s money was then raised from university alumni who team members contacted from Lakehead’s phonathon office. The first frame was constructed on a jig using the TIG welding process and nearly completed by May of 2008. I joined the team that September, and the existing frame would become the first LUFSAE race car, and compete at MIS in 2009. We tallied up the cost of tires, safety hardware, transponder and transportation alone, and with roughly $4000 in our account, we quickly recognized that very few of the team’s design goals could be met. Completing the race car looked like an unpromising race against time. We were registered to compete, yet broke, but the single most important thing that we had was a handful of experienced students that were bound and determined to build a working race car, no matter what.
We had a lot of challenges ahead, and good team leadership went a long way. “This car is going to the competition. I don’t care if I have to build it out of parts from the scrap yard and tow it to the competition myself.” said our project manager, Brandon Porter. Once that was said, there was no question that the rest of us would be onboard with him for the entire ride. We decided to broaden our search efforts for parts and approached a snowmobile scrap yard. “There’s a good sled, go ahead and take what you need.” said the owner, pointing at a 6 ft. pile of snow in -30°C weather. After an hour of digging, we acquired the calipers and master cylinders for the race car. John Williams’ $4k suspension design turned into a $700 one that sported re-painted scrap yard shocks from that snowmobile. Our ’03 CBR600RR engine was donated by Parmvir Lakhi, one of the students who helped first create the team. Our current Project Manager of Powertrain, Tristan Entem then volunteered to rebuild and fix the engine. Our current Project Manager of Chassis, Trevor Farrow was then called in to do precision welding from the toughest angles. The entire intake was done free of charge by local machine shops. When our Chief Engineer, Pierce Jones machined a chunk of solid high-grade steel, our rear spool with nearly infinite fatigue life was born. We had scheduled an appointment with a dyno shop in town for mid December, but on December 2, it burned down. Luckily there were no injuries, and the owner was still able to provide us a Dyno-Mite water break dyno that required new bearings and straightening of the shaft. Once this was done, I wired up the engine for Chase Whitelaw who worked for a week to tune the engine with our PE ECU and a borrowed LM1. Our crumple zone test was done on a snow-covered ground in -32°C weather, with the 600 lb. barrel of gravel and a helicopter release hook that John acquired for the day. Our current Finance Manager, Ofelia Jianu then compiled the final crumple zone and cost reports with Gianmarc Coppola.
For the electrical system, we purchased only the relays, fuse block and the transponder. “My years of pack-ratting have finally paid off.” said the designer of our throttle body, Taras Andrusiv as he handed me a box of used Volkswagen wiring. From March thru May, we had to redesign parts of the brakes, frame, steering, seat, suspension and much more. When systems didn’t work, we sought a quick and simple solution. In response to insufficient cooling ability, Taras pulled a the radiator out of a Honda Civic, mounted it on the back of the race car and had it working the same day, then he approached a motorcycle shop to inquire about mufflers. He determined that the shop had nothing of suitable size, yet soon returned with our 450cc ATV muffler that he found in the dumpster behind that shop.
After exams, a handful of us practically lived in the shop with a BBQ nearby. Taras’s girlfriend would say “That race car took away my precious boyfriend. The only way to see him is to bring food to the shop.” The team’s girlfriends soon learned that “Honey, I’ll be done in just another 5 minutes” actually meant 4 hours. Our frame guy, Matt Tamas, painted the frame in the only 600 sq. ft space we had, and even the inside of the CD-ROM on the PC shows the overspray to this day. The fiberglass body cover was created using a wooden male mold. After much needed design tweaks and testing, the car was mechanically complete just 2 days before we had to leave for the competition. That is when Gabriel Nicolescu and I assembled the wiring harness for the last time, and incorporated our LED dashboard that his dad, Marian took 4 days off work to design, build and ship express from Mississauga. All of the hard work was finally done, which landed the remaining team at our school athletic building parking lot that we swept clean of dirt and gravel. Our race car, which we would call “The Wolf” was alive, and for a few hours, sported $35 Volvo tires. We had just 24 hours to rigorously test the race car before loading it onto a borrowed trailer headed for MIS. We put our freshly donated Goodyear’s on, determined who our eight drivers would be, and driver training commenced at last.
