2009.01.28 Article Campushunter WS 08/09

{multithumb}Article Campushunter WS 08/09

In October 2007 15 upcoming engineers founded the FH Frankfurt motorsportsteam, the “FH Frankfurt Racing Team“. The goal of the team was to participate in the Formula Student Germany, with their own self made vehicle. This teamwork oriented motorsportscompetition of the “VDI” offers students the opportunity to apply their theoretical knowledge practically and to catch impressions of the life of an engineer. In the same year the team managed to find their first main sponsor, the “Euro Engineering AG”.

Euro Engineering supports the team financially and technically. The money sponsored by Euro Engineering had been used to buy a Yamaha Engine with 600cm³ displacement and the steelpipes for building the frame. Thanks to that support, the team was able to start manufacturing the frame in December of 2007. In the meantime, students from many different university departments had joined the team, so that the number of teammembers had climbed up to 20 by June 2008. They all worked together on their project “Ribbed 08”. The name “Ribbed” comes from the design’s similarities to the “Geripptes”, a nickname for the glas Frankfurt’s famous “Appelwoi” is served in. The zick zack structure of the glas influenced the design of the frame. By visiting fairs and getting in contact with many different companies, the team was able to obtain further sponsors, such as “DEKRA Frankfurt” the second main sponsor. DEKRA also sponsors the FSG and executes the technical inspections at the Hockenheimring. This group of sponsors provided financial liquidity to buy the needed parts, materials and tools.

From that point on, the design and the manufacturing of the vehicle had to be coordinated, since there where only four and a half months left to finish the car. Pretty soon every member of the team found out, that they had to work hard, from Monday till Saturday to reach their goal. After weeks with long days and short nights in the garage, the job was done. On the 6th of August 2008 the “Ribbed 08” had been towed on the trailer, heading towards Hockenheim for the 2008 Formula Student Germany. After storing all the equipment in the pit, the team went back to work, because there where still some smaller jobs that had to be taken care of. In the beginning, everybody was enthusiastic and in a good temper, but the closer scrutineering came, the more nervous everybody got. Because there, the team would see if they did the job right and obeyed all the rules. But besides some minor flaws, the judges where satisfied with their work. And after a short period of rectification work, the car was ready to receive the first out of four tags needed to drive the car on track.

The next test was the “Tilt Table”. In this thest the car had to be tilted 45° sideways. At the 45° angle, no fluids, such as gasoline, oil, ect. where allowed to leak. If this stage was cleared, the table was tilted sideways in a 60° angle to check wheather the car would tilt over or not. After making some adjustments with the suspension, the car passed the test. Now everybody was looking forward for the noise test. In this test, the car must not be louder than 110db. But besides confidence and happyness motorsports also includes throwbacks: The engine did not run. During further day and nightshifts at the pitlane the teammembers where doing their best to find and fix the problem. Within 24h they built a complete new wireing for the enigines electronics and integrated it into the car. But since that did not fix the problem, they had to face the fact that their enginemanagement system had burned out. Sadly they had no spare parts, so the car had to stay in the pit. But the team did not feel like having failed. In the end, they were very proud of themselves being a part of the FSG Event. The next step is evolution, no longer revolution and the growing team is looking forward to the 2009 FSG.

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