| What does the seminar cover? |
Optimum G's Race car Engineering and Data Acquisition seminar is a practical three-day course designed to introduce:
This seminar provides comprehensive coverage of racecar dynamics, and presents a foundation of engineering principles and analytical methods to explain the performance of a rally or race car. The course covers tire materials and construction, including an extensive analysis of their cornering and longitudinal properties. Basic kinematics of suspension and steering system designs and their interaction with the tire are also presented and discussed. The handling of the car under lateral, inline and vertical acceleration, as well as the aerodynamic forces are highlighted. The interaction between braking systems, differentials and damper technology will allow attendees to understand how their tuning of these various components influences the car's handling. During these 3 days attendees will also receive an introduction to engineering design of the race car's fundamental mechanical systems. A major part of the seminar explains
More than 400 Power Point slides and several data acquisition examples are used to bring the seminar content to life. A comprehensive, well-organized binder containing more than 300 pages of explanatory text and illustrative diagrams is used to relate basic engineering principles to particular requirements of vehicle dynamics and data acquisition. Several examples of setup and practical experience, some successful some unsuccessful, are given as examples.
|
| Who should attend? |
The Race Car Engineering and Data Acquisition Seminar is designed for:
|
| What are the benefits of attending? |
By constantly focusing on day-to-day, short-term crises, engineers don't always take the time to sit down and learn from their successes, their mistakes and the ones of others. This seminar will help you create and achieve long-term goals. No matter how much you already know, you can always learn something new. Even top Formula One race engineers think they master only 80% of what they are responsible for on their race car. The rest is still a gray area. Claude will help turn that area into clear cut black and white. Like any other science, racecar engineering is in constant redefinition. For an engineer to stay on top, he has to continue his education every year. This seminar is the ideal way to keep up with the technology and stay competitive. The bottom line benefit is that you will improve your skills in understanding, analyzing, improving and predicting racecar performance. That will translate into faster lap times and better results.
|
| What is the price? |
For an individual, US $1250. The price could vary slightly with the currency exchange rate, and for in-house company seminars that are also available. This price includes the cost of tuition, binders, lunch and refreshments. The course is not cheap, unless winning is on the priority list. If improving your team's competitiveness is your goal, then the seminar cost is well worth it. In fact, it costs just a bit more than a new set of racing tires. Once a set of tires is used, there isn't much more you can do with them. The knowledge you gain in a seminar can be used over and over at every race. And the dollars you spend on tuition are a relative drop in the bucket compared to the total cost of your team's overall racing budget. Most participants find that the knowledge gained by attending will save them far more in reduced testing time and equipment wear and tear. Remember, in today's competitive, ever-evolving racing world knowledge is power.
|
| Can't I find all this knowledge in books? |
Yes. Some of them are excellent and are given as references at the end of the seminar binder. But it is going to take probably 3 months or even longer to acquire from these books the knowledge you can get from the 3-day seminar. Just think about this:
|
| Do I need to have a degree to attend the seminar? |
No. You need to have some degree of race engineer experience. You will be fine if you know what a tangent of an angle and a derivative of a function are. Mathematics is only used when there is no other way to explain a particular phenomenon. If you don't have a degree but have held a suspension wishbone and adjusted a racecar on the setup pad you will be fine.
|
| What is the seminar attendee profile? |
The hundreds of attendees to this seminar represent virtually every major racing series in the world today (F-1, CART, NASCAR, BusEuropean Touring Car, German Touring Car, Le Mans, Australian V-8 series, Formula 3, IRL, and many, many more) and possess a wide range of skills and experience. People with varying degrees of experience, age and education come to the seminar. So whether you're an experienced F-1 engineer, a student right out of college, or somewhere in between, you will definitely fit right in at OptimumG's Vehicle Dynamics Seminar. |
| Is the seminar useful for a student or recent engineering graduate? |
Yes. EVERY student who came to the seminar found a job in racing a few weeks or a few months after the seminar. It provides them a practical understanding of what will be asked of them as soon as they will start their racing career. Several team managers or chief engineers in Europe and USA now ask if the interviewee has been to an OptimumG seminar and consider attendance as an advantage.
|
| Is the seminar intensive? |
Yes. Although the seminar starts at 8:00 each morning and is supposed to stop at about 6:00 p.m., it often goes much later because of the many questions from the participants. However, because of its intensity, most of the attendees comment on how quickly the seminar goes by. |
| How is the seminar presented? |
The seminar is presented with more than 600 Power Point color slides and several data acquisition examples. Several examples of setup and practical experience, some successful some unsuccessful, are given as illustrations. The audience is limited to 20 persons to allow for plenty of interaction between Claude and the participants. Participants are encouraged to interrupt the seminar with questions, observations and comments at any time.
|
| Do I receive any material to take back to my job? |
Yes. A comprehensive, well-organized binder containing more than 300 pages of explanatory text complete with first class diagrams is given to each participant. It is used to relate basic engineering principles to particular requirements of vehicle dynamics and data acquisition and can be a useful reference back on the job.
|
| Can I buy the materials without attending? |
No. The binder is only available for Optimum G seminar attendees. Some of the explanation would not make sense without the verbal comments, answers to questions, and sharing of practical experience given during the seminar.
|
| The seminar is supported by MoTeC. Would the knowledge acquired be useful if I use a different data acquisition system or if I do not even have one? |
Yes. Although all examples are shown with the MoTeC Interpreter software, all performance data, car and driver style analysis and math functions are adaptable to any data acquisition software.
|
| Is the seminar useful for whatever kind of racecar I am working on? |
Yes. Providing your car has 4 wheels, the vehicle dynamics equations (weight transfers, aerodynamics forces, tire deformation, measurement of the under -or over- steer etc.) and the way the car performance and driver style are analyzed is the same even though the numbers could be very different. There are some peculiarities like third spring, shuttle antiroll bars or specific kinematics, which exist among racing cars, but these differences are covered during the seminar. The in-house seminars, which are taught to a small group of engineers working on a specific component, car, development or problem, will focus on the particular demand of the group.
|
| How do I register? |
Call or email us to register for our seminars or workshops. Click here for contact information.
|
| Do you have any testimonials from past attendees? |
Yes. Check out the testimonials page see some past seminar attendee's comments.
|
| Does Claude Rouelle have other kinds of seminars? |
OptimumG has just introduced its 12-day Advanced Racecar Engineering Workshop. Claude can also specialize a seminar to concentrate on one specific topic such as:
Or direct the seminar to a specific group of people such as:
|
| Is Claude Rouelle involved in company activities other than teaching? |
Yes. While there are experienced engineers other that Claude assigned to each client, Claude is involved in every project the company tackles. OptimumG offers several types of services and products to its clients:
See the complete List of Services for a more detailed description of what OptimumG can offer. The experienced team of engineers can help support you for a single test or an entire season. Whether you need help interpreting data, building and installing a data loom, or want your car entirely redesigned, OptimumG can do it. OptimumG, Claude Rouelle and the team of engineers bring improved performance to race teams. They not only sell setup solutions but also the knowledge and explanations to go with them.
|
| Who has attended this seminar before? |
Here are examples of teams who sent at least one of their members to the seminars: Ganassi Many engineers and technicians from all level of racing competition: F-1 Several companies (and colleges) have been given this seminar in house: DaimlerChrysler
|
| In which language is the seminar taught? |
The seminar is taught in English which is the international racing language. It can also be taught in French, which is Claude Rouelle's native language. All current seminars are taught in English, except the one in France November 15-17,
|
| What if I have a question that is not addressed here? |
If you have a question that was not addressed on this page please let us know so we can include it.
|