Crikey

Posted up on Apex Speed regarding typical G-loading of these cars. Initially I had expected somewhere around 2.0g. I'd say the best FSAE cars can get up around there on a hot day on clean asphalt, and they have really low footprint pressures and rubber about as sticky as you'll find (though not necessarily up to peak temp).

The claims are anywhere from 2.0 to 2.7g. As with anything motorsport-related I take that with a grain of salt. On initial aggressive cornering or braking you'll get an artificial "blip" of acceleration, from the chassis yaw or pitch acceleration multiplied by the distance of the accelerometer to the CG. If your accelerometer is at the true CG it's not a big deal, but if you're using say a MoTeC dash for your lat g measurement it can be significant. Generally filtering the trace over a short window (a moving average over say 0.125s) produces a more realistic measurement and will knock the peaks down a few tenths. Still that's in the range of probably 2.5g for a fast corner and a little less for a slow corner.

That brings me back to 50/50 on the differential option, Salisbury vs ATB. With a CGH near axle height that will certainly exceed the max torque bias ratio of the Quaife ATB out of slow corners and cost a heap of grip.

It will really come down to CG height. If I can design the car light enough, say in the 600-some pound range, I can throw a heap of ballast in the bottom of the frame and knock the CGH down significantly. Diff will have to be revisted much later in the design cycle.

In other news, I'd avoid "Red Bull Cola." After having become an addict of Red Bull after 3 FSAE years, I was expecting RBC to be something great. It tastes like maybe a 50/50 blend of Coke and Dr Pepper. Lame. If they took the flavor of Red Bull energy drink and just put that into a normal drink, that would sell great.