Gspeed 2018C

Technical support; National champion of FSCC 2018

In 2018, I served as a consultant for Gspeed, providing technical support for the combustion race car development (Gspeed 2018-C). Thanks to all team members, we won the championship in Formula Student Combustion China (FSCC) 2018!

We are the champion of FSCC 2018!

One of the major upgrades this season was the new powertrain. The predecessor, a Honda CBR600F four-cylinder engine with a 1.65bar turbocharger, was replaced by a KTM 690 Duke single-cylinder engine with a 300cc supercharger. For this new engine, we designed a completely new set of intake, exhust, boost, fuel, cooling, and electronic systems. The new powertrain had a max power of 60kW and can maintain 82Nm torque output across a wide speed range (2500~6000r/min). What incredible data!

Bench testing of our new powertrain.

In terms of the chassis, we developed a new braking system with ventilated discs. Brake cooling performance was greatly improved.

New braking system with ventilated discs.

And we upgraded the 3rd-spring suspension system for better vehicle handling stability.

Third-spring suspension system: front view (left) and rear view (right).

During the development, we took into account the driver behavior in simulation, and continued to conduct many real hardware experiments.

Driver-in-the-loop simulation (left). Wind tunnel testing (right).

I graduated from Gspeed in the summer of 2018, though I was very reluctant to leave the team.

Gspeed graduates in 2018.

New members were joining and becoming main force of Gspeed.

Suspension group (left). Team members on behalf of Jilin University participating in FSCC 2018 (right).

In Oct 2018, the car was transported to the Xiangyang circuit for FSCC 2018, which was attended by 66 domestic universities. After a week of competition, we won the first championship in Gspeed history! All awards we received are listed below:

  • 1st place overall (Champion)
  • 3rd place in Cost & Manufacturing Analysis
  • 1st place in Engineering Design
  • 3rd place in Acceleration
  • 2nd place in Autocross
  • 2nd place in Endurance
  • Fastest lap in Endurance
  • 1st place in Lightweighting
  • 1st prize in ANSYS Simulation

More importantly, we received funding to represent China in Formula Studen Germany (FSG) 2019!

Gspeed 2018-C on the Xiangyang circuit.

Fortunately, I witnessed this exciting moment with other retired teammates at the award ceremony.

Award ceremony of FSCC 2018.

At this point, my journey with Gspeed paused. However, Gspeed’s story continues. More advanced technologies are developed and applied to race cars, such as the carbon-fiber-reinforced-polymer (CFRP) monocoque in Gspeed 2019-C.

Gspeed 2019-C, 2017-C, 2018-C (from left to right).

You could subscribe to the following channels if you want to know more about Gspeed.

WeChat, Bilibili, and Weibo (from left to right).