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Formula SAE technical diary.. Or at least, there was once one here.

For those of you who do not know, F-SAE is an engineering competition where teams of university Engineering students must design, build, test and race Formula-style open-wheel racing cars, from scratch. Sponsorship must be gathered by the students themselves, and lecturers can only offer minimal advice at best.

Students must teach themselves above and beyond what was required to merely pass their exams, and become experienced users with the laws of thermodynamics, aerodynamics, finite element analysis and the like. At least, that's what the website says. Many car manufacturers and other engineering firms hold F-SAE in high regard and often will hire F-SAE-experienced students simply because they've had 'real world' experience in management, deadlines, arguments, fights, and piss-ups.

As for why I'm in it, well... You might already know how much I like cars, aircraft and the like, so I'll spare you the details. Aside from the chance to make something very worthwhile and (in my opinion) terribly cool, SAE is payback for how much the university has dicked my year around. Or at least, that's what I'd like to believe. Four years of ever-increasing timetable problems and other stupidity, compensated for by being in the first F-SAE team of the University of Newcastle.

Well, it's a nice thought.

As mentioned above, the tech diary is no longer here. Probably because friends pestered me into finally getting a livejournal account, which you can read here if you're interested.