The car trip to MIS took nearly 14 hours. The first thing most students asked us was where our university was located. Lakehead is located in Thunder Bay, Ontario, which is on the Northwest corner of Lake Superior. The next question was usually “How much does your car weigh?” It was 672 lbs. without the driver, and got a lot of attention in the lineup for tech. inspection when John stood right up on the A-arms to look around. We passed the technical inspection on the first try, having found a piece of foam on the floor that we used inside the headrest to provide adequate support. We were one of few teams to feature a double barrel throttle body, and the only team with a firewall made of non-rigid fireproof rubber material, now forbidden by the FSAE rules.
It was great meeting all the teams in the paddocks and sharing our first ever FSAE car. Our car endured all that we had planned for, but at one point, our tent blew away with a truck tire, bucket of water, car battery and 50 lb. anvil attached to it. The anvil impacted our nose cone but left only a scratch. Our goal of completing all events was met, placing us 43rd overall in the competition.
At the awards ceremony, we roared with joy when we heard our name being called out for William C. Mitchell’s “Rookie of the Year Award.” It was the best feeling ever to prove that Lakehead University students, given continued support, would be able to carry the momentum and be excellent FSAE competitors from that point forward. The award included racing design software that Trevor relies on for his upcoming suspension design.
We owe our success to our faculty advisor Dr. Siddiqui, manufacturing advisor Kailash Bhatia, and all of our supporters. Among many things we learned is that new teams must try their best to meet potential sponsors in person – we could never accomplish what we did using email or telephone alone. When we needed information on design, the online FSAE forums were very helpful. At the competition, it is important to back up your designs with detailed analysis at the design review, and very beneficial if the entire team shares the same vision of the final product from day one. As Brandon has said, “We successfully completed all events at the competition because we had a simple and reliable car, which was exactly how we intended it to be.”
Lakehead University FSAE Team of 2009, last day of competition at FSAE Michigan 2009
From left to right, top row: Pierce Jones, Trevor Farrow, Gianmarc Coppola, Taras Andrusiv, Victor Kiss, Dr. Sultan Siddiqui, Evis Buli, Matt Tamas, Shane Lintunen, Ryan Clark
Bottom row: Gabriel Nicolescu, Ofelia Jianu, Tristan Entem, Brandon Porter, Chase Whitelaw, John Williams
By 2010, we had learned many lessons and improved our exposure throughout Lakehead University and the Thunder Bay community. Our team size increased from 25 to over 40 students. We acquired many more sponsorships, including one from Honda Canada that allowed us to compete with vast improvements over our previous design, boasting a Torsen differential with custom CNC machined enclosure, Kevlar body cover, wireless embedded computer, pushrod suspension and lower center of gravity. Research and manufacturing continued as usual, with emphasis on making the car lighter while retaining the same reliability that the first car had.
The competition in 2010 was not as relaxed as it was in 2009. With numerous upgrades that made the car require more maintenance and inspection, team members were determined to have every aspect of the car setup perfectly before taking the race car into the dynamic driving events. While we did not reach our goal of top 25 ranking, we gained 4 spots (from 43rd to 39th place internationally) in 2010.
Lakehead University FSAE Team of 2010, last day of competition at FSAE Michigan 2010
For 2011, we want to earn the standing we were intending to reach in 2010 – a top 25 ranking internationally. We are confident that if we make the frame smaller, follow the same design paths and make just a few improvements to last year’s design, LUFSAE will continue to reach farther beyond other Canadian universities in the Formula SAE community. Check us out at www.lufsae.com.
