Full Blue Racing has been plagued with engine troubles, putting the team out of the competition.

Following a trying day on Friday, the team was confident that Saturday would be better and set to work intent on passing noise and brake in time to compete on Sunday. With an engine that refused to start, the team performed a systematic check of the powertrain and electrical system to identify the problem.

Over time it became clear that the ignition coils were at fault and hence the engine was not receiving a big enough spark to ignite the fuel in the cylinders. The team runs an uncommon 'homebrewp' ECU due to budget constraints and requires ignition coils that are not used by many teams.

As always the team was not beaten and whilst a group searched for new coils, 2 other groups investigated opportunities for implementing alternative solutions and attempted to identify the original cause of the problems. Eventually, the problem was identified as a grounding issue in the electrical system, only becoming apparent at the high current levels drawn by the coils. This was fixed and the team were set to try noise with just 10 minutes of scrutineering time remaining.

At this point the absence of our engine tuner came back to haunt us and we were unable to get the engine to run in time to pass these tests. The rules fo FSG have changed this year, meaning that the team is no longer able to pass scrutineering on Sunday - this has unfortunately meant that the team cannot run this weekend. The team is obviously devastated by this news, but is confident that the problem now simply lies in the tuning of the engine and could easily be solved with more time and better engine testing facilities.

So the team now looks forward to next year - today will be spent soaking up the atmosphere, looking for ideas from other teams and of course lending a hand wherever possible.

The team has placed 2nd in the cost event at Hockenheim!

This event judges the team on its ability to produce a cost effective vehicle, and to document the costs of the vehicle's fabrication and construction. The team had to submit a detailed cost report, documenting materials, processes and assembly tasks for the whole car - even down to the last nut, bolt and washer!

At the competition, the team then comes under scrutiny from a panel of judges regarding this cost report and the final car, before presenting on a deep dive topic. This year's topic focussed on cutting the cost of the car by 20% - a difficult task for what is already the cheapest car in the field! The judges were impressed with the level of detail in the report, and the presentation was praised for 'covering everything'.

This will be the first time that the team has brought home silverware from a competition, and the team now looks forward to gathering more in the future by building on this success.

Today turned into the predicted long slog for Full Blue Racing, with static events and the team attempting to complete the noise and brake tests.

The static events are now completed, and the team has heard its result in the business presention - 39th, meaning the team has retained a similar position to that acheived in Silverstone. The team entered the design event with confidence, the car having passed scurinteering pre-design for the first time in the team's history. This was unfortunately overshadowed by a design judge (not involved in our judging process) exerting excessive force on the steering system and causing damage that required a trip back to scrutineering. The cost event went more smoothly, and the team is awaiting the results of design and cost tomorrow.

The 90 minutes consumed by fixing the steering and re-scrutineering further compounded the problems the team were having in the engine test area. With the normal engine tuning 'guru' still stranded in Belgium, the team has struggled to get the engine to run. Despite the team's best efforts and the generous help of numerous other teams (many thanks to Brunel and Birmingham in particular) the team is still in a stalemate at close of play and the issues are threatening once again to prevent the team running in Saturday morning's events. This problem can be linked back to a lack of any facilities for testing the engine and powertrain and hence a reliance of the team tuning the engine in 'no-load' tests in the finished car. Work is already underway to improve this situation for next year and any offers of help are welcome!

So all in all a tough day for the team - a lengthy fault finding process is underway to try and maximise our chances in the morning, having just 4 hours to get through noise and brake tests if we are to compete in the dynamic events taking place.

We are not beaten yet…

Apologies! The team has been caught up in the fast paced few days of competition and has only just had time to blog…

Following the long day and night queueing on Tuesday, the team was set and ready for scrutineering by Wednesday night. This morning (Thursday) the team was assessed and passed scrutineering just after lunch, following a few minor problems being rectified (and a large problem in the form of a fuel leak!). Straight over to the tilt table and the team also passed this second time, before weighing in slightly heavier than at Silverstone. This is attributed to the differences between the 'dry' weighing in the UK and 'wet' weighing in Germany. The team now faces noise and brake test in the morning, a full 2 hours earlier than in Silverstone and giving a day of tuning and testing before the dynamic events start on Saturday. This is welcome as the team member in charge of the tuning is currently stranded in Belgium with a broken down car! Add to this that 3 of the 4 drivers registered this weekend will be driving for the first time and it is promising to be an interesting weekend! Tomorrow will see the team tested in the static events - business, design and cost. The team is looking forward to these events, better prepared than ever following the srong performance in Silverstone and encouraging feedback from the judges. We will let you know how we get on tomorrow - for now it is a well earned shower and sleeping bag as the team looks forward to an early start in the morning.

