Cal Poly Pomona Formula Racing's Trip To Italy

Homecoming!

2007-10-05T12:05:00.000-07:00

The car ride from Fiorano to Florence was pretty bad. The logistical problem I mentioned earlier was a truck swerving into our little racecar transporter, and then radioing another truck in as an accident “witness” for the police report. We were still in our uniforms, so they tried to tell the cops we were racing them. It was a long night.

The next day, we awoke and headed out to the Prato shop where the crate was, and sealed “gravedigger” into her coffin.

The rest was pretty simple… Train to Rome, Taxi to the Airport, Plane to Frankfurt, Plane to LA. We went out to dinner the last night, but we were wiped out. I think we’d all had enough of Europe. It was time to come home.

The Pomona brothers check out.

We ended up with 5th place. We also scored better in engineering than in the dynamic events for the first time in years. This is good, because one of the goals for this year was to change the culture of the team to value testing and engineering over just building and racing. We had a few systems where we really learned a lot about what was going on physically, and we are in a good position for next year… We have a fleet of ex-rookies, something to talk about, and a car that went from 515 lb to 455 lb in a year. And she’s going on another diet for next year.

The guys are already plowing ahead with the design for next year, and reminding me that I only have 4 classes left before I’m team history. (I caught Ross looking up water pumps for the 2008 cooling system, and I got jealous… It’s hard to let go.) There are a few target areas to improve for next year, but think I would upset the team if I posted them here.

We’re being well-received at school. My ME student collogues are asking me about the competition, and professors are telling us we did well.

I don’t want to get all sentimental, but I’m going to miss all this. It was stressful, difficult, and time consuming, but 100% worth it. I don’t know what I’m going to do after I get my degree… I think I want to work on engine systems, alternative power for cars, or cooling. All this new technology, the batteries, the fuel cells, electronics, etc... It all gets hot. Surely someone will need a cooling guy.

If you want more info about the team, email cppfsae@gmail.com, or email me at kjgasperini@csupomona.edu. (Or, hey, if you’re hiring…) I’ve also got big pictures of everything posted here, and much more.

Thanks for reading.

-Kevin

Competition: Day 3!

2007-10-04T22:02:00.000-07:00

This was to be the most difficult day for us. We were up against three championship teams, and some good cars. Many of the European teams have well-credentialed drivers who would be tough competition indeed.

The day started with the results for the static events being posted, and we were in third place!

We were behind TU Graz, the Ferrari of the competition. (These guys have an automotive engineering major at their school, two to three teams running consecutively, and come out to lots of the FSAE competitions. Someone told me they had reserved 80 beds at a hotel nearby... They are the team to beat.) We were also just about tied with the other Graz team, Jonneaum graz.

3rd place? One point away from second?!? You know what this means... It’s time to roll out the ol’ stars and stripes!

And with that, we queued up for the dynamic events:

…We we kept it going for the endurance.

There was a bit of a scare because the car didn’t start right away for the 2nd leg of the endurance, but a little throttle solved that. We finished without incident, which is the way to do it.

This woman is Claudia Rossi. She works for ATA, and was really helpful, answering all the questions Jeremy, Cameron and I could throw at her. Thanks, Claudia!

The rest of the day was a blur. We packed up the car, and then headed to the awards ceremony. After that, we took a couple of pictures and then hit the road for Florence.

…And that wraps up another competition.

See you later, Pista di Fiorano... Until next time.

Competition: Day 2!

2007-10-04T21:29:00.000-07:00

The second day of competition didn’t start quite as early. Day two was reserved for passing the dynamic tech inspections, and for the design presentations. Here we are, about to leave from the parking lot.

We had spent last night reviewing all of the design presentations, and auditing and critiquing everyone’s performance. Everyone had worked to improve their part of this contest since West.

We entered the track as they opened up, and attended to a few details, such as getting fresh tires mounted.

Looking for leaks on the tilt table.

Fixing leak from failed tilt table test, followed by returning to tilt table and passing.

Right after lunch, we waited for the practice area to open up. These lazy guys were all asleep when I went out to check on them!

Here we are, ready to fly! (Notice the three sticker sections. We get them for safety inspection, tilt table, and noise and brake testing. When you have all three, you may drive in the dynamic events.)

