Monthly Archives: May 2012

Today the team returned to Pittsburgh from Michigan International Speedway to celebrate our accomplishment this year. All events were completed and executed with barely any issues, demonstrating a remarkable improvement in the quality of our design. The breakdown of our placing is as follows:

Skid Pad – 56th

Autocross – 55th

Acceleration – 39th (4.659s)

Completed Endurance

Total – 41st out of 120

The design judges also provided their essential feedback on how to improve the car and presentation for next year. Their main concerns were dropping weight and having a more complete analysis to present during judging, which will certainly be addressed in future plans.

Ultimately this year marked a turning point for Carnegie Mellon Racing, as we have now established ourselves as a cohesive and competitive team with our 33rd percentile finish, the second best in team history . Upcoming years can look to iteratively improve on our design and break into the highest echelon of Formula racing. Of course this success was only made possible by our dedicated and generous sponsors, alumni, advisors, and team; we thank you all for your support. Look for more great racing next year!

Today for the first time since 2008 CMR has completed endurance at Competition! The twenty laps around the course went smoothly in all aspects, and the car was the fastest on the track during most of the run. Being that only around 40% of cars finish endurance, this marks a milestone for our team and embodies how hard everyone has worked to build a competitive race car.

Here is the video of our car completing the last lap:

On a beautiful day at the racetrack marking Day 3 of Competition, we finally began the dynamic events component. Our team was ready bright and early, earning us the distinction of being the first car to run a competitive event on the brand new pavement at Michigan Speedway. We completed skidpad and acceleration early in the day with respectable relative times earned on both events despite the cooler weather.

Later on when the track and tires warmed up, we readied the car for the autocross course. After four attempts our best time was just over 63 seconds on a clean run, setting the standard for a good portion of the afternoon. Final preparations and tests were then carried out for the all-important endurance test tomorrow.

A successful second day of Competition has now been completed, with CMR 57 passing all three tech inspections (tech, tilt, brake) on the earliest finish day possible. The preliminary inspection was accepted on the first try with minimal negative feedback from the judges, while tilt, brake, and egress all went smoothly. Although our car was originally running a few decibels over the allowed limit during noise testing, a quick patch to the muffler allowed us to clear. We could then scrub our tires and prepare for dynamic events taking place on Friday.

In addition, the car underwent design judging today, in which the team presented and defended the engineering choices made concerning nearly every aspect of the car. Supplemented with several posters, the system leaders made a solid impression on the judges in a much improved demonstration.

Also accomplished today were the cost report and business presentations. Great work to all who helped make these well-written and delivered components of Competition that earned us significantly more points than last year.

Here are some pictures of the events:

After a year of planning and preparation, CMR 57 finally arrived at Michigan International Speedway today for Competition! We checked in bright and early and spent most of the day making final preparations for tech evaluations. After looking at various cars from across the country we are really proud of the great improvements made since last year’s experience, and our car certainly stands out as a solid competitor. Despite the miserable weather the team remains encouraged that the remaining three days will be rewarding.  Great thanks to everyone who worked extremely hard throughout the year to make this week possible. Many more pictures of our completed design and Competition will be posted in the next several days.

This week a torsion test was performed on the chassis to collect valuable data about frame stiffness for future years. With less than one week until Competition we are continuing to test every component to make sure CMR 57 is fully prepared for race day. Check out some images of the torsion test and some more shots from test driving.