Hi guys, since I'm new here, probably my opinion/experiences in the first weeks can help designing the (introclass) rules.
First, why did I join the full entry and not the introclass? The reason is quite simple. I think for a beginner it is more interesting/attractive to think about a global car design than directly start working on optimizing some parts. I think (and I thought when I joined this competition) that designing a diffuser or wing directly costs a lot of time and a lot simulations with very small changes to the car. Actually you directly start working on details in that case. From a learning perspective, for a beginner it is probably (in my case) more interesting to see the difference between for example a high and low nose cone than optimizing my wing with some additional small flaps. I think this becomes interesting when you have more experience in aerodynamics. For example, I tried the front radiators in my car, because I think it has some benefits, but am interested why nobody is using them in real live. The best way to find out why is try it yourself
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The second topic is time. Indeed, as discussed above, this challenge is quite time consuming. Luckily I was not totally new in SolidWorks, so that helps me a lot. Anyway some beginner parts would be nice, but I will come back on this later. I think when there is a bit more time between the rule release and the first race this time is worth it, since the needed CAD time becomes a lot less when you have your basis car. At this moment my biggest problem is finding time for simulations since I have 1 computer/laptop which I used for more than only designing racing cars (unfortunately
). I don't know if it is difficult, but a great extension to MantiumFlow would be a possibility to pause the simulation. For example make it possible to run an hour in the morning, do something else and continue in the afternoon. Anyway, if you do not have a good computer, it becomes a problem to run a lot of simulations and with that very difficult to optimize details (like a good diffuser). I think a lot of amateurs will have this problem and prevent them from participating the competition. It might be a good idea to consider this by designing the new rules.
My idea for an introclass is the following:
Probably for next year it becomes a bit difficult, but I think for the intro class, it is a great idea to make a database with parts from the designs from previous years. Especially with F1 style cars we can split the design into specific parts like frontwing, engine cover, floor, etc. New teams then can use a lot of elements which in the basics works well. The goal then becomes to connect those parts to have a proper working car. An introclass team then can use for example a frontwing of team A and an engine cover from team B and designing the rearwing by himself. To prevent copying a car you can require that a team can only use an X number of parts from the same team. In this way new teams have a lot freedom in designing their own car but the needed time and skills are much less. Probably the only drawback is that teams have to submit their cars in parts and that all parts becomes open source. The last we can counter by only making available the parts from previous years.
