Formula Sae Collegiate Design Series
08-13-2003 | 12:38 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 870
From: NASA/JSC - Clear Lake, TX
considering all the info i seefrom m the age/job thread, it seems many of you are in college and interested in cars. as a result, i figure many of you may be interested in something.
it's the Formula SAE competition, a college design competition where students build and race a small fomula race car. the only thing that is usually not designed/manufactured is the engine, which must be 600cc.
this competition is a blast, i've been a volunteer on our team at Texas A&M for the past 2 yrs and will be on the '04 design team (yeah, go Team Suspension!). i've learned sooo much about cars from this, and it really looks impressive when you go to get a job. most classes are just theory and design using ProE or SolidWorks, but when you have to build what you designed, and it has to win a competition, that's a different story.
every may we compete in detroit. the event is hosted by the big 3 american companies, and honda usually shows up to recruit. over 140 schools show up!, including entries from MIT, UMC, RIT, UM, state, and of course TEXAS A&M U. (2000 champions!).
here is more info:
http://www.sae.org/students/formula.htm
and pictures of some of the cars:
http://www.sae.org/students/fsae2002pix.htm
and the A&M FSAE car:
http://sae.tamu.edu/FormulaSAE/fsae2003/20...n/album2003.htm
it's the Formula SAE competition, a college design competition where students build and race a small fomula race car. the only thing that is usually not designed/manufactured is the engine, which must be 600cc.
this competition is a blast, i've been a volunteer on our team at Texas A&M for the past 2 yrs and will be on the '04 design team (yeah, go Team Suspension!). i've learned sooo much about cars from this, and it really looks impressive when you go to get a job. most classes are just theory and design using ProE or SolidWorks, but when you have to build what you designed, and it has to win a competition, that's a different story.
every may we compete in detroit. the event is hosted by the big 3 american companies, and honda usually shows up to recruit. over 140 schools show up!, including entries from MIT, UMC, RIT, UM, state, and of course TEXAS A&M U. (2000 champions!).
here is more info:
http://www.sae.org/students/formula.htm
and pictures of some of the cars:
http://www.sae.org/students/fsae2002pix.htm
and the A&M FSAE car:
http://sae.tamu.edu/FormulaSAE/fsae2003/20...n/album2003.htm
08-13-2003 | 09:34 AM
#5
Senior Member
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 3,108
i worked on the 2001 and 2002 Formula SAE car for Queen's University.
The 600cc engine is not accurate. Atlast from my old times there you can run whatever engine you please. Turbo, Nitrious, NA. Whatever. You just have to run the regulation restrictor plate.
The scoring or rank of your car does not soley depend on you winning the race. It also depends on the design of the car which the officials (SAE) will scrutinize and ask you over and over why you chose this instead of this.
The problem with most university race teams is that they try to do too much with too little time. You have less then 8 months to build the car and do testing.
We ended up finishing hte car 4 days before the compeition in detroit. Needless to say no one got any seat time and we lost hte event bad. Plus things broke.
For future project managers. KEEP IT SIMPLE! use what has been proven race design, not try to engineer a F1 car. Reliability testing and seat behind the wheel wins this event. If you car breaks and uhave all these damn fancy bells and whistles in it. Bottom line ididn't finish.
(sorry about my rant) that is the reason why i didn't join the 2003 team.
also teh budget is way skewed. I think most of hte top american universities were running full carbon fibre monocoque cars. While were wers stil using aluminum balsa wood composite panels.
Another bottom line is money wins. And Schools like UCLA, MIT, michigan state have pockets so deep is it rediclous
The 600cc engine is not accurate. Atlast from my old times there you can run whatever engine you please. Turbo, Nitrious, NA. Whatever. You just have to run the regulation restrictor plate.
The scoring or rank of your car does not soley depend on you winning the race. It also depends on the design of the car which the officials (SAE) will scrutinize and ask you over and over why you chose this instead of this.
The problem with most university race teams is that they try to do too much with too little time. You have less then 8 months to build the car and do testing.
We ended up finishing hte car 4 days before the compeition in detroit. Needless to say no one got any seat time and we lost hte event bad. Plus things broke.
For future project managers. KEEP IT SIMPLE! use what has been proven race design, not try to engineer a F1 car. Reliability testing and seat behind the wheel wins this event. If you car breaks and uhave all these damn fancy bells and whistles in it. Bottom line ididn't finish.
(sorry about my rant) that is the reason why i didn't join the 2003 team.
also teh budget is way skewed. I think most of hte top american universities were running full carbon fibre monocoque cars. While were wers stil using aluminum balsa wood composite panels.
Another bottom line is money wins. And Schools like UCLA, MIT, michigan state have pockets so deep is it rediclous
08-13-2003 | 10:08 AM
#6
Thread Starter
Senior Member
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 870
From: NASA/JSC - Clear Lake, TX
we get very little money, we have to beg lots of sponsors for our money.
i agree that there is not enough time to do this crap. i know lots of smaller schools/teams start designing in the summer and start building in the fall. we dont. this is our fall design class. we design in the fall, keep it simple and use what worked from the year before, adding a few new things to get us design points. we finished our car last spring by spring break, and had the remaining time to test it, tune it, and work on suspension details. the result: a good car.
the judges hate that, they want to see more design. but what wins competitions is great handling and great driving, not just good designs. we opt for extensive driver training and a car that is simple yet reliable and fast.
our engineering technology guys just finished our custom engine controller. no more motec!
only problem with this competition: NO ROTARY ENGINES ALLOWED! dang, i was thinking norton F1 power!
also, the engines are limited to 610 cc of displacement. its in the rules.
i agree that there is not enough time to do this crap. i know lots of smaller schools/teams start designing in the summer and start building in the fall. we dont. this is our fall design class. we design in the fall, keep it simple and use what worked from the year before, adding a few new things to get us design points. we finished our car last spring by spring break, and had the remaining time to test it, tune it, and work on suspension details. the result: a good car.
the judges hate that, they want to see more design. but what wins competitions is great handling and great driving, not just good designs. we opt for extensive driver training and a car that is simple yet reliable and fast.
our engineering technology guys just finished our custom engine controller. no more motec!
only problem with this competition: NO ROTARY ENGINES ALLOWED! dang, i was thinking norton F1 power!
also, the engines are limited to 610 cc of displacement. its in the rules.
08-13-2003 | 10:21 AM
#7
Senior Member
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 736
From: Toledo, OH
When I went to Kettering University I was on that team. We had a pretty bad *** little car, with a hole bunch of carbon fiber parts (it was cool cuz I learned how to lay carbon fiber, and what needs to be done to molds) but I haven't gotten into it at the University of Toledo cuz there team sucks. Maybe I'll get involved and try to bring em around 
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