MRACING FINISHES 2ND OVERALL

The podium results are as follows:

1st - Oregon State
2nd - University of Michigan Ann Arbor
3rd - TU Graz

The awards ceremony tonight was a long and decorated one for the Maize and Blue. MRacing received trophies and prize money for placing 2nd in endurance, 1st in acceleration, and 2nd in all dynamic events. The team also received trophies and money for winning the FEV Powertrain Development award (for outstanding fuel economy and acceleration performance) and the Joe Gibbs Simulation award (for Sumeet's hard years of work on his suspension simulation code). The prize money amounted to over $8000.

We would like to thank all our sponsors, family, friends, and alumni for the wonderful support you've given us. Your contributions directly contribute to our success. We are thrilled with our results and we are aiming for 1st place this August at Formula Student Germany.

GO BLUE!

Fuel consumption looks promising

The MR-10 used 3.097L of fuel during today's endurance race. Compared to other competitive 4-cylinder cars similar to ours, this number looks pretty good. We are still waiting for other cars to finish endurance and have their fuel consumption measured.

Finished endurance!

We have just completed endurance with no reliability problems. The car is at the fuel station for a fuel consumption measurement and will be impounded for a standard technical inspection. Michael drove the first half of the race, posting competitive times among Stuttgart, TU Graz, Maryland, and Oregon State. Stuttgart was easily the fastest car on course until a drivetrain failure took them off the track. Missouri S&T was also unable to finish the race after a cone broke their front wing. ETS was not allowed to finish the race due to an oil leak.

No problems were found with our car at the mid-race driver change. Garret found himself in a heated battle with RIT for his half of the race. The RIT driver caught up to Garret shortly after entering the track and Garret was flagged to allow RIT to pass. Garret fought right back and was able to pass RIT a few laps later. RIT stayed right on Garret's tail until he completed the 22 kilometers.

The team is very proud of continuing our string of three successful competitions in a row. There are still many cars waiting to do their endurance race, as well as design finals tonight. The overall placement of MRacing at this competition is highly dependent on the endurance, fuel economy, and design final scores. We will post the results as soon as we find out.

Lunchtime preparation for the endurance race

The team is currently having lunch courtesy of our parents. We really appreciate the contribution they make every year to keeping our team members running strong during competition.

The first run group of endurance has just finished, and the second group is beginning to line up outside the dynamic area. The MR-10 is making stops at the Kaz Technologies tent and the fuel station before heading out to the track.

MRacing ready for a strong finish

Good morning everyone, MRacing has reached the last day of the MIS competition. Today is the endurance race, which is worth the most points of all the events in the competition. The result is crucial to the overall result of every team competing. The race spans 22 km which is shared between 2 drivers for each team. At the mid-race driver change, the car is inspected by officials for any leaking fluids and broken components before being allowed to continue. The fuel economy score will also be determined from today's race based on how much fuel each car takes to finish the race.

We are currently setting up the car for the endurance race to ensure the car is fast and reliable. The MR-10 will be running in the faster of the two run groups, scheduled to begin at 1:30 PM.

Unofficial scoring can be found at :
http://students.sae.org/competitions/formulaseries/

MRacing finishes top 10 in autocross

Garret was the first of our drivers to take the course this afternoon, laying down a competitive 68.814 and 65.424. His times were enough to hold on to 6th spot through the first round of drivers. They were bested by TU Graz, Maryland, and Stuttgart's second set of drivers, but Michael charged right back with a 64.670 and 64.111. This landed us a top 10 spot in the autocross event and a spot in the faster of the two heats in tomorrow's endurance race.

The MRacing team was presented with a trophy and $750 at tonight's award ceremony for taking first place in the acceleration event.


The University of Michigan Alumni association came out to support us during the autocross event today. The team shared their experiences with the alumni as we all watched the cars take to the track. The dean of the engineering college, David Munson, was in attendance and was thrilled with the success of our team. Thank you all for showing such strong support for us today!

Tomorrow will be the endurance race. The team is excited for a 22km battle between Europe and America's fastest cars. MRacing showed its potential this summer to be the fastest on track when we scored 2nd in dynamic events at Formula Student Germany, with Stuttgart coming in first. We hope to finish out the strong showing we have had so far at this competition.

