UNSW@ADFA Car #51 ACME Racing WS10

For 2010 ACME Racing is proud to present WS10, the sixth car from the University of New South Wales at the
Australian Defence Force Academy. WS10 is an open wheel, rear wheel drive autocross race car with a semistressed engine, space-frame chassis, naturally aspirated, inline four cylinder engine and beam axle suspension on
ten inch wheels.
In designing a vehicle for the weekend autocross racer, ACME Racing reviewed the criteria that autocross
competitors use to select a suitable race car. Above all, superior dynamic competiveness is
required, closely followed by affordable cost (both purchase and running), reliability and maintainability.
The vehicle must require minimal maintenance between events with handling balance adjustments being easily
achievable by a single mechanic. These criteria were then translated into conceptual level design criteria. WS10 has
been designed using a top down, systems engineering philosophy striving for superior dynamic performance (lowest
aggregate time for all dynamic test events) in a vehicle with reliability (minimal maintenance between events),
simplicity (low purchase and running costs and ease of adjustment), maintainability (ease of maintenance and
set up changes), manufacturability (low purchase cost) and safety. Safety was addressed during the design
process by utilizing a system of design review and structural load cases for all safety critical items including
harness attachments, brake system and suspension. Specific emphasis was applied to ensure all driver controls were
designed for robustness by stressing components to the maximum driver force rather than the operating load. A key
constraint which influenced the design process was time available for machining and fabrication, requiring
manufacturing to be spread between construction methods and off the shelf components where practical.
The WS10 vehicle concept was developed by conducting an acceleration sensitivity analysis using a simple
constant acceleration equation lapsim seeking minimum lap time. The analysis was conducted
using a past FSAE-A endurance/autocross circuit which incorporated the majority of track features
described in the FSAE rules. The analysis focused on the endurance event over the skid pan or the acceleration test
as the dynamic assessment criteria (competition points structure) is biased towards this event. The lapsim result
suggested that the vehicle should be conceptually biased towards lateral acceleration over longitudinal acceleration
as a 0.1G change in lateral acceleration yielded a 1.2 second reduction in lap time, versus 0.09 second change in
braking and 0.4 second change in acceleration. Whilst being a very simple lapsim it was effective in quantifying the
conceptual trade-offs. To bias the design towards lateral acceleration a 50:50 weight distribution was chosen with
four equal sized tyres in an attempt to provide similar dynamic vertical loads on outside front and rear tyres. The
weight distribution was chosen knowing that both braking and acceleration would be compromised. By acknowledging
this conceptual compromise and benchmarking against past FSAE competition results a steady state lateral
acceleration capability target of 1.5G was chosen with corresponding 1.5G braking and 0.8G acceleration.
The lateral G capability requirement drove the majority of conceptual level specifications including a track width
to centre of gravity height ratio of 0.24 and a suspension system that would provide constant
wheel attitude control (minus compliance) with respect to vehicle roll angle and moments about the front
and rear wheel steer axes. Whilst there was no simulation conducted on the vehicles transient capabilities,
the ratio of turns to straights for typical FSAE circuits is significantly higher than typical road racing circuits, prompting
consideration of vehicle specifications that influence transient capabilities. WS10 was conceptually designed to have
high transient capabilities by striving for a low yaw polar moment of inertia, low wheel base to track width ratio and
low roll angle. The power train development was focused towards smooth power delivery over ultimate power as
smooth, predictable control of tractive effort was required to balance the slip angle drag of the front wheels during mid
cornering and to blend lateral acceleration into linear acceleration during corner exit.