I don’t have any pictures of the actual judging, because I was busy presenting the cooling system. (To the technical director of Lamborghini!) Some of the other guys have these, and would love to show them to you if you drop by for a visit.

After we finished our events, we explored, checked up on our rivals, and left as the sun set.

Day 1 of FSAE Italy

2007-09-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

We woke up at about 5, and got to the track at 5:30 to wait for ATA to let us in. We were the first team in line, and ready to go.

We set up before the sun came up, and were ready before most of the other teams had unloaded. This is the team I know. We were the same way in west, just ready to go. West was nice because we were also able to show our fun side with the kiddie pool and the event-sized stereo, but this one was only business.

Enzo’s house.

The awards at the opening ceremony.

Lunch

The rest of the day was spent getting through tech inspection, and going through the little checks to make sure we would be ready for race day. All was well, so after our inspection, we returned to the hotel to work on the much feared design presentation for tomorrow.

To Fiorano! (The Day Before Comp Take 2)

2007-09-30T09:57:00.000-07:00

The day before competition, we moved the team and the car to the Fiorano hotel. We split up into two groups, one escorting the car in rental vehicles, and the other taking a train to Fiorano.

This turned out to be a pretty rotten way to get to Fiorano. We took a train, a tram, and then a bus. Problem is, the bus driver either didn’t like us or made a mistake and told us the hotel was “50 meters up the street” when he meant “50 meters up the street after you walk two kilometers.” Still, we arrived. And when we opened up our hotel window, we heard the Ferrari F1 cars testing before the upcoming Japan Race.

We did what anyone would do in our position… We ran the hell over to the track!

Unfortunatley, we had missed the F1 guys. They had stopped the cars and switched to the “I just bought a Ferrari and don’t know how to drive” crowd. We went back to the hotel, and decided to go for a team dinner.

Later that night, with the team tucked into bed, a few of us stayed up to get the paperwork 100% ready for our early day tomorrow.

Arg!

2007-09-24T13:02:00.000-07:00

Ok everyone,

Iàm sorry itàs been dead. Competition got a little crazy, and we have a pretty aggressive schedule for getting out of here.

Here's where we stand:

We finished in 5th place.

After the static events, (design, cost, manufacturing) we were in third, only behind the two infamous teams from Graz, Austria. Unfortunatley for us, Stuttgart and Turin (who did poorly in these events) had really strong cars, and did well in the dynamic events.

We were consistantly about 4th to 5th in the static events, and bounced to second because other teams that did well in, say, design, didnàt do as well in the other events. I'll have more on this later.

We drove from Fiorano to Florence last night, just after the awards ceremony. There were a few issues that had come up that complicated matters, but they have been handled

Today, we crated the car. It is ready for its return to Pomona.

Half of the team is returning to CA, and the other half returns on the 26th. The remaining people are divided into two groups:

Cook, Dauphinee, Phillips, Torkay: Driving to Austria tonight, and to Frankfurt tomorrow.
Gasperini, Smith, Olson, Walters: Going to Rome tomorrow, flying to CA the next day.

We'll have more up in about three days. I'm sorry, but the next two days are going to be tricky because there are a lot of logistical details to track down. We want to make sure we get out of here cleanly, and without leaving anyone behind.

Another Update, Courtesy of Scott Borg

2007-09-24T13:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, we just checked in at a hostel withinternet. The Ferrari track was amazing, the competition was fierce,and it was a good time for everyone.

On Friday was the tech inspection. We were one of the first teams onsite, we arrived before dawn. At the U.S. competitions, teams have to get in line for tech. With a smaller number of cars, the tech scrutineers made their way around the paddocks, inspecting each car in their pit area. We passed tech on the first inspection, and quickly went back to the hotel to prepare for the presentations on Saturday.

We spent a lot of time preparing for the Design, Business, andManufacturing presentations. A few first-year members would bepresenting systems that had been designed by former students, so their veteran teammates spent a lot of time quizzing and coaching them.

