FSAE Detroit - June 4, 2007

Jayhawk Motorsports reached Design Finals for the first time in KU history at FSAE Nationals held in Detroit at the Ford Michigan Proving Grounds. This put the team in 4th place for engineering of the vehicle. Further, Jayhawk Motorsports continued its strong history of reliability as the only FSAE team to successfully finish ALL events for the past 7 years!

Thank you for all the support that we have had this season and congratulations to all the other teams for their accomplishments. The following are our placements from FSAE Detroit.

Cost - 91st
Presentation - 27th
Acceleration - 17th
Skidpad - 17th
Autocross - 40th
Endurance-Economy - 10th
Design - 4th
Overall - 10th

FSAE West - June 21, 2007

The JMS07 team finished FSAE West with a 2nd place finish, which is our highest FSAE finish ever, and our second top-ten finish this season! The first place trophy went to Texas A&M, by only a very close 3.7 points.

Our partners in crime (OU) were heading for an overall win and were getting the fastest endurance times, but their car failed in endurance which put them out of the top competition. They did, however, win Design Finals...so congratulations to our fellow Pirates. To recap our finishes:

Overall - 2nd place
Presentation - 5th place
Acceleration - 10th place
Skidpad - 14th place
Design - 5th place
Cost - 28th place
Autocross - 9th place
Endurance/Economy - 2nd place! (with Toledo in 1st)

First Design Review - September 15, 2007

Welcome to Intense Survival Training, part I. Pleased to report all team members survived, most with preliminary designs intact. The first design review kicked off at 8 am, continuing to 4 pm, and was made available to alumni via a live webcast. Thoughtful feedback and solid suggestions were shared with every member on all elements of design, all of which will now be researched more thoroughly, and answers reached before the second design review on Oct. 20th. Stay tuned.





Car Testing - September 14, 2007

JMS08 has just concluded three weeks of preliminary vehicle testing. The team hit the ground running, and divided into sub-teams, taking out both the '06 and '07 cars twice a week. Tests ran include recording slip angles through turns, changing suspension parameters to see affects of handling, and adding weight at various locations in the vehicle, recording data. From the information gathered, we hope to have sound data to base future design decisions upon and proceed with further, more specific tests. A test team consisting of 5-6 devoted, knowledgeable members will now take over the bulk of testing throughout the year, producing data for the benefit of the whole team.