This appears to be a legitimate effort to build a car to race at Le Mans. Unlike every other team currently in pro racing, they are opening up their design information to the 'net. Another interesting page is their public budget, combined with request for sponsorship. Racing is not cheap, although I believe their budget to be significantly lower than the major manufacturers that race at Le Mans.
Perrinn myTeam claims to be the world's first open-source race team, and it plans to enter the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2015 with an all-wheel-drive hybrid LMP1 car, which means the team would be competing against the likes of Audi, Porsche and Toyota. Everything about the car--from CAD drawings to its maker's financials--will be available online for anyone to scrutinize.
(Score: 0) by SlackStone on Tuesday April 22 2014, @01:21AM
Burning fossil fuel for no good reason is lame. Now if this were a solar electric car, then they'd be onto something. Don't even get me started on Christmas lights or illuminated billboards.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 22 2014, @02:56AM
You forgot to complain about silly treehuggers wasting electricity by posting useless comments on the internet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 22 2014, @02:58AM
Racing is where automotive R&D is done. Tons of new technologies are designed for or proven in racing. In endurance racing fuel efficiency is a huge concern, teams are fielding hybrids and figuring how to use the power in the best way as one example. The main benefit is in safety equipment, though, which I think makes it worth it alone.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 22 2014, @08:20AM
Sure, like military is where most of any R&D is done but it's still a bad use of funds in both cases. If you want to advance the aspects of every day motoring, then that is what you study. Now any enhancements are but breadcrumbs from these tangentially related conditions.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Tuesday April 22 2014, @10:59AM
How much got burnt so you could post your comment? Not that it's a bad comment, but "good reason" is not something we're ever all going to agree on. Numerous safey and efficient improvements have come about in mainstream motoring over the years thanks to competitive racing.
Watching cars go round and round and round (and round) a track isn't my thing, but fossil fuels get burnt so I can watch my favourite (and non-critical-for-life) TV shows, for instance.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 1) by SlackStone on Tuesday April 22 2014, @03:01PM
OK I'll bite. I personally burn a lot less these days thanks to new low power ARM chips and Virtual Machines. I wouldn't suggest that people give up fossil fuel all together, but rather resource moderation should be allowed into the discussion. I see car racing, holiday lights and illuminated billboards as low hanging fruit.
Regarding TV power consumption, viewing on a tablet at 12" versus a flat-screen at 12' has about the same eyeball real estate. Not that I've measured but I bet the tablet uses much less power. Moderation with TV consumption and computer usage seems possible.
Maybe I'm hyper-sensitive to oil consumption. Here in Philly we get to watch the non-stop flow of mid-west oil cars heading to the refinery. Damn we all burn a lot of oil, that's really my point.
I agree that we'll never get "good reason" out of most of society, but "some reason" would be refreshing. ... off now to hug a tree.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 22 2014, @03:49PM
OK, while I applaud the philosophy behind the effort, the goals are not even realistic. What exactly is this one person trying to achieve? It's stated the goal is to achieve success in FIA WEC and win Le Mans in 5 years. Then it states it is an open source team. Then it states it is a manufacturer, not a "customer" team. Then it states they are creating an open source race car. Which is it? All? Some statements contradict other statements. The problem definition seems completely undefined and contradictory. I suggest he dramatically refine his scope. If he's trying to do many things (myTeam, myP1, etc...), each goal should be clearly delineated, but it looks like a bit of a mess. Maybe he's just Agile.
Having said that, I love sportscar racing (the death of ALMS is tragic, but it was slowly destroyed by Scott for years, and watching WEC, ELMS in USA is not easy), but the goal of winning Le Mans in 5 years is not achievable. I'm all for setting high goals, but not unachievable goals.
Past efforts at creating open source race cars and teams have failed. Why is his list of drivers so restrictive? He does know NDAs are common when hiring drivers, thereby negating an open source team, right? The site appears largely soiled (soylented?) at the moment so it's hard to get some details. Build a running open source transmission or aero package used by other teams that actually survive races, then worry about an entire team then worry about completing a single WEC race then worry about getting invited to Le Mans, then worry about winning Le Mans. Yes he has been a member of a race team, but he's clearly not been a principal. He seems to have no concept of how much money winning Le Mans 24 Hour costs. Has he even completed a season in any motorsports series as a principal?
(the site's bogged so maybe some of my questions are answered already)
OK, time to get off my grumpy chair, but I think his great enthusiasm and efforts are better spent on more achievable, well-defined goals.