MRacing first in acceleration

Ryan Kraft laid down a blazing 3.882 second run, followed by a 3.888. The crowd erupted after seeing the times. Katie Lapham bested those with a smoking fast 3.766 and a 3.771. The closest teams are Cornell and TU Graz, both in the 3.9's.

After dominating the acceleration event, we moved over to skidpad. Katie put down a 5.15 average skidpad time between her two runs. Ryan ran an average time of 5.25. These times put us among the most competitive teams for the event.

We placed 5th in Cost Analysis, and 20th in Business presentation.

Garett and Michael are preparing for this afternoon's autocross. Our times in this event will determine which run group we are placed in for tomorrow's endurance race.

Static events complete

MRacing did not advance to design semi-finals. We were shocked to find out that only one team from our design queue was selected, while three were selected from another. Many other high-caliber teams did not advance, adding to the surprise of the judges' decisions.

Although everyone on the team is upset about the unfortunate design result, we are all very excited for the two days of dynamic events ahead. Tomorrow will be skidpad and acceleration in the morning followed by autocross in the afternoon. The autocross result will determine our starting position for Saturday's big endurance race. Please come out to MIS and support us if you are in the area!

Remember to check back for new photos at http://community.webshots.com/user/mracingfsae

Well done in business presentation

Technical Director John Hooff did an excellent job in the business presentation; the judges were pleased with John's understanding of Lean Manufacturing.

We are anticipating the design event semi-finalist list coming out in the next couple hours. The team has high hopes of being on that list.

Rain tire scrubbing and a quick suspension setup was just completed in preparation for tomorrow's events. The thunderstorms have parted for some very welcome sunshine as many people are gathering around our paddock to take a look at the MR-10.

Competitors having trouble

University of Stuttgart is having trouble passing noise, measuring at 116dB. Stuttgart is one of the strongest teams attending the competition.

Quote of the day:
"Why are you so heavy?"
-Michael Mosburger to Stuttgart

90/100 preliminary points in Cost Analysis

We scored 90/100 preliminary points in cost. These points will be adjusted according to the performance of other teams.

The shifter cable mount is cracked, so the car is at the welding tent for quick repairs.

In other news, we have sold a Yoshimura muffler to Rutgers for $450. We purchased the muffler from another team last year in order to pass noise. Rutgers still does not pass noise.

MRacing is track ready

We passed tilt early this morning and headed to design. The new 45-minute judging session proved to be an advantage. The extra time allowed the fine details of the MR-10 to be fully explained to the judges. All team members said they think it went well. We were judged by an engineer from the US Formula 1 team and he seemed positive about our car.

We then moved to noise, passing at 108.5dB. Braking went smoothly as well, despite traction problems accelerating in the rain. The officials intentionally failed us just because they wanted to see the MR-10 launch again.

Michigan is the 4th team to pass all tech checkpoints.

The team is breaking for lunch and preparing the car for this afternoon's cost event.

Good Morning everyone , May 13th first update

Good morning everyone,

Despite the bad weather at MIS ( as always) , MRacing's spirit is at high , getting the car ready for fuel , tilt, and design event .

More updates after each events

Photos


Leo

The MR-10 passes tech inspection

We passed tech inspection with a 409 lb weigh-in. The team is checking every system on the car in preparation for tomorrow's events. We will be heading to brake, noise, and tilt first thing in the morning. Some members are returning to Ann Arbor early to finish preparations for tomorrow's design event.

Day 1 Afternoon Update and Photo Album

The team has arrived at MIS and set up the paddock area among notable competitors such as TU Fast (Munich), TU Graz, ETS, Stuttgart, Oregon State, and RIT. Kanagawa IT, the team we are hosting from Japan, is situated next to us in the paddock.

The car is currently in tech inspection and should be moving to weigh-in soon. Earlier this afternoon Sumeet Rai met with representatives from Joe Gibbs Racing to explain his self-written vehicle dynamics simulator as part of the team's application for the Joe Gibbs Spirit of Innovation Award.

Photo updates will be posted on this album: http://community.webshots.com/user/mracingfsae

Competition: MIS Day 1

To all MRacing alumni, family, sponsors, and supporters: we will be posting status updates on this blog as regularly as possible. We appreciate your continued support!

The first competition for the 2010 team is underway:

Car preparation has been completed and the team is departing the shop for Michigan International Speedway. Initial weigh-in is 426 lbs.