FETC Take II

[rh77]

What do you say we get the competition going again?

I'm not sure if it was a lack of interest or a busy Commish, but you can't ignore that the contest fizzled-out a while back.

The overall response was to take a break -- well, here we are. Rested? Ready to go? To tackle the Winter months...

First thing -- I'll admit that I need some help. The goal is to get stats out weekly or every-other-week. The problem is that the automatic process isn't so automatic and it has taken many hours to compile and report the data. My regular job has kept me busy with long days and travel, so when I'm home, that time is devoted to home time. That leaves small bursts of time to spend here -- which honestly wasn't enough to give you guys a fair update of team progress.

If someone else wants to step-up as Commish, that's cool. If you just want to run the data and report it, that's cool too. If you look back, it's a tough job -- especially rules interpretation. I still would like to be involved in some form, maybe adviser, I dunno.

The next order of business. When to start? Do we retroactively run stats from the time of the last cycle? Do we even still have enough people interested?

Everyone -- chime-in. This competition has produced a great number of personal advances in the cause of FE -- which can then be shared with the rest. Look at the History this Forum's posts. Can we ignore them?

RH77/"Commish"

[2TonJellyBean]

I'd like to resume in May...

My mileage is dropping as fast as the temps!!!

[SVOboy]

But it'll be a good push to stick with it through the winter...

Too bad I don't drive so much.

[rh77]

Originally Posted by 2TonJellyBean

I'd like to resume in May...

My mileage is dropping as fast as the temps!!!

That's the big reason for getting started again -- to offset that Winter drop

Originally Posted by SVOboy

Too bad I don't drive so much.

If you're interested in crunching numbers or programming, that might help -- depending on your school workload.

Originally Posted by theclencher

the competition was a good motivator up to a point for me. got me to try extensive EOC and nearly hit 50 mpg ~ +40%. by the same token i discovered i don't want to drive like that on a regular basis, hence my fe sliding back down to what it was before. also i've removed the aeromods, partly cuz they looked ridiculous and partly to see fe effect. i guess i'm not motivated enuf to be a good competitor- next mods will happen when they happen, probably not good enough for team performance

That's the thing. Folks can get super-serious about it, or take it as a mild challenge. As I've seen, there's a fine line there between giving 110% and burning out.

The beauty of the Winter competition might be who loses the least FE percentage . It seems to be a near-guarantee that FE drops with the effects of temperature and fuel re-formulation. It might not be as heated of a competition as the past -- pun intended.

RH77

[2TonJellyBean]

Okay, so do we start factoring in HDD (heating degree days)?

HDD is the difference between the average daily temperature and 65?F.

[Fourthbean]

If we started back up it might just make me go out there and so something to my car to move it away from stock form. I would be up for trying another round here in the winter.

I like the part about who is going to lose the least percentage wise. I guess us Southern folk will have a bit of an advantage there . But then again I guess that's what the Mason Dixon line rule is for .

Is there a thread about how the process of stats is automated? I am no programmer but might be willing to poke around it to see if we couldn't get something better worked out.

[DRW]

I like the idea of suspending the FE challenge in Fall/Spring since the weather is changing throughout the season. How would we know if a change in FE was due to mods, driving, or weather? How about limiting the challenge to seasons when the weather is mostly stable so the drivers have a chance to see if their mods/ driving techniques help or hurt?

I also support the idea of shorter periods, such as 4 to 6 weeks. This should give the drivers a feeling of urgency- now's the time, don't delay. If the time period is longer it lets the driver procrastinate.

[rh77]

These are good points...keep 'em coming...

Perhaps Winters vary too much for a fair fight. Frozen precip really takes its toll, from experience. Higher rolling resistance in the cold, etc.

So, are shorter periods preferred? Feel free to post polls or request a poll for ideas. So far, I haven't seen enough interest for 2 teams to get it started again...

As far as running the stats, Matt sets up a data download for the requested cars, and I plug them into an Excel spreadsheet. The data dump has made the process SO much easier, but still a buggah to copy the data properly and format it for posting in the thread. Still a ways from "fully automated". Any ideas???

RH77

[skewbe]

Excel can use a "url" as a datasource, if you set up a sheet to get its data from the dump via "web address" you can build a formatted report on another sheet and have it automatically updated.

[rh77]

Originally Posted by skewbe

Excel can use a "url" as a datasource, if you set up a sheet to get its data from the dump via "web address" you can build a formatted report on another sheet and have it automatically updated.

That's a great point -- I forgot about that import function. The problem is that most of my work is done offline. I suppose I could setup the links in the sheet and then "run" them when online.

The next tricky part would be gleaning data from the Gaslog as a function of a web address.

RH77