Gspeed 2018E

FASE CFRP monocoque; First prize of FSEC 2018

In 2018, I served as a consultant for Gspeed, providing technical support for the electric race car development (Gspeed 2018-E). This season, I was involved in the carbon-fiber-reinforced-polymer (CFRP) monocoque project as one of the initiators.

Gspeed 2018-E (left) and its CFRP monocoque (right).

Previous cockpits were mainly made up of steel trusses (4130 / 30CrMoA). They ensured the safety of our driver and connected all vehicle subsystems, but they struggled to meet our high requirements for stiffness, precision, weight, and vibration mode.

Steel truss cockpit of Gspeed 2017-E.

Therefore, from this season, we adpoted the CFRP monocoque which performed much better than steel trusses.

Carbon fiber monocoque of Gspeed 2018-E.

Undeniably, manufacturing such large and precise stuff (over 2.2m length) was not easy at all. We had to pay much attention to details.

Monocoque manufacture. From left to right, they are the positive mold, negative mold, and autoclave.

I appreciated working with some optimistic guys at that time. We overcame many difficulties and made it!

Monocoque group members in 2018.
Gspeed 2018-E and its brother Gspeed 2018-C.

In Nov 2018, the car was transported to the Zhuhai circuit for Formula Student Electric China (FSEC) 2018, where there were 48 domestic universities to pariciapte in. After a week of competition, we won the following awards:

  • 4th place overall (1st prize)
  • 3rd place in Engineering Design
  • 2nd place in Autocross
  • 2nd place in Control Strategy Development
  • 1st place in MathWorks Vehicle Simulation
Gspeed 2018-E on the Zhuhai circuit.