[email protected]Writers and Editors: Marjo Mallari Ross Fraser, Manuel Mangrobang, Dustin Decker, Robby Sampson, Moy Barajas facebook.com/SpartanRacingSJSU @Spartan_Racing arly this month Spartan Racing made our way in to the Silicon Valley International Auto Show. We set up a booth in our continuous attempt to meet new people and make connections but of course we made time to check out the newest vehicles available for 2012. I was most excited to see one of the new Fiat 500s but ended up disappointed. I was hoping that a little European flavor in an American company would help to improve Chrysler’s products, but it seems that they only managed to make the Fiat feel small and cheap. I got an alternate opinion from a young man named Troy who was looking at the same car as me. Troy thought the car was super cool and wants one when he gets old enough to drive. There were few cars that seemed original or innovative at the show but one that comes to mind is the Scion IQ. It seems perfect that the compact vehicle manufacturer would eventually build a micro car to compete with the likes of the Smart Car. The worst feature a manufacturer was touting this year was the new Dodge Challenger’s driver side fuel filler door, and the best was Mercedes’ trunk bag. The Mercedes S-Line can come equipped with a drawer mounted within the trunk that you can pull out and transform in to a bag to keep items from rolling around the trunk; an interesting little feature. It was great to get my hands on this year’s newest vehicles and see what today’s automotive engineers can do and I am now more confident than ever that the next generation of engineers that Spartan Racing is molding will be more impressive. E Ross Fraser
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ELECTRIC his winter break, Electric has not been able to move forward with manufacturing.
Frame design has been finalized with electrical components in mind, but the
frame jig and frame manufacturing has crawled to a standstill. Yet again, this team is behind.
On the bright side, the Electrical Sub team has been able to move forward. We have
finally decided on what components to use. The car will be using the same electric
powertrain as that of the road-going motorcycles from Zero Motorcycle, the same
batteries, motors, and motor controllers. All we need to go ahead with the purchase is
to arrange a price and find the funds.
We have discussed making the Formula Electric car a two year project, yet even with
the amount of delays the team still wants to make the car as a one year project.
Changing to a two year schedule would surely cause a plummet in team moral. For now
we are committed to working hard to achieve our goal but will reevaluate if it becomes
necessary.
u p d a t e Manuel Mangrobang
T
BAJA u p d a t e he Baja team has been working outside of the shop notching tubing and beginning to weld our frame together. We built a set-up that will
allow for the frame to be completed outside of our shop since space has become limited. By the beginning of February we plan on finalizing our gearbox design but keeping to our timeline is proving harder than
expected. There are some near future purchases, such as axles, tires and rims, safety gear, shocks, and brakes that we need to deal with. This year we plan on upgrading our shocks, if funding will allow, to adjustable float shocks so we can better tune the suspension. The axles will be out of a Yamaha ATV and should fit up nicely to our differential. With the start of classes, shop problems and most of our team working to pay for school, finding a time and place to work on the vehicle is becoming our biggest obstacle. In an effort remedy the problem we have set aside weekends throughout the semester dedicated to working on the vehicle so that we can get back on schedule.
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