Suspension. The suspension design requirements were control of wheel attitude with respect to the ground,
low cost, ease of manufacture (both suspension and chassis) and adjustable steady state and transient handling
balance. A review of suspension concepts led to the selection of beam axles as providing the best wheel
attitude control in all vehicle acceleration modes (on smooth surfaces). Beam axles also offered the benefits of a
low number of parts and a low number of chassis pick up points. These benefits were traded off against high
unsprung mass and single wheel bumps affecting both sides of the vehicle through gyroscopic procession and
camber change. To offset the relatively high unsprung mass and reduce the impacts of gyroscopic precession during
single wheel bump, 10 inch wheels were specified. The wheel choice made upright packaging design challenging,
particularly using brakes on the inboard side of the upright to obtain zero steering axis inclination while maintaining
a small scrub radius of 17mm (for reduced moment about the front and rear steering axes). The uprights were
designed in an attempt to reduce both camber and toe compliance by separating the pickups as far as possible to
counteract the steering axis moments generated by contact patch forces and moments. The separation of upright
pickups also aided the brake system design requirements of thermal capacity and system stiffness by allowing the
brake disc diameter to be maximized within the spatial constraints. The front and rear uprights share the same
basic architecture with differences for steering and toe links; the front upright design loads drove the component
sizing down to the limits of mach inability at 2mm thickness for internal webs.

The uprights were chosen to be machined for dimensional accuracy and to spread manufacture between
fabrication and machining. To reduce machine time the uprights were designed for prismatic machining requiring only
two set ups. A four stud wheel centre hub interface was chosen over a centre lock type to allow use of purchased
wheel nuts and reduce machining requirements. The wheels have a very large offset of -46mm to reduce scrub radius
and therefore required the steering linkage design to incorporate an idler bell crank for packaging purposes and to
ensure that the desired steering kinematics could be obtained. The steering kinematics (dynamic toe) can be altered
by using substitute steering arms.
The front and rear beam axles require only four and six chassis pick up points respectively as opposed
to 12 for double A-arm suspension with push or pull rods (neglecting steering rack/toe link mountings for both). The
direct acting dampers restrict design freedom on motion ratio but reduce the parts count and simplify the
design. The front beam axle uses a vertically aligned peg and slot (ball bearing on chassis with slot on beam)
for lateral kinematic control and trailing arms converging to a single spherical bearing which allows roll, pitch and
heave. The steering rack is mounted to the beam axle which increases unstrung mass but allows reduced bump
steer by placing the lower steering column universal joint as close as possible to the roll axis. The steering column
utilizes two universal joints and a telescopic spline to accommodate pitch and heave.
The rear beam axle uses trailing arms with two spherical mounts and a Watts linkage for lateral kinematic
control. To allow the beam to be kinematic ally free in roll it required either a rotating coupling in
the centre or the simpler, chosen method of utilizing a torsion ally flexible member. By cutting a slot down
the centre of the rear beam tube it becomes torsion ally flexible requiring a force couple of approximately
20N at the wheel centers to move through four degrees of roll. The rear beam can be described as a de Dion twist
axle. The de Dion configuration was chosen over a live axle to allow the use of a limited slip differential and offset the
associated higher unsprung mass. In the front suspension, caster is used to provide increased negative camber with
turn angle, whereas the rear beam trailing arm mount location allows a small amount of negative camber gain in roll.
The Watts linkage was chosen over Panhard Rod or peg and slot designs as offering the best compromise between
kinematic ability to compensate for beam twist, straight line motion path in pitch and heave and structural integration.
The suspension was developed through a combination of skid pad testing and transient manoeuvres. The skid
pad was used to establish camber, toe, tire pressure and roll stiffness distribution settings. The J turn allows the
brake bias and damper settings to be developed while fine tuning the steady state cornering settings and
developing damper settings for corner entry and exit. Slalom testing was used to assess and develop direction
changing capability and roll velocity. WS10 is instrumented with front and rear accelerometers, infrared tire
temperature sensors, damper linear potentiometers, steering angle potentiometer and a single axis gyro to measure
yaw rate. Suspension compliance is being assessed by applying representative cornering loads between wheel pairs
and measuring the camber and toe compliance for benchmarking of future designs and to identify areas requiring
additional stiffness in the current design.
