Engineering team designs race car

Resumes do not come much better than this: "Member of a team that designed, built and raced a car capable of accelerating from zero to 60 in 4.7 seconds."

For some University students, this is no idle dreaming. It describes a year-long project taking place in the North Campus' Autolab. About 45 students, many in Engineering, have joined as a team to design and build a race car for a national competition to be held May 19-23 at the Pontiac Silverdome.

The team comes together under the campus chapter of the international group Society of Automotive Engineers. This project, one of four sponsored by the society, is referred to as Formula SAE. The project aims to design and build a new race car each year, making the car as fast as possible.

LOUIS BROWN/Daily A team of 45 University students have began constructing a race car. The Society of Automotive Engineers, an international organization, sponsors the team's project.

But at the national competition the judges evaluate the cars not only on how well they perform, but on their designs as well. No more than $9,000 must be spent on the car, and teams must show they could produce more cars at or below the target cost.

Todd Brittingham, co-captain of the team and an Engineering senior, said the business aspect of the competition complements the engineering side.

The project "brings in more than just engineering," he said.

While the car costs approximately $9,000, the year-long project is budgeted in the neighborhood of $40,000. Financial contributions come from a variety of sources from the School of Engineering, which gives $3,000 and provides space in the Autolab for the team to work, to the Ford Motor Company, which donates $5,000.

The competition in May will be the continuation of an annual event that began in '81 at the University of Texas, Austin. Last year, 96 teams competed (110 had registered, but 14 teams failed to have cars ready on time). The University's team finished 25th, a drop from its 16th place finish the previous year, which itself was a steep drop from the competition in '94 - a year when the University team took first place.

"We are somewhat disappointed," said Brittingham of the decline in performance.

Ravindra Kharmai, an Engineering senior and co-captain of the team, said preparation for the '99 competition began immediately after the '98 competition. He said he and Brittingham spend an average 40 hours per week overseeing the project, which is now entering the transition period between design and production. The team used computers to draft designs, but now the team must test the designs with computer simulations and wooden mock-ups of key components.

The project is divided into five groups - chassis, electronics, body, business and engine - each with its own leader. John Matsushima, a Engineering graduate student, leads the group responsible for the engine. Matsushima spent five years in Japan working for Toyota, where he coordinated the production of the Rav 4 engine.

He said working for the formula team differs greatly from his work in Japan.

"This is actually more fun," he said. "We can spend as much money as we can to go as fast as we can."

The team hopes to increase the horsepower of the engine, which comes from a Honda motorcycle, and Matsushima is one of the people responsible for realizing the goal. By adding a turbocharger to the engine and manipulating intake, exhaust, spark timing, fuel injection and cooling, Matsushima and the engine group hope to boost the engine's horsepower from 76 to 90.

Another season goal is to reduce the weight of the car by 100 pounds, which would drop it to 450. Matushima said the team will be examining such small pieces as bolts for places to shed weight.

The team aims to complete and ready the car for testing by early March, two months before the competition, Brittingham said.

"The building process isn't going to be perfect," he said, adding that the longer the team has to fine-tune the car before the competition, the better the car will be.

The co-captains said that in addition to learning about the engineering of cars, the project has benefits beyond the bounds of engineering.

"Building the race car is a means to an end of developing yourself," Kharmai said. "It's very rewarding to participate in something from start to finish and see a final working product."

Brittingham said the project will help make the team members stronger job candidates.

"This project is a big resume booster," Brittingham said.

He recounted a story of a Ford recruiter interested only in hiring engineers with masters or doctorate degrees who said he would accept someone with a bachelors degree if the applicant had worked on the formula car. The recruiter called participation in the project "a golden ticket," Brittingham said.

Resume booster or not, the team takes the competition seriously.

Kharmai recalled that before the competition last May, some team members put in incredibly long hours. "We would come in here at eight a.m. and leave at one a.m.," he said.

A sign posted in the team shop may best indicate the team's will to win.

"What have you done to beat Cornell University today?" the sign reads.

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