Bryan wrote:
>Andy Whittle had an A Mod sucker car running in 1992. I don't know if that
>makes it the first or not.
At Virginia Tech, We had a Formula SAE sucker car in 1990. It didn't make
it to competition because we had sealing problems and not enough
development time.
That year Cornell did get a working system. And, I'll admit, they did a
better job. The FSAE rules require a single motor, so no motor can be
dedicated to driving the fan. We ran a pulley off the crank. Instead
Cornell basically ran a CVT backwards, so even if the engine changed RPM
the fan stayed at a fairly constant speed. All that extra drag made the
Cornell car a dog off the line, but the bugger stuck. Cornell too was
hampered by lack of development and driver time. They did ok, but could
have done better if the drivers knew the car better.
Oh, funny story, at the awards ceremony when one of the Cornell guys was
headed up for an award, one of our guys yelled out "Cornell Sucks!" The
room went silent except for our guys and the Cornell team, who were
laughing their a**es off. Obviously we'd both been making the same stupid
jokes during development. It took a moment, but the rest of the crowd got
the joke, realized it wasn't an insult, and laughed along too.
Oz wrote:
>I remember seeing it run in a huge cloud of dust somewhere.
Yeah, our car looked like PigPen when driving. It was also cool to see
the car squat when you reved it.
Scott
"One hot night down in New Orleans, It was so hot and wet
I could swear somebody was turning up the heat
and trying to make a roux out of me." - Mem Shannon
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