Chassis. The WS10 chassis design requirements were high torsional stiffness, compliance with FSAE rules,
ease of manufacture, protection of the driver and systems packaging. The chassis was integrated with the
suspension design by seeking to minimize the number of accurate suspension pick up points and thus reduce the
dependency on complex jigs and tight manufacturing tolerances. The semi stressed engine configuration was
chosen to aid in engine removal and to reduce the number of chassis members required. A steel space frame was
chosen for ease of analysis and reduced structural equivalency analysis. The space frame was deemed to provide an
effective compromise in terms of required manufacturing skills, structural efficiency, ease of design change and
reparability. 4130 steel was selected over 350MPa steel, primarily due to the ability to easily source the desired sizes
in a range of wall thicknesses. The torsional stiffness target was set at 6095Nm/deg based on the diminishing returns
when torsional stiffness is greater than 9 times roll stiffness. All harness attachment points were designed to the
requirements outlined in FIA standard 8853/98 - Safety Harnesses - updated: 01.01.2007 but with a factor of safety of
2.0. The chassis was laid out in an effort to provide clear load paths between the front and rear suspension for
torsional rigidity while providing load paths for frontal, side and roll over impact scenarios.
To utilise the semi stressed engine configuration a structural sump plate was developed which
incorporates clevis mounts for attachment to the chassis and allows the engine to be lowered 70mm over
the donor engines sump. The rear of the chassis consists of a machined bulkhead which incorporates
Watts linkage pickups, differential mounts and provides an additional load path between the main roll hoop supports
and the base of the main roll hoop through the engine and sump plate. The bulkhead is
detachable to assist engine removal. The suspension pickups consist of trailing arm mounts, damper
pickups, a triangulated boss mount for the front peg and a double shear clevis for the Watts links. The damper pick
up points were designed as a removable structure for adjustable motion ratios.
The chassis torsional rigidity was estimated using linear finite element analysis with beam elements

and a rigid mesh in place of the engine. However this analysis was considered likely to overestimate the
actual situation so a torsional test rig was designed allowing hub to hub loading (testing will occur in Oct
2010). The impact attenuator received considerable analysis (using LS Dyna nonlinear FEA and verified by physical
testing) as the initial concept of using expanded aluminum honeycomb was found to be too stiff
when crushed in the direction of the cell axis and too soft when crushed along the perpendicular direction. The
concept chosen was a dual, nested aluminium weldment which provides progressive energy
absorption and is easy and cost effective to manufacture.
Brakes. The brake system was designed to provide reasonable pedal force at lock up (500N), adjustable brake bias,
controlled bias, adequate thermal capacity and strength to withstand an emergency where the driver is anticipated to
apply up to 1500N. The design was constrained by the requirement to use inboard side brake discs for reduced scrub
radius. The largest brake disc that was able to be packaged within the constraints was 180mm in diameter and had to
be coupled with a relatively small caliper to fit within the 10 inch wheel and large 95mm OD wheel bearings. The
Wilwood PS-1 was chosen with the larger 28.5mm piston option in an effort to reduce line pressures leading to
reduced system compliance and offset the low coefficient of friction (0.42-0.45) of the only brake pads available.
The calipers were produced with threaded lug mounts meaning the single shear mounting bolts would load the
threaded section in bearing. To avoid this the threads were drilled and reamed to allow mounting with a through
bolt. The decision to use flexible brake lines throughout versus hard lines was made based on the reduced number
of hydraulic fittings (cost and mass) and mass per linear meter traded off against increased system compliance. The
brake discs were manufactured from 1045 steel and mounted with 0.2mm radial float and 0.2mm axial float to
prevent disc warping and stresses associated with rigidly mounting a steel disc to an aluminum carrier. The discs
were kept solid to increase thermal mass with slots milled to allow brake dust to clear. A trunion style balance bar
was chosen to reduce undesired variation in brake bias through pedal travel. The brake system was instrumented
with pressure sensors and infrared temperature sensors. The pressure sensors were used to validate the designed
lock up pressure and quantify brake bias settings while the temperature sensors were used to monitor cooling rates
and assess the thermal capacity of the system.
