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Student race driver to bow out after Japan trip
By Lu Xiaofeng and Xu Wei |
August 29, 2011, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
IN early September, the Yichi Team of Tongji University will leave for Japan to race in the ninth Formula SAE Competition of Japan. It will be the second time for Chi Xiaoming, the team leader, to take part in this competition in Japan. After the trip, his team will return to China for the Formula SAE Competition of China in October.
A native of Qingpu District, Chi has now been studying in Tongji University's Jiading campus for about six years. When he was taking the college entrance examination, the major of automobile design in Tongji University was his first choice.
"My final score was only 1 point higher than what the major required," he recalls.
When asked whether he had enough understanding of automobiles, he said with a smile that he almost had no idea at that time. He chose this major just because he was an enthusiast of machinery and a big fan of the famous racing driver Michael Schumacher.
"Actually anyone can do things well as long as he has an interest," Chi adds. He clearly remembers his first class in the university. He was astonished at the teacher's demonstration of the structure of the automobile engine.
"I used to regard automobiles as simple products, never expected that its structure would be so amazing and interesting," he says.
When Chi was a junior student, he saw a recruitment post from the FSAE racing team of the automobile college. He learned that the team was for the university students taking part in the Formula SAE Competition hosted by the Society of Automotive Engineers International. Motivated by a dream to make a Formula 1 racing car, he joined the team.
"Whenever I think of the roar of the car engines, I fell extremely excited," he says.
However, he soon learned that it was not that easy to turn his dream into reality. At that time, his main task was working on the brake system and did a 3D auto model design. In order to find appropriate ways, he would spend hours in the school library. But to his annoyance, there were few books regarding racing car in the library. Chi then turned to overseas professional racing car websites to learn from their expertise and advanced experience.
The first Formula SAE Competition of China was held in October of the second year when Chi joined the team at the Shanghai International Circuit. Since the Japan competition was hosted just one month earlier, the university suggested the team design two different racing cars for the two contests.
It was a tough and challenging job as the 10 or so team members were required to finish the two cars' design work within only one year. With the joint efforts of the team, the new cars were more deft and 30 kilograms lighter than old ones. All the team members were confident that they could make a fairly good performance in the competition.
However, after the competition he found that there was still a large technological distance between domestic racing cars and foreign ones. They finally attended only one program of the Japan competition, as the car didn't reach the safety standards. Just one day before the Chinese competition, Chi found that there was also something wrong with the car's engine, but they failed to find out the problem though they worked all the night. During the contest it took them a lot of time to start the engine and the Yichi Team finally ranked eighth place.
"We failed in the China competition because of our mistakes, while the Japan competition made us realize our huge technological distance from foreign cars," Chi says. "We had a lot to learn."
Last year after the China competition Chi was selected as the team leader. He says that he is not only responsible for the technology, but also for finding sponsorship and the daily management of the team.
To prepare for the upcoming contest, he and his colleagues are still working on the final test and adjustment of the racing car. The new racing car has a few more optimized functions. Its maximum engine power can reach 150 horsepower, three times that of the first racing car designed by Chi's predecessors in the team.
Now Chi has become a postgraduate student of the automobile college, major in power engineering. After the China competition, he will quit his job as the team leader.
A native of Qingpu District, Chi has now been studying in Tongji University's Jiading campus for about six years. When he was taking the college entrance examination, the major of automobile design in Tongji University was his first choice.
"My final score was only 1 point higher than what the major required," he recalls.
When asked whether he had enough understanding of automobiles, he said with a smile that he almost had no idea at that time. He chose this major just because he was an enthusiast of machinery and a big fan of the famous racing driver Michael Schumacher.
"Actually anyone can do things well as long as he has an interest," Chi adds. He clearly remembers his first class in the university. He was astonished at the teacher's demonstration of the structure of the automobile engine.
"I used to regard automobiles as simple products, never expected that its structure would be so amazing and interesting," he says.
When Chi was a junior student, he saw a recruitment post from the FSAE racing team of the automobile college. He learned that the team was for the university students taking part in the Formula SAE Competition hosted by the Society of Automotive Engineers International. Motivated by a dream to make a Formula 1 racing car, he joined the team.
"Whenever I think of the roar of the car engines, I fell extremely excited," he says.
However, he soon learned that it was not that easy to turn his dream into reality. At that time, his main task was working on the brake system and did a 3D auto model design. In order to find appropriate ways, he would spend hours in the school library. But to his annoyance, there were few books regarding racing car in the library. Chi then turned to overseas professional racing car websites to learn from their expertise and advanced experience.
The first Formula SAE Competition of China was held in October of the second year when Chi joined the team at the Shanghai International Circuit. Since the Japan competition was hosted just one month earlier, the university suggested the team design two different racing cars for the two contests.
It was a tough and challenging job as the 10 or so team members were required to finish the two cars' design work within only one year. With the joint efforts of the team, the new cars were more deft and 30 kilograms lighter than old ones. All the team members were confident that they could make a fairly good performance in the competition.
However, after the competition he found that there was still a large technological distance between domestic racing cars and foreign ones. They finally attended only one program of the Japan competition, as the car didn't reach the safety standards. Just one day before the Chinese competition, Chi found that there was also something wrong with the car's engine, but they failed to find out the problem though they worked all the night. During the contest it took them a lot of time to start the engine and the Yichi Team finally ranked eighth place.
"We failed in the China competition because of our mistakes, while the Japan competition made us realize our huge technological distance from foreign cars," Chi says. "We had a lot to learn."
Last year after the China competition Chi was selected as the team leader. He says that he is not only responsible for the technology, but also for finding sponsorship and the daily management of the team.
To prepare for the upcoming contest, he and his colleagues are still working on the final test and adjustment of the racing car. The new racing car has a few more optimized functions. Its maximum engine power can reach 150 horsepower, three times that of the first racing car designed by Chi's predecessors in the team.
Now Chi has become a postgraduate student of the automobile college, major in power engineering. After the China competition, he will quit his job as the team leader.
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