Anteater Racing Returns to Campus with Safety in Mind, Registers for 2021 Knowledge Events

After seven months, the doors are open for Anteater Racing at the UCI Vehicle Performance Engineering Lab. (“Vandal” shown behind the doors.)

We are back! Anteater Racing, upon receiving permission from the Henry Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine, resumed on-campus work on its SAE Collegiate Design Series competition vehicles with COVID-19 safety precautions. All three projects, Anteater Formula, Baja and Electric Racing, are currently manufacturing their vehicles at the Vehicle Performance Engineering Lab in anticipation for the 2021 Formula SAE and Baja SAE competitions. In addition, all three projects have successfully registered for their vehicle class’ Knowledge Events.

“Anteater Formula Racing is super excited to hear the good news that the team was granted access to the UCI School of Engineering Senior Design Project workspaces,” said Daniel Martinez, AFR Assistant Project Manager, Project Logistics. “Thank you to the Henry Samueli School of Engineering administrative staff and Professors Georgiou and McCarthy for helping us in this endeavor!”

Precautions include mandatory face coverings, frequent lab cleanings with disinfectants, reduced workspace personnel capacity, an online workspace booking procedure, and an online symptom check-in prior to arrival at facilities. Anteater Racing’s Project Members are only using spaces for essential manufacturing tasks, and they are continuing to hold meetings and perform all non-manufacturing tasks remotely. Members are also informed that they may opt out of on-campus tasks at any time.

Each project will spend Fall Quarter, October to mid-December, manufacturing their vehicles for the 2021 competitions. Anteater Electric Racing and Anteater Baja Racing both will construct new vehicles with inspiration and improvements from the 2019-20 season, titled “Ampeater II” and “Vandal II,” respectively. Anteater Formula Racing will finish “Jinx” as a two-year car with design upgrades developed during the COVID-19 manufacturing freeze.

With the pandemic, the SAE Collegiate Design Series announced changes to the event registration process for 2021. First, all teams in Formula SAE and Baja SAE register first for their Knowledge Events, which include the Design Event, Cost Event and Business Event/Sales Presentation, all of which will be held online. Once teams secure a spot, they will have the option to register again for the Validation Events, which include all of the trademark Dynamic events: Acceleration, Skidpad, Autocross, Endurance and Efficiency for Formula SAE and Acceleration, Hill Climb, Land Maneuverability, Suspension, and Endurance for Baja SAE. All three projects have successfully registered for their Knowledge Events, and all intend to register for Validation Events in November.

#151 – Anteater Baja Racing
#231 – Anteater Electric Racing
#034 – Anteater Formula Racing

Words & Photo by Noah Stein

Introducing Tristan Cortez, the 2020-21 Chief Engineer of Anteater Formula Racing

Introducing Tristan Cortez, the 2020-21 Chief Engineer of Anteater Formula Racing

Anteater Formula Racing, the UC Irvine Formula SAE Internal Combustion Team, constantly evolves. Experienced students graduate, with new members joining to steer it towards its goals. New cars are designed, built, tested and raced using new technology while navigating an ever-revised FSAE rulebook. Even the competition has changed locations. However, since the Fall of 2016, there have been two constants within AFR. First, the passion for racecar engineering, and second, Tristan Cortez. 

As by far the most experienced member in AFR this year, Tristan takes on the role of Chief Engineer as a fifth-year mechanical engineering major. He started as a Powertrain engineer in his freshman year, and was promoted to Engine Development Lead Engineer for the 2019-2020 season before taking on the top engineering position.

 

What hooked you on Formula SAE?

“I’ve been enamored with the world of motorsport since I was 5 and my eye has always been on Formula 1. Towards the end of high school, I was researching how to get into motorsport as a career and what race teams are looking for. I kept reading “Formula SAE” over and over and I hadn’t heard of it before, so I looked into it and I was completely blown away by the fact that universities all over the world allow student teams to design, build, and test their own open wheel style race car, replicating F1! I got involved with it when I started at UCI and never looked back.”

 

A famous recording artist once sung, “Started from the bottom/ Now we’re here.” What has it been like to spend so much time on a single project, professionally as an engineering student and personally? 

“Looking back, it is quite crazy to think that I started on the team doing whatever task I could get my hands on – cleaning the engine, sweeping the shop floor, polishing the chassis, looking for parts – and now I’m the leader of the whole team. Time really does fly! It’s been incredibly satisfying to go through that progression because I know what it’s like to be a new member of the team that is just getting started, what it’s like to be a sub-team lead, and now learning what it is like to be the chief engineer. With this, I can help my teammates succeed in their roles because I’ve been in their shoes. Spending so much time on a single project has allowed me to see how the team and cars have evolved over the years and what we need to improve on to take the team to the next level. 