We did very well on Saturday, placing 5th, 4th, and 5th respectively. Not all of the other teams were this consistent, so we were sitting in 3rd place going into the dynamic events, which would all take place onSunday. Another difference between the U.S. and Italian events was that all the race events are held on the same day. At the U.S. competitions,the Skidpad, Acceleration and Autocross events are on Saturday and the 20-lap Endurance race is held on Sunday morning.

Ferrari's track time is very valuable, so we were only allowed three days there. This meant that all the racing would take place on Sunday.In the morning, we were pretty fast on the Skidpad, but the officialtimes weren't displayed for spectators to see. After all the carsfinished the skidpad, the Acceleration event began. This was a nicechange from the US events, which run both events at the same time,forcing spectators (and team members without track passes) to miss outon half the events.

During the Accel event, we were able to seeofficial times, and there were at least three-to-five cars that beatus in that event. The most concerning team was TU Graz from Austria,who had done very well at all the other events so far.The autocross event was held before lunch, and again there were a fewcars that were running faster than us. Both of our drivers hit coneson some of their runs, incurring 2 second penalties per cone, butDustin's fastest run was clean.

During lunch we prepped the car for the Endurance race: we wrapped anyoil lines that might leak and cause us to instantly fail. We changedto a fresh CO2 tank, and were a little worried because our larger CO2tank had been damaged a few days earlier; we would be forced to usethe smaller bottle, which might not be enough depending on the courselayout.The Endurance race is always tense for everyone on the team: you haveabout 20 minutes to wonder if something you built in a hurry will failduring the race or not, or if parts will wear out at the exact wrongtime, or if the drivers (from our team or other teams) might make amistake and damage the car.

We finished the race, and both drivers aswell as the car performed well, and I think we impressed a lot ofpeople. A couple of the top teams had problems and didn't finish, sothat could only help our chances at bringing home a trophy. On theother hand, we had been consistently slower than a few of the teamsout there, namely the Germans from Stuttgart and the Austrians from TUGraz.

Going into the awards ceremony, none of the scores from Sunday hadbeen posted yet, so we had no indication of how well we would do. Tomake a long story short, we took 5th place, and although it's notquite a top three trophy, we are very happy with it. Our entire teamperformed very well; we gave some high-budget teams a run for theirmoney, but some of them were faster than us. We got to walk aroundFerrari's private race track, see Enzo's house, and imagine that theirF1 teams were hiding inside one of the big hangars, waiting for us toleave so they could get back to testing for the next F1 race.

In closing, thanks to all who have helped get us this far, and keepwatching Cal Poly because they're going to continue to improve and dogreat things. Look for photos on www.csupomona.edu/fsae andhttp://blogspot.cppfsae.com/ , they should be posted within a coupleof weeks.

1st day of comp.

2007-09-21T16:59:00.000-07:00

We woke up at 5, and arrived to the track at 5:30, got in by 6, and kept it going from there. We were one of the first through tech inspection, and are ready to do the presentations tomorrow.

I've got some goo dpictures, but it's bedtime.

Trackday!

2007-09-21T16:41:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, Sept 20

Today was a testing day. Once again, we split up. I covered a lot of ground today. In the morning, I worked on my design presentation at the University of Florence. At lunch, a small contingent of our team attended a publicity event for the Florentine team in Piazza San Marco. (We saw them in the newspaper the next morning!) I saw more familiar faces from FSAE West, though we are both too busy to say more than hello.

They put a sticker on for us at West.

After that, I headed to a small go-kart place in the countryside to meet my team for the trackday the Florentines had reserved for our cars. Much of our competition is based on driver performance. Driving this car properly takes skill and experience. After four years of FSAE, Dustin has both. Charles lacks the experience, but the kid is good. Our team is complex, and the driver’s individual struggle is a big part of it.

After some seat time, and a few minor adjustments to the fuel map, (to compensate for the ethanol-free European gas.) the day was up, and we had to flag our boys in.

T Minus Four Hours and Counting...

2007-09-20T15:01:00.000-07:00

Right now it is midnight, the day before comp. We wake up at 4:00 tomorrow, and go for broke. Actually, it's going to be getting our car into the tech inspection line as soon as we can.

Still, I am witnessing a level of alertness in my team absent since West, and Dertoit. We are in our element. We are "at comp."

