The 2008 school year brought significant change to Western’s racecar engineering team, and change, it seems, was just what was needed. The Vikings placed higher in competition than ever before — sixth place overall among the 82 teams registered for the event.

Formula SAE (FSAE) is an international competition where student teams design, build and race a car against other student-run teams. The FSAE competitions events range from timed race events to presentations given before a panel of industry professionals.

Western's Formula SAE team member Adam Baxter rounds a corner during the endurance competition at the Formula SAE West competition on June 28 in Fontana, Calif. The teams sixth place finish at the event is its best ever. Photo courtesy of James Waltman

The event, simply called “West” by the Western team, spanned three days and was held this year at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.
When compared to other cars at the competition, Western’s Vehicle Research Institute (VRI) built car, named Viking 43, resembles a baby Formula One racecar.  

The new car is a one-piece design and is built using carbon fiber from the rear wheels forward. Using these materials keeps the car ultra-lightweight compared to most vehicles on the road and means the racecar weighs less than 430 pounds—light enough to be lifted by four people, said the teams powertrain captain, Marshall Hagen.

 The VRI was the first FSAE team to design and build every part of their car from the engine all the way down to the driver’s seat, said team project manager John Furtado. They were also the first team to build and install a student built V8 engine in their car, he said. 

“Most of the past [Western] teams had problems of some kind in the endurance event," Hagen said. "This year we did make contact with another team and got black-flagged, but we were able to finish the event.”

If there is an accident during a race, the offending car is waved into the garage by a black signal flag and given a safety inspection, hence the term “black-flagged.”

The black-flag situation occurred 22 kilometers into the race on the team’s final lap of the endurance event. The Western team’s racecar rear-ended the car from the University of Toledo.  Western’s team was flagged and brought into the pit area for a safety inspection.  Once it was determined by event staff that Western’s car was still fit to race, the car was released from the pits and drove the remaining 50 feet across the finish line.

To design and build a competitive car in a single year required countless hours of dedication from team members in preparation for the FSAE West 2008 competition.

“We spent 40, 50, sometimes 60 plus-hours every week working on the car,” Furtado said.

The hardest part was staying on schedule, Furtado said. By setting immovable deadlines and checkpoints over a nine-month period, the team was able to stay on track through every project phase, he said.

“Missing deadlines hurt past teams so staying on schedule was important,” Furtado said.  In the past, once the team missed a deadline, there was a false perception that missing later deadlines would have little consequence, he said.

Keeping to a schedule was an important goal for this year’s team, Furtado said. During the last 10 years, no FSAE team at Western has designed and built a car in a single school year, Furtado said.

More important than staying on track however was the quality of the team members.

“People were competent in their areas, and every need the team had was filled,” Furtado said.  “In the past, for example, we had problems with funding. This year, if we had a problem like that someone would step up and say, ‘I’ll take care of that.’”

In addition to engineering students, this year’s team included students from the communications, elementary education and business departments.  There are just some skills that engineers, lack like communication skills and making compromises within a group, Furtado said.  Engineers are not good at asking for funding either, he said.  These non-engineering students bring those missing skills to the table.  Students from all majors are encouraged to join, he said.

“The team is always looking for new members,” Furtado said. “Regardless of what their focus is.”

Click here to see the preparation for the competition. 

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