Written by Connor Harvey
We’ve started the new year with our first track day at Sydney Motorsport Park to further test our 2023 FSAE EV, Billie, and fine tune her motors and motor controllers.
After some well deserved time off, we’re now back in the swing of things getting all the data and information we can from Billie before constructing this year’s car. This time round, we are looking to get a better understanding of the new motor controllers purchased in 2023 and how to improve our tuning to achieve maximum performance.
The track day started with some quick adjustments to our chains which spin the wheels- specifically changing their tension to avoid any damage; as well as calibrating our steering for torque vectoring.
After a shakedown of the car, our first lot of testing was underway. Our Low and High Voltage teams set in place some tweaks to the power recieved by each motor, aiming at further tuning the car for maximum performance.
The first full power acceleration test of the day did not go as planned, with the steering bumpstops coming loose. A quick fix by the team and Billie was back out on the skidpad for more testing.
Owen, our Low Voltage manager, and Zak, our High Voltage manager- were at the helm of this testing day. After reviewing the data pulled from the car, it was found that one of our motors was producing more power than the other causing unwanted wheel spin. With some mouse clicks and a few taps on the keyboard, we sent out the car to test the new changes.
All looked good until we noticed a slight issue with the chain on the car. Billie was back in the pits for some tender love and care by our powertrain team who tried their best to get things back to normal. Unfortunately, these issues were not solveable at the track so the team called it early and began packing up.
Nonetheless, we learned a lot from our first track day of 2024- with a plethora of new data and ideas tucked away, ready for the weekly tech meeting. Each track day,regardless of the outcome, is something we learn and grow from. This one has equipped our members with even more experience and problem solving practice, as well as some data for further analysis.
We would like to thank Sydney Motorsport Park, and the Australian Racing Drivers Club, for their continued support of UOW Motorsport!
