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More cars would fall by the wayside as the day wore on. Manitoba would make it to their driver change, however when they pulled into the pits they found both of their rear brake rotors had exploded! The rotors overheated and warped, eventually sticking in the calipers. One rotor split into three pieces, while the other sheared along its radius and curled up like a nacho chip!
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Manitoba's car was one of the early front-runners until they had a pair of massive brake rotor failures. Ironically they had beefed up their 2011 rotors after a similar failure in 2010. They went back to a smaller design in 2012 to shave weight after the 2011 design worked perfectly. Guess they’ll be going back to the old design eh? |
As mentioned earlier, Stevens Institute of Technology would have their day cut short by engine failure. The hometown heroes from the University of Nebraska would also fail to finish the Enduro after only a few laps.
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Hitching a ride on the back of a golf cart is not how any teams want to finish their week, but it does happen quite a lot. |
At the end of the day, the University of Kansas would not only finish the Enduro, but also complete it in the quickest time, completing the event in 1328.174 seconds. Texas A&M was a distant second with a time of 1365.374 seconds. The University of Texas would finish third with a time of 1368.279 seconds.
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The Jayhawks would take home the top time in the Enduro. Congratulations to their team for a dominating win in the toughest event of the week. |
There were a number of notable cars that never took the grid in any event. The Honda Technical College of Kansai rolled up in a giant orange big-rig that was lit up like a Christmas tree. They had a number of issues that prevented them from starting. Unfortunately the language barrier really hurt them in finding replacement parts. The biggest surprise was the University of Maryland. Their car only competed in the Enduro and they only completed four laps before retiring. Their car looked menacing and it wasn’t even a blip on the radar! Rest assured the 2008 FSAE West champs will not let this happen again next year!
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| Maryland's car looked mean and should have been wickedly quick. Notice the four elements on the rear wing and the nearly enclosed rear wheels. This car is making some serious downforce! Too bad they only turned four laps in the entire competition. |
In Fuel Economy, the University of Wisconsin barely used a gallon of E85 over the 22 km distance. This gave them the win in Fuel Economy. They would be followed by the University of Texas, Georgia Southern University, the University of Washington, and Texas A&M. It should be noted that the University of Delaware would have tied Texas A&M for fifth, however Delaware’s car was well over the maximum time allowed in the competition (145% of the fastest time overall). Going off course 13 of the 19 laps may have had something to do with that. Maybe we should try that sped up camera trick too.
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Surprisingly, there is passing allowed (albeit in designated areas), so races between teams do develop. More surprisingly, Delaware pulls off a pass on the University of Quebec. This probably wasn’t too good for fuel mileage though. |
And now for the drumroll….beating the University of Texas by a mere 17 points is the University of Kansas (Lawrence)! By finishing 2nd in Design, and Autocross, combined with a 3rd in Business, a 6th in Acceleration, and the win in the Enduro, the Jayhawks were able to take the top trophy in the first annual SAE Lincoln! The University of Wisconsin (Madison) would finish third, 27 points behind Texas. Washington and Texas A&M filled the top five in the overall competition.
A big congratulations goes to the University of Kansas for winning the event. Also a big congratulations to SAE for putting on another safe and fun event. Finally a big thank you goes to the local SCCA chapter and all of its volunteers for performing all the officiating and setting up the event. This was an action packed year and rest assured, the teams are already planning their 2013 cars for Lincoln Round 2. There is no rest for the wicked, right?
Stay tuned for a look at some of the more trick features on some of this year’s SAE cars.