Full Blue Racing touched down in Hockenheim on Tuesday morning, following a long drive through the night.

The team left Cambridge on Monday afternoon, and just 12 hours later was in Hockenheim setting up camp. The rest of Tuesday was spent unpacking, planning the week and preparing for static events, and catching up on some sleep! The latest innovation at Formula Student Germany (FSG) is the new queueing system, whereby each team gets a queue number and retains this for the rest of the event. Having queued for the queue number (for 18 hours!) the team was assigned #34. This then determined when the team could register and get in the pits. The team was setup and ready to work on the car by 4pm, and just had a few jobs on the car to prepare for Scrutineering on Thursday morning.

Full Blue Racing is preparing to leave for Hockenheim tomorrow afternoon.

Welcome to the Hockenheim blog foor 2009! As the team prepares to leave for Germany tomorrow afternoon, hopes are high for a strong performance. We'll be posting to this blog every day over the coming week, so you can keep up to date with everything that is happening along the way.

Full Blue Racing bounced back from a tough Saturday to make it into the endurance run…

Having suffered a catastrophic failure yesterday, hopes were now set on making it into the endurance event so that track time could be maximised - the team is now looking to Hockenheim for the results wanted and any further data to backup work between now and FSG09 is valuable. The replacement plenum was finished overnight and fitted to the car first thing. Following some brief engine tuning the team then went onto pass noise test first time, and pass the driver egress test for Mike (our second endurance driver). From there the team had to perform a dance of the tyres whilst the weather constantly drifted from howling rain to bright sunshine. Wanting to maximise its chances for passing brake test, the team was keen to be on the right tyre at the right time.

Finally going with full wet tyres, the team congregated at the brake test area as the sun came out! With the track drying, Graeme (driver 1) did a great job of keeping the tyres cool with puddles and took the FBR09 its first steps. Brake test was passed! The SAFBR09 was ready to race, and the team had just one hour until it's slot - perfect!

Further tweaks to the car were made in preparation for the endurance event, before the team queued up in the F1 pitlane to start the endurance event (held on the luffield and woodcote corners of the GP track). Finally, the team was off! Graeme performed well in what were now adverse conditions, on tyres that were by now struggling to keep the car on the track. The aim was to bring the car home and test durability, aiming to fix anything that showed signs of causing problems in the future. After 14km of faultless running the car came in for the driver change.

Unfortunately the forced re-use of a sump gasket when changing the oil (due to a lack of spare) had failed and the car was withdrawn with an oil leak. And so the UK competition was over for FBR, and the team is now taking forward the positives gained from the event. Design work has already started on a mk2 intake, with the aim of taking a fully tested part to Germany in two weeks. Spares will be sourced for the car to prevent unenecessary problems and small tweaks will be made to the car. Beyond this the team is overjoyed as the mechanical and electrical systems performed exactly as desired - it suggests a strong performance is within reach for the team in Germany, and with the team placing highest of those that only completed static events the team moves forward with a new wave of confidence. Thank you for keeping up to date with us - we'll be back on here in a couple of weeks to let you know how we get on at Germany.

FBR has a day of mixed emotions, as great results from the static event are overshadowed by a car failure.