Gravedigger rides again...

A day of Rest...

2007-09-20T14:49:00.000-07:00

Sunday, September 16

On Sunday, everything shuts down in Italy. At least, everything we want to use gets locked up… The University of Firenze, Laboratorio PIN, and the Firenze Garage where our car will travel to on Monday for final prep. All closed. So, we decided to take a day to enjoy Florence.

It sucks, actually. I will be spending 10 days in one of the most beautiful cities on earth, one rich in artistic majestry, historical intrigue, and culinary excellence. And so far, I’ve spent all my time working, eating, or sleeping. We decided to walk around Florence, and see what we could.

Still, I found myself talking about the car with my group. Our team does a lot of learning that way… Small discussions. I found out later that every group had started to have their small discussions. Everything on a racecar comes at a cost. Much of the choices we must make in our project are decided by rules of thumb, and by looking at present convention, and history. So, it is important for a rookie to learn why we don’t run a turbo, and this information will be communicated via small discussion.

We wanted to get to a soccer game, but we got there too late. We heard the game though – it was nuts. Some of our team did make it in, though. Dan was telling me it was awesome. He saw people from all walks of life, of all ages, all decked out with their team colors. The game was a tie, and both sides left looking depressed. They wanted blood.

That night, it was back to work. We were figuring out where to get a rental truck, meeting with Italian team members, talking about design reviews, and just getting the team back into a competition mode. You don’t realize how much effort is involved in this project until you take two weeks off to tour Italy.

Sometimes, tuning feels like this.

Until next time!

And for those of you who wonder why we don’t run a turbo, here it is: A turbo helps pull air through our restrictor best at lower engine speeds. Now, when the engine winds up, the effects of the turbo are lessened… because of the restrictor. You gain a lot of low range power, but you also add weight, and lower reliability. A turbo adds weight, complexity, and danger… you might break the turbo, or blow the engine. It is also harder to tune. Now, our shifter is one of the best in all of FSAE. (Thank you Scott Borg, and others before him.) This lets us keep our car in our selected power range better, so we don’t need to worry about flattening out our torque curve, especially when you consider the costs.

The team, according to Borg

2007-09-20T14:46:00.001-07:00

Scott Borg sent out an update email and copied me, so up it goes:

Sorry about the formatting, but tomorrow is a 4 a.m. wake up day for comp.

This might be my last update until the competition is finished. We'vegot the car together and running pretty well, and were able to do somedriving at a "local" go-kart track. The track was pretty nice, but itwas a bit of a drive; we realized that we might have an advantagecompared to some of the other European teams, simply because we can todrive around our school's big American parking lot practicallywhenever we want. The go-kart track was pretty narrow with dirtrunoffs, so the drivers might not be comfortable pushing the car toits limits for fear of damaging the car if they go off-track.Our hosts had some rough luck with their car, it seemed like theyspent more time fixing it than driving it this week. Hopefully they dowell at competition, but we're not so afraid of them having a hugehome-team advantage anymore. Our engine could use some tuning becausethe fuel (and probably altitude) is different here, but we've madesome minor adjustments and it seems to be running "well enough" if notquite "good."We're leaving our hostel in Firenze in a few minutes, and heading toFiorano which is near the Ferrari compound.We've been trying to scout the other teams via thier websites, and thecompetition looks to be tough but not impossibly so. If (absolutely)everything goes smoothly, we think we've got a shot at a top threefinish.I'm sending a copy of this email to quite a few people who didn't getmy other updates, because the first few didn't have much news about the FSAE car.

If you'd like to hear more about our progress in Italy,a few of the guys have been publishing updates at http://cppfsae.blogspot.com/

If you'd like to hear more about FSAE and the Cal Poly FSAE car, please visit www.csupomona.edu/fsae

Wish us luck,

Scott Borg

2007-09-18T01:50:00.000-07:00

Ok, this post is from two days ago. Update since then: The car runs smoothly. It sounds like it’s still a beast, and that means its probably going to kick some butt tomorrow when we go test driving. Enjoy:

Saturday, September 15

Today, we took a train to Prato, to Laboratorio PIN, where our wonderful car is living.

