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On Sept 10, 2016, Minghao and 4 U of T Blue Sky members travelled from Toronto to Midnight Sun's bay in order to use our dynamometer to measure efficiency curves for their motors. A lot of knowledge was shared during the trip, although in the end U of T's dynamometer tests could not be completed due to suspected damage to our dyno's torque sensor. The notes below are a summary of key insights from Minghao's conversations with Frank Gu (PM) and Sean Doughty (Chief Engineer) during the return trip to Toronto.
Building a car in 2 months
According to U of T's PM, Frank Gu, U of T's design and manufacturing process is designed to only take one school year to finish. At the time of the trip, U of T had just returned from ASC with the car inherited from the previous team. U of T's plan is to complete a total design for their next vehicle by November and begin machining and aerobody manufacturing before winter break.
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From 2007 to 2011, U of T's team spent 4 years building their Azure challenger car. The team that designed the car ran into design issues and consequently ended up passing the task of completing the car to a small group of new members and alumni. These members, led by Paul Park (recently ASC 16 race official), put a significant amount of work into completing the vehicle and took it to WSC 11. In Darwin, Australia, where they tried to build unsuccessfully to fix/finish most parts of the car in Australia unsuccessfully and were forced to trailer most of the race, placing 24th overall. According to Frank, team morale after returning from the race was worse than after the death of their driver in a solar car highway accident many years prior.
The build team that completed Azure were driven by the failures of this vehicle and their desire to design a vehicle of their own. This team then designed and manufactured the B-7, which competed in WSC 13 and finished 8th overall, and 2nd out of North American teams in the challenger class. Azure is often described as the embodiment of "how shitty an engineering design can be" and is used to remind members to adhere to good design principles.
Azure and MSXI demonstrate the importance of having a sustainable team cycle that balances the development of new vehicle and current members with the bring up and integration of new members, all while keeping a healthy budget. Interestingly, at the time of this writing (Sept 11, 2016) U of T is in an extremely similar financial position as our team.