Intro to Racecar Engineering: 01 Getting Started

Robert "Smitty" Smith walks us through the basic principles of racecar design. This is the first of a series of videos developed for UCI's racecar engineering program. (Smitty and the Professor series)
mechanicaldesign101.com/smitty...

[@dave99887]

I can't get over how this professor is sharing this knowledge with us on KZbin. Thank you very much. What a treasure trove of knowledge.

[@thecrimsonfucker2334]

It's amazing how easily we can find info on just about anything now a days thanks to remarkable people like him, and the Universities sponsoring

[@brianb5779]

Amen brother

[@pdpiper]

Spot on.

[@michielvanstaden2698]

Seriously, this guy has described these concepts better in these past couple of minutes than most books do.

[@bleebleblahble8833]

Truly legendary stuff

[@filtrakioldhorborn]

you know an engineer is a good one when they're boomers and they've got the mustache. most of the younger engineers make everything so much more complex than it needs to be.

[@ruzzcraze1862]

Ok boomer

[@YouCantSawSawdust]

Soichiro Honda,founder of the Honda Motor Corporation, did not pass his studies to be an engineer, initially. His response to this was, "An engineering degree is worth no more than a movie ticket. At least the movie ticket guarantees you entry into the movie."

[@davidtlatelpa1788]

Great video! I look forward to watching the rest of the series.

[@ILmachiner]

Great video. Thank you for taking the time to share.

[@21shinbones]

Simply awesome - others need several semester to transmit this knowledge. So on point. Thank you Smitty!

[@NvTwist]

Thank you for sharing & providing your knowledge with the word freely. Rare these days.

[@firemanfred9471]

Wow.... and to think that I've been racing a space frame chassis for 3 years. I'm now going to doublecheck its construction against all these elements. Let's hope to improve times this way.👍🏽🇿🇦🇿🇦🇿🇦

[@ilham7345]

if it has triangulation in it, it's pretty much a space frame

[@booshkoosh7994]

This is by far the best Automotive Engineering Lecture I have ever had the privilege of seeing: thank you so much!!! Happy New Year😃

[@DMAX_DIY]

This is fantastic! Thanks for posting this series..

[@awl.]

Thank you professor, for the communicative and summarized way of explanation. greetings from Indonesian students

[@clivehdhomer8306]

Thankyou Sir...... fantastic descriptions A+++

[@michielvanstaden2698]

I'd spend my Saturdays with this guy

[@NotSure723]

Jiminy Cricket, there's a lot of good info in this video! Much appreciated.

[@Ray147]

Good stuff. Thanks very much.

[@wicket4969]

I got rejected from my university’s formula e team... that’s why I’m here

[@josefuentes4160]

Wicket what’s school bud

[@fokjohnpainkiller]

If it's formula e I'd WANT to be rejected. Fuck their gay batteries

[@leohughes6921]

Really? I guess I would be happy to be involved in literally any motorsport program i didn't have to spend my own money to do.

[@fokjohnpainkiller]

@@leohughes6921 Can you not wait 3 to 5 years until you're out of university? You can build your own stuff for peanuts. Hell, maybe you could even do that during your studies. It's too expensive for me so I'll wait to get a job first but fuck being involved with retards only to work on Formula E or Formula SAE which are glorified go-carts. I don't see why people have such low standards with this as if motorsports are only for the rich guys. It's expensive but absolutely doable.

[@bingoberra18]

@@fokjohnpainkiller I think youre being ignorant towards the design of a formula E car. The driveline is just a very small part of what makes a race car good. If youre focused on that its not consuming gasoline, youre missing the point engineering wise.

[@BenFreedmanRacing]

This is awesome!

[@dave99887]

Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge. Also for it being so accessible for all inquisitive minds on here. Cheers.

[@davecooper5951]

Excellent. With very few exceptions, I agree with all your design parameters. Driver ergonomics ARE important. I don't know what the track configurations are like (I'm UK based) , but , if top speeds exceed 50 mph I would look at Lift /Drag as well.

[@gregwarner3753]

A long time ago and far far away, I and a great team from the Univ of Connecticut built an entry I the 1973 Urban Vehicle Design Competition. The idea was to create a vehicle that worked in a city and was not a Fiat 500. To say we diid not know what we were doing at the start was an under statenent. We did well at the completion at the Holy Ground of the General Motors Proving Ground in Michigan. Among other things we had the most comfortable seats that were not from an existing car. The enbineer on the project is still a good frie d

[@MLFranklin]

Great teacher. I remember his KZbin MIG welding videos as well.