Powertrain. The powertrain design requirements were smooth, controllable delivery of tractive force, low fuel
consumption, compliance with the mandated noise limit and reliability. Smooth delivery of tractive force is being
sought by focusing engine tuning and calibration on reducing dips in the power curve at the cost of peak power. The
intake and exhaust tuned lengths have been designed to ensure that resonance is out of phase leading to a
smoother power curve. Low fuel consumption is being achieved by tuning lambda close to 1 for light loads and low
rpm and only using lambda closer to 0.85-0.9 at high load and high rpm. The engine has been calibrated using
throttle position and rpm with throttle position as the measure of load. To aid in lowering the centre of gravity the
structural sump plate was made shallow (22.5mm deep) and to prevent oil starvation an Accusump oil accumulator
was fitted. Skid pan testing has allowed the system to be developed by tuning the accumulator pressure and engine
oil volume. The inlet manifold was designed to ensure balanced mass flow to each cylinder to improve reliability
by reducing the likelihood of an individual cylinder operating too lean and damaging the piston crown or valves. The
cooling system was designed to reduce centre of gravity height and to maintain the engine temperature between 90
and 95 degrees Celsius. The heat exchanger is side mounted to lower the centre of gravity and utilises a bleed
line back to the header tank to ensure the system is self bleeding, thus preventing pockets of air forming in the heat
exchanger tanks. The coolant flow is provided by dual electronic water pumps which allow improved packaging over
the donor engines pumps and also allow the coolant to continue cycling when the engine is not running to reduce
heat soak and resultant hot start problems. The heat exchanger is ducted to a fan which ensures adequate
airflow over the heat exchanger at low oncoming flow velocities.
Drivetrain. The specific drivetrain design requirements were low rotational inertia, short distance between engine
sprocket and differential rotation axis, high efficiency, tuneable torque bias and adjustable final drive ratio. The
distance between the engine sprocket shaft and differential was reduced to achieve the desired wheel base, weight
distribution and reduce the polar moment of inertia. By using an 11 tooth front sprocket and 10 inch wheels the
distance was reduced to 180 mm. The differential mounts directly to the rear bulkhead integrating the jacking bar and
uses shims to adjust chain tension. A differential was chosen over a spool as the primary objective of the
suspension is to take advantage of the cornering capacity of all four tires and accurately control camber angles. To
use a spool would require the rear inside wheel to be unloaded thus reducing negative camber on the outside wheel
in direct contradiction of the vehicle conceptual design aims. A clutch pack limited slip differential was chosen as the
torque bias can be easily tuned by changing ramp angles. In a trade off between design and manufacturing workload
and cost the Drexler LSD was chosen. The Drexler is light at 5.8 kg (including mounts and sprocket carrier) and has a
low radial profile giving low rotational inertia. Care was taken to ensure the left and right drive shafts were
symmetrical for reduced spare part requirements and equal torsional stiffness to prevent undesired torque steer
effects. Taylor Race Engineering tripod joints were chosen as they provide higher efficiency than

Cardan and Rzeppa joints and provide the required plunge travel. The inboard tripod housings are custom made
from hardened 709M steel with truncated profiles to reduce the polar moment of inertia. This reduces the
angular limits of the tripod joints to 20 degrees. However, integrating the outer tripod housing into the hub reduces the
required angle by 1 degree. The outboard rear hubs incorporate the tripod joint housing in a machined aluminium
alloy hub with hardened steel inserts (60 Rc) shrink fit into the housing. Integrating the outboard tripod housing and
hub also reduces the angular misalignment of the driveshaft with respect to toe angle adjustments. The final drive
ratio was chosen using lap simulation software but will be finetuned through testing with various rear sprocket sizes.
The simulation sought to investigate the relationship between final drive ratio and gear shift duration and resultant
number of gear shifts required.