The car is basically together, and back to its usual state of disrepair. There are a lot of little things to adjust, set, and tweak. We will also have to relocate to set our corner weights, and get our suspension intact.

We have the fluid systems intact, and are now working on the detailed prep needed for rule compliance, such as safety wiring.

And going after those little electrical gremlins…

We are learning a lot about the world at this competition. For example, today Andrew learned that “Gasoil” really stands for “Diesel” in Italian. Whoops.

After that, we all learned how to disassemble the fuel system, clean it all out, and put it back together.

There is a lot to do on the car, but only so many can work on it at once. A number of us returned to the Hostel to keep working on the looming design presentations. By the end of the night, I found out that the diesel had worked itself out of the system, and Gravedigger was purring happily.

First Day in Florence!

2007-09-16T01:44:00.000-07:00

Just a note: We’ve got a lot of things to put up, and the blog is a few days behind reality. This post happened yesterday, and I’m going to keep bouncing around. I’m only giving up one spoiler: We started the car. It runs, but just barely. No worries, though. We’ll get this thing nailed down. Now, without further ado;

We’ve arrived in Florence!

It’s been a busy time. We were in Bologna this morning, and we got on a train bound for Florence. Upon arrival, we set out for the Ostello Archi Rossi.

They opened the rooms up, and checked the team in. As the day progressed, the team trickled in. About half of us went to the University of Florence, and visited our wonderful hosts. Their mechanical engineering department is tucked away in their university building, and we were well received by some dear friends who left us in Pomona after our FSAE West competition.

Andrew, Chris, Dustin and Matt had been in town for a day, decorating the car. We are in good shape, but have some work to do. We are worried about the gas, and have completed the major reassembley tasks after the time in the crate. No pics of the car yet, but we’ll get you hooked up soon.

We all had a big meeting that night, and have prepared our secret plans... And that’s all I can tell you for now!

A GP to Remember...

2007-09-13T03:30:00.000-07:00

The GP, in a nutshell:

We got up early.

We found our spot.

We watched the Porsche GT2 cup.

We decided Solo2 needs to get one of these:

After the parade, the race began.

Red bull decided to test their driver protection systems during the race.

With Massa's car broken down and two McLarens to fight, Ferrari is in trouble. Their only hope is Raikkonen. Go Kimi, Go!

Hamilton earned 2nd with a last minute pass on Raikkonen.

People really like F1 out here.

And they let everyone on the track after the race. (Hint Hint, SCRAMP.)

Gran Practice

2007-09-12T03:24:00.000-07:00

The gp practice was tiring. I was to meet Cameron, Dan, and Jeremy on the Saturday qualifying session at the GP, but I had to bring all my stuff. My pack was heavy because I brought a lot of water. (I drank all of it, too.) I call this pic "how not to do a GP."

I had planned a few meeting spots out with the guys, but we didn’t connect. After a while, I just gave up and enjoyed the practice and qualifying session. Poor Raikonnen! His car broke, and caused a pretty spectacular crash. Kudos to Ferrari, they worked hard and got Raikonnen into a working car by the last session without a new engine penalty.

I met Ross, Chris and Chuck at the circuit. These poor guys have been having a hard time because their car keeps breaking down on them. With no sign of my group, we decided to stick together and figure everything out at their hotel. This way I could figure out my next move without lugging a 40 pound pack around Milan.

Milan, by night…

And tomorrow, our first GP!

Bergamo

2007-09-11T03:11:00.000-07:00

My family came out to Como to say hello and kidnap me. Our little group split up, and I went to Bergamo to meet everyone. They fed me, too!

I met two of my younger cousins, Mad Mateo, and Luca the Destroyer. These guys are really good at two things: scarfing down food, and making a ruckus!

My cousin Pier took me around Bergamo, and to a nearby town called Brembo. (We use brakes from a company based out of there.) At night, we went to old town Bergamo, which is on top of a hill.

Bergamo Basso from Bergamo Alto by night.

Stupid Brembo wouldn’t let us into their stupid factory.

Ravioli Bergameschi. Really good.