Today was always going to be close to the wire. The team was also awaiting results from the static events, in which it had aimed to improve on last year across the board. The day started strongly - electrical problems now remedied the team passed tilt test first time (although not without a little verbal persuasion). From here noise test was the goal and the team returned to the pits to setup up the car. Promising noises from the engine quickly became a very loud bang as the engine sparked and backfired. Running a wasted spark system (two of the four spark plugs fire for every single engine 'bang') is susceptible to these happening, however on this occasion the throttle had been set in the wrong position - the intake took the full force of the explosion and effectively burst. Immediately the team was on the back foot and all hopes of passing brake and noise was put on hold, with entering any dynamic events at all today looking unlikely. The team returned to the pits dejected, however as always ideas started bouncing around for solutions - we had 6 hours until the autocross event, what could we do by then?… A quick search around isolated two spare plenums in the pitlane. A team member was dispatched back to Cambridge to fetch a previous testing plenum, and a small huddle formed around the departed intake in an attempt to put humpty back together again. One brainstorming session later and the team had found its solution - a hybrid of old and new, with the help of some GFRP and plenty of ingenuity. Work began in earnest… To buoy on the team the results of the static events were posted at the event HQ. They stand as follows: Cost event: 12th overall Business event: 35th overall Design event: 36th overall The team was delighted with these results, placing them safely in the top third of the 92 teams and improving considerably on all results from FSG last year. Feedback from the judges was encouraging - particularly noting the clear design choices and justifications made by the engineering team and the clever solutions found in the face of a relatively low budget (both financial and time). The cost team was complemented on its 'almost perfect' presentation, and particular interest was paid to the high quality of the suspension uprights (regularly photographed by judges throughout the paddock) and the 'different' plate wishbones (used for their low cost, accurate manufacture and short lead time). But back to the pits… unfortunately the team missed acceleration, skidpan and autocross - a massive blow for a team that has set its goals high this year, but shown every sign of acheiving them until the last minute. Undaunted, the team has set its sights on completing the endurance event tomorrow - this will vindicate the mechanical design of the car and stand the team in good stead for the German competition (provided a more permanent intake solution can be found in time). And so I sit here with a new intake plenum, ready to go on the car first thing in the morning and to put Full Blue Racing firmly on the road to acheiving its overall aim of a top half finish at Silverstone.

Today saw the team pass though safety and technical inspections, as well as completing the static events for the competition

Today the team had an early start to ensure they were at the front of the queue for scrutineering when it opened at 8.30am. Luckily some teams weren't so quick off the mark and FBR were into scrutineering by 10am. Having passed safety inspection, the technical inspection was interrupted by having to attend the cost event.

The cost event tests the teams ability to consider how they would fulfil the brief of having to take their car design to market - consideration of manufacture, costs, feasibility and materials selection are all examined. This was shortly followed by the design competition - a detailed analysis by 9 professional automotive engineers, talking to members of the team regarding their designs, the decisions they came to and the justifications for those designs. Feedback from the judges was very positive and the team is excitedly waiting the results tomorrow.

The car then returned to scrutineering to pass with just modifications requiring tape, cable ties and a rubber glove! A great result and one that put the team back on track to be racing tomorrow. At the same time, members of the business team were presenting to a panel of 4 judges in the business presentation event. This is similar to a dragons den event, in which team members must sell the car to investors as if they were a start up company looking to sell around 1000 cars a year.

Having passed scrutineering, the car is now fuelled and managed to miss the tilt test by 30 seconds - ensuring that the team has an early start tomorrow to ensure that they can pass tilt test, brake test and noise test in time for the acceleration and skidpan events tomorrow morning. That is of course not before the late night, sorting out several electrical niggles - no rest for the racer…

The team spent the day registering, queuing, queuing, queuing and more queuing…

This morning was spent preparing the car for technical inspection - mostly setup jobs such as brake system filling, reattaching components dismantled for travelling and systems checks.

Inevitably with 93 teams at the competition, scrutineering was not going to be completed in a single day, and with ticket #64 Full Blue were unable to get through as hoped. It does reopen in the morning and so the team's new aim is to get the car through technical inspection as quick as possible in the morning to maximise driver/car time, in preparation for the dynamic events starting on Saturday.

At the same time, tomorrow sees the static events take place - business, cost and design. These require the car and so must be juggled with technical inspection and testing, to ensure the car looks its best. Tonight we have to leave the pits at 10pm, followed be preparation for design judging tomorrow and an early(ish) night ready for the 7.00am start - drivers briefings and scrutineering queues beckon!