I've been slammed with work... been pulling 12s since last sunday.

pulling 12's in the 1/4 mile????? mods list? slicks>?

Actually most (few) of us just pull 8s and 10s... You gotta be a pimp to pull the phantom 12s.

12's are pussy, 15's are where it's at. especially when time and a half kicks in for every hour past 10 hours.

i wish 14 hours wasnt a normal day at work for me

Actually when I first moved to Alberta 4yrs ago during the boom; I was working 16hr nights mon-thru. And Weekend nights also 16hrs from fri-sun... Pay checks were nice... but I had no life for 6 months.

This might make you guys feel better about working lots of hours:

One of my best friends is a welder at BAE systems ( BAE Systems ). He gets to work on some really cool stuff but the deadlines are FIRM and he's one of very few people they trust to work on certain things. Most of the time he considers 90 hours a slow week and it's not all that uncommon for him to pull shifts longer than 24 hours or work 120+ hours a week.

The car isn't together at the moment but I should be able to get some pics of the CF manifold on the dyno engine in the next week or so if you'd like to see that.

Here are some pics of the TU GRAZ FSAE car - some of the nicest CF work I've ever seen but waayyyyy out of my price range
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3075/...865813ab_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2230/...79c84fed_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2004/...9bce336f_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2236/...b7556b74_b.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3185/...777bf39f_b.jpg

Thats sick.

no on selling me cf IM #2 when ready if ever ready? preaseee

that thing is awesome! what are some of the specs on one of those?

I couldn't find any information on the TU graz car but here's a video of their acceleration run at competition

This is the University of Cincinnati 2008 car testing at Goodyear

And the 2007 University of Cincinnati car at an autocross

The 2009 UC car weighs about 450 and is all 4130 steel frame so I'm guessing the TU Graz car is in the lower 300's since it has a CF monocoque chassis and pretty much everything else is made of carbon or titanium. Some of the cars get under 400lbs with 4130 frames but they generally use 450cc or smaller engines.

FSAE rules are mainly for safety. The engine has to be under 610cc's and there has to be a restrictor on the intake - I think it's 25mm for 93 octane and 29mm for E85. Certain parts of the frame have to be made of at least a certain size steel tube or you have to prove structural equivalency.... Stuff like that.

... and production cost is part of the competition - TU Graz definitely fails there. I think I heard their 2009 budget was in excess of 500,000 euros (meaning in excess of $730,000)

The restrictors limit power to about 85hp (still about 5.3lb/hp) but luckily I don't have to use one on my car since it isn't actually competing in Formula SAE. It probably won't happen any time soon but eventually I want to build a 1000cc version.

awesome stuff :D

UPDATE!

I'm back on this. I realized I was missing a plug-in for the flow tester so my numbers and paths were a bit off but nothing major. The plug-in showed me that YES velocity stacks with a rounded lip do flow better by quite a bit. I have added trumpets?... is that right?.. I dunno what to call 'em. Whatever. So the flow has been bumped up.

Point is I'm back making progress once again.

EDIT: I'm also starting to look at fabricating options right now.

hey i do FSAE!!!! our budget is only like 2-5k and we placed 34/100 for the US schools in the endurance race. and were only like 1/60 cars to even finish the whole race.

Bell mouth is the term you were looking for

Where do you go to school? I'm actually on the University of Cincinnati team now so I'll be at the competitions in Michigan and California in May and June.

Last year (I wasn't on the team then) they only went to Michigan and finished 44th because they had a brake line fitting fail in the endurance race. In 2008 they finished 4th overall at Virginia, 10th at Michigan and 8th in Cali and in 2007 they finished 4th overall at both Michigan and England.

I've made a lot of improvements on the engine tuning and exhaust system this year so watch out! lol

Update time!

Things have been quite insane around here for the last little while, BUT! I have made some progress!

I have picked up all the supplies I need to start making the prototype. I'm going use a hotwire to carve a foam block to rough shape.
Then I'm going to sand the foam down to an accurate shape using templates. After that, I'm going to wrap the foam in fiberglass (2 layers) and sand smooth once dry. While the fiberglass is drying I'm going to build a box for the mould that is hinged in half.
I'm going to suspend the prototype inside the box and fill the box with silicone rubber.
Once the silicone has cured I'll cut the silicone in half, freeing the prototype.
I will then close the mould and fill it with a plaster/cornstarch mix.
Once that has cured, I can remove it, and wrap the fiberglass and carbon fiber to it.
After it has dried I "should" be able to wash away the plaster mix leaving the shell of the plenum. After a little trimming, she'll be perfect.

So... Does anyone know of a wash away plaster?... lol

I'm staying with the modular design. That way upgrading from a 2.5" inlet to a 3" inlet will be as easy as unbolting the existing plenum and bolting on the new one. This will also allow me to swap out runners for different lengths.

I'll kept all my receipts and so far I have estimated my costs at roughly $900.

Rough price per manifold will be $700 - $800. Probably a little less.

Not to shabby considering others out there sell for $1200!

Dope shit son! Do some work!

Re: SEX!! with a Carbon fiber Intake Manifold
 

That's awesome. How long do you think it will take you?

Hopefully as little time as possible. I have a lot on my plate right now with 2 jobs one of which rotates days and nights. I'm getting into the shop next Wednesday to start everything. Andrew85 is going to be making one as well so hopefully he can keep the pressure on.

EDIT: I'm also going to be taking a shit load of pics so everyone can follow along.

Hell yeah, make a walk through that I can follow =)

ok.

I was supposed to be a silent partner in all of this god dammit! haha. Next wednesday should kick major ass man. Can't wait.

You could use wax instead of plaster and melt it out

You have no idea how stoked I am for this.

This stoked?
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f3...ess/stoked.jpg

I was considering this... But I don't know how the wax will hold up to the heat of the epoxy while it cures.

I know they use lost wax, and cast plaster around it.
Do you think the epoxy would create more heat?
Also, what about residue left over?

I do like the idea of baking the mani though... Almost like an autoclave, except the vacuum bagging comes before hand.


EDIT: I guess I could just cast one in wax in the same mould and see how it holds up...

Slight set back. Andrew got called out to a job site tonight so we won't be cutting foam this evening. I'm going play around with some of the prep work tonight. Hopefully our schedules will click again soon.

where do you have access to a hot wire? is this something the average consumer can buy? like a modular one?

when does the sex party starT?

I made one. My dad and I used to use one to cut out the wings for R/C planes. He told me how to make one.

I grabbed 5ft of 0.020" NiChrome wire from a local hobby shop. and strung it on a "bow".

The bow is made from a 4ft piece of 2x2 and 2, 6" pieces of ready rod drilled at outward angles.

I bolted the ready rod to the 2x2 and strung up the wire.

attached a variable DC power supply at each end of the wire, and your done.


Plans can be found online.

I'm having one now. :wink1: