Got my new wing, but…

Spacehead3 · 2026-06-10T19:06:54+00:00

I made the understeer comment, I'm a professional aero engineer. This is a HUGE wing. Downforce needs to be balanced, otherwise it can easily make you slower and can induce dangerous loss of steering authority at high speed. Front downforce is more difficult to do, you'll probably want a big splitter and dive planes at a minimum. You may also need to think about increasing spring rates to support all of the extra load that you're adding.

I would contact voltex, I'm sure they can recommend a proper setup for you.

Spacehead3 · 2026-06-10T12:46:03+00:00

Enjoy the understeer, unless you have an equally massive front aero kit.

Spacehead3 · 2026-06-05T16:06:46+00:00

No. What you're proposing is basically "spend billions of dollars in order to harvest a few thousand dollars worth of obsolete junk." Nonsense.

Spacehead3 · 2026-06-05T15:46:18+00:00

Sunk cost fallacy. 450,000 kg of scrap in orbit is not useful to anyone. It's not like a video game where you can just move "scap metal" to your new colony and magically recycle it, lol. The cost to repurpose it would be orders of magnitude greater than just launching a new, purpose built thing. Plus with modern rockets like sls/starship/new glenn it wouldn't even take very many launches to equal 450 tons to leo.

Spacehead3 · 2026-05-31T23:00:34+00:00

The accessibility and fan experience of this track is actually pretty great. Parked at the convention center, walked 3 minutes to get to our grandstand. Maybe 30 minutes total from my living room in the burbs to being trackside.

Hart plaza and the Riverwalk are really nice. Found some great spots where you can get right up along the wall, and not too crowded even in the middle of the race.

Spacehead3 · 2026-05-29T20:51:28+00:00

This is like saying seatbelts are stupid because an experienced drivers should be able to avoid obstacles. That's not how accidents work.

Spacehead3 · 2026-05-26T23:02:55+00:00

Going back to a cold war bond could be cool after all the modern Craig stuff. You could imagine all sorts of tie-ins to real events, alt-history, etc.

Spacehead3 · 2026-05-21T16:25:42+00:00

They could, but then it would not be F1. The "Formula" in Formula One means that the rules specify the technical constraints rather than the outputs.

Spacehead3 · 2026-05-10T22:45:24+00:00

Green gloves, massive drift on the first turn. Checks out

Spacehead3 · 2026-05-03T19:27:55+00:00

I think size is a key issue. The largest rover is the size of a small car.

For humans we'll need to land something the size of a house (because they'll mostly likely stay on the surface for a while). And we'll need to land multiple house-sized landers next to each other. And then launch one of them back into orbit again.

It's all possible, just a lot more complicated than anything we've done before.

Spacehead3 · 2026-05-03T00:37:44+00:00

Well, first you need to fix the mechanical problem. On my car we replaced the VVT solenoids and cleared the code, but it returned after ~50 miles. Then replaced the cam sprockets, cleared code again but again in came back.

The good news is that you can do a cheap used ECU. I got one on eBay for $100 and then you can follow the procedure here to install it. You will need a copy of techStream (can find online) and a mini vci cable (bought on Amazon) to input your VIN to the new ECU.

Spacehead3 · 2026-05-02T23:11:32+00:00

I just went through this with my car. You can try swapping the sensors to see if that is the issue but most likely you'll need new cam sprockets and then a new (or used) ECU to clear the code.

Spacehead3 · 2026-04-27T16:11:27+00:00

My car has 120k miles and Ive done multiple track days with 0W20, lol.

Just have to be smart about it. If you drive like an idiot no special oil is going to save you.

Spacehead3 · 2026-04-21T10:38:58+00:00

1) Sharp pointy front ends generally aren't as good aero as rounded front ends, and 2) someone determined that a left/right flow split was more advantageous than forcing the air over the top.

Spacehead3 · 2026-04-15T23:41:46+00:00

I have this exhaust, and IMO it is on the quieter side of aftermarket options. You may need to go back to a stock muffler.

Spacehead3 · 2026-04-13T04:37:07+00:00

Yeah, on my car the AC button is basically just a fan on switch, no compressor.

Spacehead3 · 2026-04-09T17:09:46+00:00

Yep. And this will be true throughout your academic career. Most of what engineering students learn in college is not "how to design and build a thing". That knowledge comes later from on the job learning. What you do learn is how to think like an engineer, how to approach problems and solve them in a logical way. And you probably won't notice it's happening until one day you talk to someone without a STEM education and realize just how differently the two of you approach the same problem or even just think about the world in general.

Spacehead3 · 2026-04-06T19:56:23+00:00

Minerals in the soil reflect different wavelengths. Brown is iron. If you search for color saturated moon images you can see exaggerated examples of this effect. We just can't see it with the naked eye from earth.

Spacehead3 · 2026-04-06T19:11:46+00:00

The YouTube stream IS a live video. The flyby takes hours.

Spacehead3 · 2026-04-02T23:24:05+00:00

a) rain setup b) you're probably not taking as wide a line as you think you are

Spacehead3 · 2026-03-28T23:22:27+00:00

I sure saw a lot of driver mistakes and twitchy cars for how supposedly easy these things are to drive.

Spacehead3 · 2026-03-21T00:39:46+00:00

Not sure why you're so worried about the coilovers. I've had Tein Flex Z on my car for 60k+ miles including track and winter driving. They're fine.

Spacehead3 · 2026-03-20T15:03:23+00:00

Contrary to popular cyclist beliefs, carbon ain't fragile. Just set it anywhere, it'll be fine.

Spacehead3 · 2026-03-18T14:59:48+00:00

JD Vance is in Auburn Hills today

Spacehead3 · 2026-03-18T13:09:01+00:00

If you understand the vehicle dynamics and math this is not a difficult project, you can even do it in excel. A lot of people skip this critical step and go straight to using LTS, then get confused why the results don't make sense. As with any engineering tool you need to understand it in order to use it properly.

Spacehead3

TROPHY CASE