Professionally, I have learned that every engineering detail is absolutely critical. Something that may seem trivial and is overlooked could very well be the thing that prevents the design from working or causes it to fail. Whether you are designing, manufacturing, or testing, you need to make sure you are taking everything that you can into consideration, as doing that could be the difference between a competitive and reliable car and one that is not. 

Personally, it has been very humbling. I’ve had the opportunity to work with so many talented and knowledgeable people from all walks of life and create memories and friendships that will last far beyond my time at UCI. It has also reinforced my passion for racing and motorsports and I know now more than ever that I want to be a racecar engineer. Every day in AFR is a privilege and doesn’t feel like work because I truly enjoy it. It has also taught me to be resilient as there have been many times when things don’t seem to go the team’s way, but that is when you have to push forward and not give up. There are going to be times when it seems your efforts are futile, but they’ll pass. When you see that car zipping around the track and feel the vibration in your bones and chest as it passes by you, it is all worth it.” 

(L to R) Alex Luna (2019 Chief Engineer), Matt McMurry (2019 Team Manager), and Cortez carry safety equipment at Formula SAE Lincoln 2019. By Noah Stein.

Within the day-to-day operations of the project, how much does experience play a role?

“I would say that experience plays about 50-60% of a role because every day is spent developing both the car and team to take on the challenges of the FSAE competition and improve on the mistakes from the previous year. Someone who has gone through the entire process of building the car and competing with it has to be there to help guide the rest of the team through that process. That’s even more important this year because only 2 people on the team have traveled to an FSAE competition (2020 was online-only and we lost experience to members graduating). In manufacturing, experience probably plays about 70-80% of a role because of how difficult it is to manufacture components from scratch. Someone making a part for the first time won’t know all of the proper procedures or be familiar with the intricacies and problems that can arise.”

 

Racing is always a roller-coaster. What’s a high moment that you cherish and a low moment that you wish you could redo?

“A great moment I will always cherish would be the Acceleration event at FSAE Lincoln 2018! The Acceleration event times how fast the car can travel 75 meters (246 feet) from a dead stop. I remember watching with my teammates and Professor McCarthy. On our second run, we posted a 2nd-place time at that moment – 4th after every car ran – which was the highest we had ever placed in any event in Anteater Racing’s history! All of us felt so proud and overjoyed. It was an amazing feeling and those moments are really what the project is all about.

Formula SAE Lincoln 2018 Team Photo with “Phantom.”

A low moment would have to be FSAE Lincoln 2019 when our car’s engine troubles caused us to miss Skidpad and Acceleration, so those points went down the drain. It ended up being an O2 sensor failure, meaning the engine was not receiving the right amount of fuel and not running properly. Being on the Engine Development sub-team that year made it tougher to take because, during testing, we had noticed that the same engine that got us 4th in Acceleration the year before lost about 20 horsepower for no apparent reason. We had been getting a reading from the sensor, so we tried other solutions, but the reading was wrong because it was on its last leg. It only became obvious when it fully gave out the night before Endurance. If we had known to change that sensor before we left for Lincoln, our whole competition would have been different because our car was quick.”

 

When you aren’t running the team and taking classes, what do you enjoy doing? I know racing esports is a huge one.

“The funny thing is, even when I’m not running the team or studying, I’m still thinking about racing! I enjoy watching all kinds of racing whether it be F1, F2, IndyCar, or sportscar racing. I follow F1 religiously and wake up at 6 am most weekends to watch the races and all the post race analysis and driver interviews. I spend hours watching tech videos on YouTube to see how every team develops their car and why they chose to. I follow IMSA and GT World Challenge very closely as well to watch two outstanding UCI alumni, Matt McMurry and Samantha Tan, race their hearts out. Matt, as fans of the project will know, was our Chief Engineer last year. It blows my mind that I know two professional racing drivers and am able to call both of them my personal friends. I’ll always follow their careers with great interest.

I do a lot of sim racing on my off time and am an Esports driver for Virtual Life Xperience Esports (IG: @vlx_esports). I spend most of my time racing on Gran Turismo Sport competing in their FIA-certified championships. I participate mostly in the FIA Manufacturer Series, where I represent Ferrari and race against the top drivers in North America. Since I’m top 16 in the region, I’ve been racing in the Top 16 Superstars races that are broadcasted on YouTube with live commentary. Many of my competitors have real racing experience, so to be competitive with zero actual racing experience is really satisfying and very cool. It’s amazing and allows me to live out, even if only for a small moment, my dream of being a racing driver that I’ve had since I was a child.”