[@thecrimsonfucker2334]

Would you mind pointing me in the direction of those said videos? Very much appreciated in advance!

[@IvelLeCog]

I, like TheCrimson Fucker would like to see said videos, thanks

[@georgedreisch2662]

Can you provide a link, to the rule book, referenced, please. Excellent video for war gaming / beginning a build. Thanks for sharing, and looking forward to following this.

[@Swasti93]

Thank you so Much for this

[@simonmuncker8632]

Hi, thank you so much for the knowledge. Can you recommend some books about conceptual design?

[@lordflufffluff]

I am in the process of designing an RC car. I will use this information.

[@elemento1991]

Great info for guys looking to learn. I especially appreciate the comment about driver consideration at the end. I see some guys who are great fabricators build these awesome car setups and then the driver position looks absolutely horrible. I would argue that ergonomics may be more important than certain design elements which may make the car physically capable of going faster. If the driver doesn’t feel confident and have the ability to execute fine levels of control the lap time will probably suffer more.

[@bluegrasspointofview5191]

Do these principles apply the same with street cars? For example, for an S-10 build, of course I'm not putting 10" wheels on it, but should I rules of thumb for center of gravity, A-arm length, caster, etc?

[@achraftourougui6604]

Thanks a lot...

[@mohitjoc25]

Sir make more vedios especially on bike chasis...and robots chasis

[@russellzacharias3535]

The difficulty with all of this is you end up with a lot of racecars which look the same and that in turn, IMO, is part of the problem with falling interest. On the flip side is something like SCCA where cars can look considerably different but then you are working to a large degree with what the OEM decided was their design and all the compromises from handling characteristics involved adding in any rules regarding change. And even with SCCA, as an example, given racecars are going to, over time, begin to dominate which will lead to copying of those known to work well assuming one is trying to get to the podium. IF this is all just being done as an exercise for learning, great.

[@marrs1013]

This is how evolution works. This is why some animals, like sharks for example, haven't changed for 200 million years. There is an optimum setup for every task. You want to be succesful at a certain task, you have to get closer and closer to the optimum. Otherwise you will be taken over and left behind.

[@russellzacharias3535]

@@marrs1013 But it does not help the "spirit" of learning, adapting, improving. Why should someone bother if they know the winning formula? They can just go buy all the parts, assemble them and go participate. Skills are lost or never learned in the first place. So at some point that evolution will come down to who has the biggest wallet. NASCAR is a perfect example, interest declined when 3/4/5 car teams began to dominate. Real big money, as in sponsors, needs spectators and TV viewership.

[@marrs1013]

@@russellzacharias3535 Then they will find a different discipline. NASCAR is a done deal. Like sharks. They reached the optimum. NASCAR is still fascinating, just like sharks, as examples of optimum reached for certain tasks. That is why innovation never stops. The "spirit" never dies. It can't. We reach the optimum in something, then we move on to new things. The optimum becomes boring.

[@logeshkumarn.b1027]

Respect 99+

[@gejost]

cool videos. confused is professor abfrench canadian texan? the hands aare french.

[@iangeluz1271]

Hi guys, I cannot clearly see the diagram when he talks about the track dimension. Is it the same as the track width?

[@oqhr]

Please provide me a list of advanced books for cars. I want to learn more about the design, the material used for car, how to manufacture parts, how to build a car, etc

[@diegoloredobecerra7124]

should look for Carroll Smiths books, there's one free on pdf online, Tune to win. Later you could check out the Milliken's books

[@MayankShrivastava0]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/bILEpnZuibulrqM Check out the 19th lecture

[@deep_sounds]

"Race Car Vehicle Dynamics", by Milliken and Milliken

[@pdpiper]

Race car design by Derek Seward

[@oqhr]

Thank you guys all of you. I'm almost in the final process to open a small maintenance car shop

[@14energy]

GOLD

[@ivanfonseca7540]

Does anyone know the book that he mention?

[@burhanozece]

Thank you, I watch this videos to improve english and engineering, is there anyone to discuss technical things in english

[@davidbutcher1105]

15 degrees of camber!!! My dad was getting antsy at the 6.5 we put into my stock car. Fifteen. I need a paper bag to breath into...