Lake Como: Home of George Clooney

2007-09-11T02:41:00.000-07:00

OK, we have gotten into a pattern here, and I think we can synchronize the old update schedule with you sponsor / family / friends. Basically, we end up paying about $7 for an hour of connection to a pipeline that is taking advantage of the relative nature of the term "high speed." At the last hotel, the "high speed" router got mad at my laptop’s DNS settings, so I got to burn half of our time figuring that out before it would even connect.

So, long story short, it’s touch and go. Based on my experiences, we’re going to have a few times where I get connected to a good pipeline, and others where high speed means 14.4 kbps with upload times that make Scott Speed look like Lewis Hamilton.

We’ve been pretty busy over the last few days, so I’m going to pick up where we left off, on a train to lake como:

Italy is beautiful by train. Our train was pretty quick, too. 4 hours "da Roma a Milano." After that, we took a local train to Como.

Don’t worry, we’ll be coming back soon!

Milan, at the main train station. The next time we will be here, it will be formula 1 race!
We went on to como by train. After the journey, we arrived at our hotel. Here at CPPFSAE, we try to optimize performance. One way to measure performance is to look at what a part does, VS. what it costs you to have the part. For example, Dustin once suggested to me that we cut the radiator size in half. I told him that this design would indeed save weight, but why don’t we go a step further and just remove the radiator entirely because it would have the same effect, but with even better weight savings. In como, we tried a similar plan.

…And for the record, this would have worked, except the hotel we stayed at was a four star hotel where the bellhop learns your name. The hotel had what they called a "one person room" available. Well, in Formula SAE, you learn that such conventional thinking can lead to overdesign. Nobody wants to drive a pig, and we wanted to help the hotel get past that initial fear that comes with high performance design. One person in a room? Come on. That’s not the formula SAE way of life. And it’s really a wonder that a hotel in such a prominent location would be stuck in such a way of thinking. Just look at the view:

So, we might have had some guys sleeping on the floor. Jeremy might have slept in the bathtub. But we did it. With a lot of hard work and a little luck, we sure showed those guys how to improve their efficiency. We spent the rest of the time exploring, eating gelato, pizza, funicularing, and (probably) making rich people edgy by photographing their houses. Enjoy:

Food!

2007-09-07T02:54:00.000-07:00

One thing we are having success with is the food. When we decided to take this little vacation of ours, the one area we didn’t want to skimp on was the food. We wanted to find good food, and we knew the first thing to do was get away from the tourist areas. Not as good, and overpriced. Last night, we found success down a small street in an antiquated part of town...

The Wine:

...And the Food!

Mangiamo droppo. Era squisito!

Pictures, Finally!

2007-09-07T02:50:00.000-07:00

Take a look at the blog in its full splendor!

Back to Rome...

2007-09-05T14:24:00.002-07:00

I have to say, the trains in Italy have better accommodations than the hostel. I have a power outlet, and the floor doesn’t have a layer of dirt. No broken locks on lockers, and no worries about my bag being stolen while I’m gone. (They have been replaced with worries that it will get swiped while it’s sitting next to me!)

Yesterday, we went to tour ancient Rome. Rome is a surprising city sometimes. I was not sure what to expect, after seeing pictures of old buildings like the Pantheon, the Coliseum, the forum, and the occasional pictures of ruins, arches, sculpture, et cetera. (Which is pronounced et chet-air-ah over here, btw.) What I did not expect was to walk out of the subway to this:

I’m serious about this, too. I took that picture about five steps out of the station. And Rome has been doing that to me over the last few days… We paid for a nice tour, and the guide kept telling us things that were impressive, but plausible. The romans didn’t like Nero cause he was a jerk, (spent lots of money on nice house, ignored insurrection in parts of empire, burned city down…) so they buried his house. General kills Emporer, senators build monument calling emporer a jerk, then later kill general.

The whole city was founded on being lazy! There were seven hills, and seven tribes. Tribe number one gets lonely, and runs over and kidnaps a bunch of women from tribe number two. What comes next, you ask? Tribe number two starts a big war? Not in Rome. Tribe number two decides it’s too cold to fight, and waits until next summer to go over and check on things. All the women are now pregnant, and don’t want to come home. Next thing you know, there’s a bunch of pizzerias and scooters. Interspaced with sights like this one:

The real kicker is that the two hills are less than a quarter mile apart. I can’t imagine the logic…
“Hey, thossa guys! Dey take-a the women! Let’s make-a the war!”
“OK luigi! But first, let’s-a make-a the sandwich!”