Cortez’s Ferrari  458 GT3 in the FIA Manufacturer Series on GT Sport.

Looking forward, no doubt this will be one of the most challenging years in the project’s history with the impacts of COVID-19. What’s your outlook for the team if AFR is allowed to continue manufacturing Jinx, and what if AFR isn’t? 

“If we can’t restart manufacturing Jinx, it would be a huge disappointment for everyone on the team, but we understand that the general welfare and safety of ourselves, our families, and communities is more important. If that is the case, we will focus on the digital, remote side. We’ll refine our designs even further and do as much computer analysis as possible to extract as much performance as possible for the future.

If we’re allowed to continue manufacturing, we aim to prepare as much as possible because we will be under safety protocols that decide who can work in the lab and when. Everything has to be planned ahead of time, from the upgrade designs since Spring quarter to how we will manufacture what we need, to how we will coordinate with our Electric and Baja colleagues. Right now, we’re working on a detailed manufacturing plan of every component. It is a huge undertaking and definitely something, even with all my years of experience, that I’ve never done before. No matter what happens, this work will make the program as a whole more successful in the future.”

 

Written and edited by Noah Stein.

Anteater Racing Goes Virtual For This Year’s SAE CDS Competitions

In March, with 3 months to go before Formula SAE California and 1 month before Baja SAE Arizona, the organizers of the SAE Collegiate Design Series competitions called off the in-person “dynamic” events due to the dangers presented by COVID-19.

However, the presentation-based “static” events are set to take place beginning this week via video conferencing, and Anteater Racing’s engineers are preparing to give these modified competitions their best while also focusing on redesigning their vehicles.

“We have been practicing since the beginning of this quarter for the design presentation and since last quarter for the sales presentation,” says Anteater Baja Racing Chief Engineer Joseph Castro. 

The design presentation involves the teams’ lead engineers, who each present their areas of focus throughout the year to volunteer judges from the engineering industry. Normally, each team’s 2020 vehicle would join them in this event as part of the presentation.

“Anteater Electric Racing, like the other two teams, has split into two groups, a competition team and a design team,” adds AER Project Manager Janet Sepulveda. “We’re preparing for the Business and Sales Presentations by giving weekly presentations to our advisors and fellow team members. Their feedback helps us improve our presentations towards what the judges are looking for.”

“The Business and Sales presentations involve responses to business-related scenarios, which encourage engineers to think critically about the management aspects of the engineering industry,” Anteater Formula Racing Team Manager Noah Stein explains. “For FSAE‘s Presentation this year, we have to present an action plan that responds to a corporate-level decision to cut 90% of our Research and Development budget. And for the Cost event, we are proposing a cost reduction of our fuel system.”

“Baja’s Sales Presentation this year requires us to create a manufacturing company seeking investors for a production rate of 4,000 vehicles a year,” Castro adds.

Meanwhile, all 3 teams have continued their development in anticipation of the full competitions’ return in 2021. Electric and Baja are developing entirely new cars, while Formula is developing upgrades as part of a two-year cycle.

Baja’s major changes for the recently-announced Vandal Mk II come in response to new regulations allowing 4-wheel drive.

Castro: “Our biggest redesign comes from the new 4×4 feature, which has posed interesting new design changes in system integration and vehicle packaging. This has added new components and thus more weight. However, every subsystem (brakes, chassis, powertrain and suspension & steering) has been updated to accommodate the added powertrain system while also improving our reliability and maneuverability.”

Electric’s Ampeater Mk II will make the team much more competitive with performance upgrades:

Sepulveda: “We are focusing heavily on a full Aerodynamic package, the first ever for the Electric team, on integrating a data acquisition system that records speed, acceleration, temperature and GPS data, and modifying our steering to use full Ackermann steering.

Formula’s Jinx will also see significant improvements on its original design:

Stein: “While we’re unable to manufacture due to the shutdown, everyone is fully-focused on 10 new component designs that we can manufacture as soon as possible, such as a new intake plenum, exhaust rerouting, converting to a semi-monocoque chassis, paddle shifting, and electronic throttle control.”

Both the Virtual competitions and the push towards new designs mean that Spring Quarter, even in these circumstances, is still an opportunity for innovation for Anteater Racing.

 

February Update from Anteater Formula Racing

Anteater Formula Racing’s engineers have been hard at work getting our car, Jinx, built and running. Halfway into UCI’s Winter Quarter, we have some awesome updates to share from four of our sub-teams:

Aerodynamics: We’re manufacturing our airfoils for the front and rear wings. This involves cutting large foam molds via computer numerical control (CNC) which precisely cuts the foam into the perfect shape. Then, we sand and paint the molds with special paint so that, when we form the wing out of carbon fiber, it will come off the mold easily and have a nice, smooth surface finish. We’re also using 3D printing to make our smaller components. To do this, we convert our SolidWorks model to a 3D print-compatible form and 3D-print it overnight. Soon, we’ll end up with a strong, lightweight wing that will give us an edge at FSAE California.