Electronics. The specific electronics design requirements were durability and low mass. An electrical loads
analysis was conducted to size wires down to practical limits including connector pin size and connector price and
availability. Deutsch DTM connectors were specified as they are reusable and provide for crimped connections
aiding system robustness and reliability. The wiring loom has also been assembled using Raychem nonadhesive heat shrink to provide strain relief, mechanical protection and water-proofing for the wires. Where possible
all sensor wires are 22 gauge Tefzel wire. A 12V sealed lead acid battery was selected to provide adequate starting
capacity and an Anderson plug has been integrated to aid battery charging and jump starting when required. Data
logging is conducted using a MoTeC Advanced Central Logger and Synchronous Versatile Input Modules which
communicate via a CAN Bus. All sensors not required for engine operation are wired into the ACL with engine
sensors being wired into the ECU and then sent via CAN to the ACL for logging. The car is fitted with an LED shift
light module to assist with shifting for inexperienced drivers, aimed to prevent running at the rpm limit and reduce shift
times. It is also a prominent means of displaying warnings. The car makes use of an ignition module and relays to
power the sparkplugs, fuel pump, thermo fan, water pumps and Accusump in order to ensure that the ECU does not
have to support high loads. Each high load element has its own fuse allocated to ensure that if an electrical element
short-circuits, then only that system is disabled, thus making it is easier to diagnose faults. The car uses coil-on plug
spark plugs to reduce weight over other inductive ignition systems that use high tension leads. Wheel speed and
g-force sensors are used to enable driver aids such as traction control and launch control.
Egonomics and Driver Controls. The primary ergonomic design goal of WS10 was to accommodate the
th
th
95 percentile American male and the 5 percentile American female, provide adequate vision and driver comfort
whilst ensuring all controls were robust enough to withstand emergency operation. Different sized
drivers are catered for by careful selection of the seat belt mounting location, an adjustable pedal box and personal
foam seat inserts. The pedal box was designed to allow the maximum amount of travel inside the constraints of the
chassis, to be as light as possible to reduce the polar moment of inertia of the car, while
being stiff with smooth operation to increase driver confidence. To achieve the desired range of pedal travel and
reduce the length of the foot-well the master cylinders are inclined. This requires the use of
telescopic link type master cylinders that pivot on both ends. The pedal box adjustment is achieved by mounting the
pedal box to rails with mil-spec quick release pins. While the adjustment cannot be performed by the driver
in the seated position, the pedals can be easily adjusted in less time than is
required for a driver change. Both the throttle and clutch pedals are made of fabricated 6061 aluminum
(post weld machined and heat treated to T6 condition) and are mounted on widely spaced ball bearings to reduce
any lateral free play and reduce system friction. The throttle cable is a very low friction push-pull
type to allow the driver to pull the throttle closed if required. This cable also allows a tight bend radius for
packaging and does not degrade at the temperatures experienced in proximity to the engine. The clutch pedal motion
ratio has been designed to balance operating force and pedal travel requiring approximately
30mm travel and 100N to disengage the clutch. The use of a cable clutch was chosen over a hydraulic
system as the donor engine utilizes a cable clutch thus requiring minimal modification for integration. The pedals and
all subsequent systems are housed in a machined aluminum chassis to minimize weight. The load paths have been
biased to provide high installed stiffness to assist repeatability and driver confidence. The throttle and the clutch
structures have been designed to withstand, without permanent deformation, the load (1500N) applied by a panicked
driver in the case of mistaken pedal selection.
The seating position was selected to provide adequate vision to navigate the obstacles typical of FSAE
courses. Driver comfort has been addressed by complying with the FSAE rules relating to thermal protection of the
driver and providing adequate lateral support for both trunk and thighs.
The gear shift is a mechanical paddle shift operating a pull-pull cable actuation system designed to withstand a
driver applied load of 450N squeezing force as opposed to the 40-50N operating force. The
system was designed to be simple, light and cost effective and not require the driver to take their hands off the wheel.
The steering was designed to limit the steering wheel angle to 135 degrees from straight ahead
to lock so the driver does not have to cross their arms or feed the wheel hand over hand.