How Formula SAE Racing Works – Students build and race 100+ MPH cars

Imagine that you are a mechanical engineering student in college. Being a MechE, you would probably want to get your hands dirty making something mechanical. And what better thing to make than a car? Cars are the most complicated mechanical objects that people come into contact with on a daily basis. To ratchet it up a notch, make it a high-performance race car.

That is what Formula SAE racing is all about (SAE = Society of Automotive Engineers). College students design and build Formula SAE cars and race them in competitions around the world.

The Formula SAE Web site describes it this way:

The concept behind Formula SAE is that a fictional manufacturing company has contracted a design team to develop a small Formula-style race car. The prototype race car is to be evaluated for its potential as a production item. The target marketing group for the race car is the non-professional weekend autocross racer. Each student team designs, builds and tests a prototype based on a series of rules whose purpose is both to ensure onsite event operations and promote clever problem solving.

Formula SAE promotes careers and excellence in engineering as it encompasses all aspects of the automotive industry including research, design, manufacturing, testing, developing, marketing, management and finances. Formula SAE takes students out of the classroom and allows them to apply textbook theories to real work experiences.

There are detailed rules, obviously, as seen here:

http://students.sae.org/competitions/formulaseries/rules/2011fsaerules.pdf

However, the basic idea in classic SAE racing is that you are going to build a car with a motorcycle engine of 600cc or less (there are other categories, including a new hybrid category that combines a 250cc engine with electric motors). There are no real size constraints or weight constraints. Almost all of the rules have something to do with safety. The rule book puts it this way: “To give teams the maximum design flexibility and the freedom to express their creativity and imaginations there are very few restrictions on the overall vehicle design.”

The cars themselves tend to be amazing: light (less than 500 pounds), precise and fast (100+ MPH top speed). These videos give you a taste:

See also:

More info:
- How Formula One Works
- How Champ Cars Work

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