Brakes: All brake components have been purchased and our rotors are being machined to our specifications. We’ll assemble and test the entire brake system in the upcoming week!

Chassis: Over winter break, we tack-welded the chassis. Tack welds are small welds that keep the tubes in place so that they can be fully welded without the risk of the tubes moving. This process included making sure the tubes were “jigged up” in the right position. We used a machined floor jig set up over a top-down printout of the chassis and squares to ensure each tube was in the correct spot before being tacked. Additionally, the tubes must be held in place while the welds cool to prevent warping, or natural “pulling” and moving of the tubes. In January, we fully welded the front and middle sections of the chassis. Following the completion of the oil pan, the engine can be mocked up and lowered into the chassis, where the engine mounts will be attached to the engine and welded to the chassis. The remaining rear section can then be welded and the chassis will be complete! See our chassis on its jig below:

Engine Development: We’re currently manufacturing all of the components needed to get Jinx’s engine running! We finished manufacturing our entire exhaust system and are currently mounting it to the chassis. We’re also manufacturing a custom oil pickup and oil pan in order to mount the engine at a height that will give the car a low center of gravity to make the vehicle nimble. Once that’s completed, we’ll work with Chassis to mount the engine itself as they mentioned in their update. Further, the radiator shroud that houses the fan and encompasses the radiator has been manufactured and is being mounted to the radiator. We’re hard at work bringing our designs into the real world so Jinx can be the most competitive FSAE car AFR has ever produced!

Stay tuned for our next update featuring our Driveline, Electronics, Human Interface and Suspension sub-teams!

Selecting a Final Drive Ratio for AFR’s Jinx (and Why It’s Critical to Get Right)

by Matt McMurry

The Driveline Sub-system handles power delivery from the engine to the rear wheels and must design components that deliver power as quickly as possible. Acceleration performance is such a critical part of our competition that each decision can mean gaining or losing several places in the overall result.

There are many factors that influence a car’s maximum acceleration, but one of the main factors is the series of gear ratios in the transmission between the engine and the rear wheels. The transmission multiplies the engine output torque by the overall gear ratio and divides the engine rotational speed by the same amount. Increasing the overall gear ratio (by changing the primary, gear, or final drive ratios) will increase the amount of torque at the rear wheels, which will generally increase the acceleration of the car. For our team, it is too resource-intensive to change the primary or gear ratios, so we will change the final drive ratio (FDR) to meet our torque needs.

If a higher FDR will increase acceleration, why not just pick the highest ratio that will fit in the car? There are two reasons:

  1. The tires only have enough grip to transmit a certain amount of torque. If you exceed that torque value, you will begin to spin the tires, which prevents acceleration and makes the car difficult to drive.
  2. A higher FDR means the driver will have to shift gears more often. Shifting gears takes a finite amount of time (usually between 0.1 and 0.5 seconds), and the car does not accelerate during this period. This sounds like an insignificant amount of time, but 0.5 seconds of shifting is 12% of the entire Acceleration Event at competition. 

Therefore a compromise must be made between shifting time, drivability, and final drive ratio in order to maximize acceleration.

 

To find the best compromise for our car we developed a discrete-time simulation of the car accelerating. The simulation takes into account things like drag and weight transfer and uses a tire model based on empirical data from the FSAE Tire Test Consortium as well as engine data from dynamometer testing. The shift time and FDR were varied and the Acceleration Event time was recorded for each combination. The results of the parameter sweep can be seen below:

A clear minimum acceleration time for a particular shift time can be seen in Figure 2. This minimum is increasingly obvious for longer shift times. The results are comparable to those found in similar research by Ping (1).  

Previous testing has shown our average upshift time to be 0.25 seconds. For this shift time, the optimum FDR is 4.2. This will be the starting point for the car’s FDR. We plan to verify our simulations and fine tune the FDR through on-track testing. 

This is the kind of advanced analysis that Anteater Formula Racing engineers do every day and is why UCI’s Formula SAE program is so important to our engineering education. We get to solve real engineering problems and follow them through the entire engineering process from analysis and design through to manufacturing and testing. 

Matt McMurry is a Senior aerospace engineer and the Chief Engineer for Anteater Formula Racing. He is also the Lead Engineer for the Driveline sub-team, which includes Ryan Gagarin, Joseph Zhang and Patrick Hall.