The last stop on the tour was the Coluseum. This building was impressive. Words just don’t do it justice. There was so much bloodshed there, it’s amazing. Our guide told us about the naval battle reenactments, and the other spectacles that would go on. Apparentley, if you were doing a naval reenactment, and you weren’t showing enough enthusiasm, the “referees” would come over and light your boat on fire. Sounds like reality television in a couple years.

Tomorrow, we take a train to Como. I’ll miss Rome, but I get to come back on the way out of here. We’ll keep you guys fed as best as we can, but it can be tricky getting onto the internet. No word on pictures yet.

Andiamo a Como!

2007-09-05T00:24:00.000-07:00

I've only got 3 minutes left on my internet card, so this will be short.

Rome has been good to us since we've acclimated, and we are taking a train to Como, a small town in the north.

Bye!

Pictures

2007-09-04T01:35:00.000-07:00

The computers here are pretty sluggish... We'll can't get any of our pictures up right now. (It's also hard to send email because there is no "at" key.)

We'll keep trying.

edit: the pictures are up... I think it makes the blog look more like this:

2007-09-04T01:25:00.000-07:00

We’re sorry about the lack of updates, so here’s a really big one. We have been having trouble connecting to the internet at our Rome hostel.

My group started in LAX, and caught an Air India flight to Frankfurt, and an AlItalia flight to Rome. The flights went surprising well in spite of the team’s history of rotten airline travel this year. (Don’t fly a Spirit Airlines redeye to Michigan. We landed with back problems, and we’re all in our 20s.) This trip has been a learning experience in international travel. Unfortunately, these lessons are usually in the form of surprise expenses.

Anyways, we’re in Rome. We are staying at a really scary hostel, in a room with an engineering student from Columbia, and a grandpa from Ontario, CA of all places. The place is pretty barren… We have to go into the hall to get electrical power, and internet is only available through three computers downstairs. We wanted to get an update as soon as possible, and it looks like I’m going to be the author because Jeremy’s 220-120V transformer just popped. So, sorry FSAE Italy competitors, Cal Poly Pomona will still have her Cooling, Fuel, Suspension, and Brake design captains.

Today, we toured much of the Vatican, and walked around Rome a bit. I saw the Pietà in St. Peter’s, and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. I saw John Paul’s tomb, and what looked like St. Peter’s tomb. (I’m not sure about that one, because I thought St. Peter was buried a bit deeper.) The Sistine chapel was preceded by what felt like a ten mile hike all throughout the Vatican Museum, where I saw lots of sculpture, artwork, tapestries and artifacts from roman and catholic history.

After the Vatican, we decided to walk to the Pantheon. Like most of Rome, this building has a pretty rich history. Its dome is 25 feet thick, and the bronze for the alter cover in St. Peter’s was ransacked by the Romans in early times. What really stands out is the preservation of the building. It really lucked out over the years, including surviving a barbarian raid after Rome fell because the building’s beauty compelled the invaders to leave the Pantheon unmolested. Now that’s craftsmanship.

And the occasional historical column. Can’t forget that:

There’s so much more, but we were on our feet for 14 hours today, I’m going to bed.

P.S. - Lunch was GOOD!

One Crazy Week...

2007-09-01T00:22:00.000-07:00

Preparing the "gone to Italy" display in the lab.

This was a pretty busy week for everyone. Some of us had finals, some were wrapping up jobs, and some had to move. The first major obstacle is cleared: The car was delivered to the University of Florence Friday morning. The team is almost ready for departure... It's down to the small things, but the devil is in the details.

As the departure date on my plane ticket approaches, the reality sinks in: We are about to execute a plan that has been months in the making.

First Post!!!

2007-08-31T22:48:00.000-07:00

It's Friday night and our first post!!! We leave for out trip to Italy tomorrow at 7:00pm. Cameron, Kevin, Dan, and myself are excited about our awaited adventures. This blog will be updated daily (hopefully) to keep everyone up to date. Be on the lookout !!!