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My last two years at OSU we ran a Motec M400, prior to that we had a Pefromance Electronics ECU, prior to that we attempted to use a Wolf ECU, and before that we were on an older PE ECU. None of that would have been possible to develop (and even still we would have loved months more of tuning time) without the engine dyno we had set aside for our team to use at least one quarter every year. I think I would echo ZXRider's statements and look to go PC on factory ECU if you major goal is to compete in dynamic events. If you are looking to improve your placing in the competition (which seems to be every teams goal) then you'll need those event's points. My only counterpoint would be this, no where again are you likely to "learn tuning" so effectively has being forced to get your FSAE project running. Maybe a standalone isn't the safest bet, but it will give your team valuable experience you otherwise wouldn't get. I think the best thing you can do is sit down with your team and discuss the realistic pros/cons of each approach and decide which path your team is most comfortable heading down. Its a long haul either way, and you need the masses to be unboard to support and create progress. Our team was in a different but similar situation as I took the reigns as team captain. We hadn't built a monocoque chassis in 5 years and the vast majority of the experienced composites team members were nearing graduation or alumni were moving out of the area for work. We decided that even though a monocoque wasn't necessary, it was only going to get more difficult for the team to try and return to it in the future if we didn't build one. What was supposed to be an intense 1 year build time frame ended up becoming 2 years, the car ended up weighing more than our steel frame car, team members dropped classes, I skipped midterms and finals adding nearly another year to my education, and the car finished no better than the previous entry. BUT the next year they built another chassis using half of our molds and half of a re-design, shaved nearly 80lbs and performed quite well in multiple competitions. Long story short, we took a hit with one years build to pave a better path for future builds. Thankfully, enough guys hung around and had great attitudes that the knowledge was transferred - had they not, it would have been for nothing.
Jared
1994 Twin Turbo |
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