2011 FSAE-A Competition Day 5

Technically this is the first day of the actual competition however since we arrived on Sunday I technically count that as day one.

6:30 pm Wake Up

Woke up, and had a quick chat to Ben about what was happening with the car and what had happened after I went to bed. So the guys had run the car for a bit after I had gone to bed to determine if the fuel problem had been fixed it hadn't. The oil pressure issue still hadn't been fully resolved so it was decided that to see if there was any actual damage to the engine we would need to drop the sump. To see if there is any copper etc in the oil.
Today is the first day of competition, with the tasks today to register the team, get our drivers CAMS licence's and to attend both the team and driver briefing. As well as finish setting up the car and getting it rules compliant.

After a quick phone call to Glenn Campbell to discuss our current engine problems it was determined that the best way to figure out what is actually happening is to buy a fuel pressure sensor. While Kara and Ben hurriedly found a place that sold us a fuel pressure sensor that will fit into our system. Geisler and Mitchell hurriedly finished the Cost Addendum, which we only discovered was due at registration a little while ago. Meanwhile I am racing around getting everyone to sign the disclosure forms for competition.

12:00 pm Team Registration
Geisler, Kara and myself set off first to drop me off at Victoria University to register the team, while they carried on there merry ways. After which Derek and Dave, Dept of Mechanical Engineering Technicians, dropped me back off at our accommodation. The sump was just being put back on the car, as I arrived and Apples and Dave were in the process of doing a suspension set up. Chris Ford made an appearance at our accommodation, to check on how we were going.

3:00pm Team Briefing

Chris Ford kindly drove me in for the team briefing, and when we got to Victoria University there were already a couple of cars going through scrutineering. Scrutineering is the first component of technical inspection, and involves a team of qualified scrutineers inspecting the car to ensure that the car is safe to drive and complies with all the rules.

4:00pm Driver Briefing

Our drivers made it into Victoria University just in time for drivers briefing, and after drivers briefing was finished everyone except Kev and Apples headed back to our accommodation. Kev and Apples stayed behind to walk and video the autocross / enduro track.

Once we got back to accommodation the suspension set up that had been started before was finished and Ben and Kara had installed the fuel pressure sensor. With the rest of the team concentrating on cleaning up the workshop and packing everything up ready to take to comp tomorrow morning.

Unfortunately the fuel issue still hadn't seemed to go away, so Ben decided to check the MAP sensor and that's when it was discovered that the pins in the plug weren't quite connecting. After the pins were fixed up the car ran beautifully.

The car had one last spanner check completed on it, before the team went to bed.