Motorsport Technology Final Year Project Ideas

Hi guys and girls.

Started my final year of uni on Monday (Motorsport Technology) and we have been given until Weds 5th (one week today) to come up with a minimum of two project briefs  to pitch to potential project supervisors in the hope we can get them to sign us up. Each supervisor specialises in a paticular area of expertise and has only 8 places to allocate to students. Obviously the better the idea the higher the likelyhood of you getting allocated with your chosen supervisor in a subject area you feel comfortable with.

I have a few ideas already but nothing detailed as I have never used the software I will be using and have no idea of its capabilites and limitations.

A) Design of a suspension system to replace rear leaf springs (mk1 caddy or mk1 escort). Caddy would be easiest as I have one and can get all specs and measurements but I reckon  the escort would look better on paper as it is a more conventional motorsport vehicle. The suspension design would then be simulated and analysed using adams multi-body software.

B) Design of a replacement sub-frame for sprint application (subaru). I have a work experience placement with a local team that deals with many subarus so again I will have access to get specs/measurements. My boss wants to develop a sub-frame so as this is a real life application and work project it will look very good to a potential employer when I graduate but my boss and I are reluctant to design a system that the uni has intellectual property rights to in case it turns out to be good. Probs not in my case but a girl can dream this would also be simulated and analysed using adams software.

C) Analysis of a performance engine (Subaru) on petrol, ethanol and mix using Ricardo Wave software. Any necessary changes to gain the best performance will be discussed. I already have a basic knowledge of Ethanol as a fuel and some modification ideas to gain the best performance however theres many an engine builder/designer in the motorsport world so might not be the easiest specialism to pick.

D) Something to do with transmission as an alternative to the engine idea as it's less common as a specialism but not really got much knowledge on gear ratios/final drives/diffs etc.

So far I am leaning towards the suspension ideas but if my vehicle dynamics tutor is fully booked then Im stuck so any suggestions/ideas/comments very welcome.
Thanks.
Samantha

This is a tricky one as motorsport is such a technologically advanced area, you are not likely to come up with something that someone else has not already done!

A few comments on your ideas:

A) I guess you'd be looking at fabricating an independent rear set up to retro fit to the car, though this is not exactly ground breaking and has been done many times - an example:
http://www.djm-motorsport.co.uk/mkii_escort_mcrae.html

B) Not really sure what a "sprint specific" subframe would offer, but you're right, if this is for a real application, the Uni would have the rights to the end product. This could be a good thing, especially if they get good publicity in the motorsport world, as it would be great for your CV etc and companies would notice you.

C) I think this could turn out to be a bit of a paper exercise, analysing outputs etc unless the major part of the project involved producing some sort of component or modification and proving its effectiveness?

D) Do you mean an alternative to the engine? Never happen in motorsport… Alternatives to the IC engine are mainly to improve efficiency and emmisions. Engines in a motorsport application are rarely tweaked to improve fuel economy!


I did a degree in product design so I know how hard it is to come up with good, solid ideas for stuff like this.
If I think of anything, I'll come back to your thread!

Just spoke to my vehicle dynamics tutor and he recomends that the multi-link design would be more feasible given the time-scale than the sub-frame idea.

A) wouldnt involve any fabrication, I would be designing my own suspension system from scratch and modelling it on cad/adams then simulating and analysing the results. The desired results naturally being an improvement in handling. Different castor, camber and toe set down could be compared. With an entirely custom rear suspension set up this would be necessary as the manufacturers recomended settings would be for and entirely diferent suspension type. (Different front suspension will also be run on the simulation but a third party existing system not one of my own design). Obviously if I was successful in designing one for my caddy then I could fabricate it in my own time. None of the projects need to be ground breaking they need to be complex enough to get a good grade but easy enough to complete amongst all the other assignments we are given this year.

B) By sprint specific I mean the subarus at work generally run on road and sprint events so would want to design the sub-frame to improve suspension dynamics for the sprint applications. Not really liking this idea as Im not very knowledgeable about sub-frames. Leaf springs YES. Multi-link BASICS

C) Yeah the idea would involve much analysis done by the computer then my recomendations, modifications I propose would then be modelled and analysed and comparisons made to see if my modifications where successful.

D) Transmission project rather than engine project. Not really liking this idea either as I am clueless about transmission


Goin to get some research done tonight see if that helps but think ideas A and C are the best