[@ancientapparition1638]

haha caster not camber

[@davidbutcher1105]

@@ancientapparition1638 ooh man! I totally got that confused. 😬😬😬 😆😆😆

[@SoftiesTruck]

Man! Let's build my racetruck

[@kevintboy9538]

What is the name of the book

[@peasant7214]

HD please

[@davidwilliams9302]

Regarding the drivers and how little consideration goes to the driver... A rally friend of mine talked about building cars in the 70s. "We'd drill out the seat mounts to save weight, meanwhile we'd each drink three cases of beer each weekend."

[@kinglouiesshed8995]

I’m glad he’s sharing the info but it’s hard to stay focused he sounds so relaxed it’s sending me to sleep 😢

[@Simon-xi8tb]

I want him to say "Cool whip"

[@IvelLeCog]

I'm looking for some videos that talk about what makes a good rally car. I've noticed many of them have very little weight over either axle and I want to know what other principals lend to an agile and manageable car that travels at high speeds over corners and bumps

[@IvelLeCog]

Okay I'm 5 minutes in and this is exactly what I've been looking for.

[@davecooper5951]

Longish wheel travel is really a must. 5-10" would be a good target...

[@walangchahangyelingden8252]

Roll center height is a daisy.

[@chanakyasinha8046]

Next video:dynamics of 🚀.

[@Platesmasher]

I drove a Formula SAE car and the cockpit was so badly designed that it was almost undriveable. We had to sit bent at the hips at 90 degrees with no elbow room and a small steering wheel placed so low that it hit our knees when we turned it! To make things worse the turning circle wasn’t enough and the car couldn’t get around the hairpin. It was really embarrassing for the team. It’s very important for car/race car engineers to understand that that if the driver is uncomfortable, ergonomically compromised or in pain, then the car performance will suffer and all the effort will be wasted 🙂. Just a bit of advice from my experience racing.

[@raghul1208]

excellent. It helped me get the right setup in Asseto Corsa. thx

[@AchkataHDTV]

isnt caster whats returning your wheels to neutral position?

[@davecooper5951]

It's really caster, kingpin inclination (plus some tyre torque) working together

[@tensevo]

mechanical trail and scrub radius work to self-align. Castor and kpi control these, but also the offset in relation to the wheel centre.

[@markeinstein2207]

I wanted to go to to engineering University.. But I can't afford to go there..I'm willing to spend my time doing calculations for racecar rather than on bank accounting course😢

[@anthonywhite2827]

What book he is referring to here? 9:37

[@anthonywhite2827]

I found his resource video. Video #19 kzbin.info/www/bejne/bILEpnZuibulrqMsi=JE2deRUQlCIAAwYG

[@daudabdullah9475]

Hit like if you're here, after Pat Clark's recommendation !!!

[@dasjuggernaut1]

You can build a car without taking the driver into consideration, but you can not build a winning car without taking the driver into consideration

[@ukiyo8024]

uhh 10 inch..? my car came with 18s

[@nigelrafferty2545]

Honestly, I don't have enough time on this earth to listen to someone talk so slowly and take so many words to convey simple information

[@thecrimsonfucker2334]

You're attention span must be equivalent to that of a gnat ; In the nicest way possible, please reconsider your ignorant comment and further your knowledge.

[@DaleCarterDrives]

Good to know. I look forward to outrunning you because I listened to people like this gentleman.

[@rohanalias9053]

Use the 2x speed ....no one is wasting time to tailor stuff to your taste

[@nicolasmaurel6158]

A lot of rule of thumb, like always in motorsport. What he is saying about track whellbase relation is wrong. He is lot focused on camber contact patch, but do not deal with weight on the tire.

[@theohlinsguy4649]

Saying that a 2 motion ratio (2' shock travel for 1' wheel travel) is good is ridiculous. You evidently have no real experience with actual racing or damper basics.

[@DaleCarterDrives]

His instructions are specific to Formula SAE where 2" of wheel travel is required and pushrod suspensions are common. One theory is that increasing the shock travel permits more accurate tuning of damping and rebound due to greater volume of damping fluid displacement. Dude has pretty impressive resume, so ....

[@theohlinsguy4649]

@@DaleCarterDrives Hi Jessie Dog. Most cars have 2" of wheel travel. If he was actually saying that the shock should move 2" for every 1" of wheel travel then I don't know what shock you might use to do that in Formula SAE. There are plenty of people with impressive resumes that don't know what they are talking about. I am not going to debate something that I know is incorrect. It would be like trying to convince someone that the world isn't flat. Believe what you want.

[@zakshah3480]

So then what's a realistic motion ratio to consider

[@theohlinsguy4649]

@@zakshah3480 I would say .6 to . 9 would be good.