Since its debut in 1997, the University of Toronto’s Formula SAE Racing Team has established a very competitive position in both North American and European competitions, while its members learn things about engineering that they don’t teach in the classroom.

Each spring, teams of mechanical engineering students from around the world converge on Detroit with their racing cars for the annual Formula SAE competition. The team from U of T plans for 2003 to be Toronto’s big year in Motor City.

Formula SAE is a university-level design competition organized by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). The event is hosted at the Pontiac Silverdome by the Big Three Detroit car companies. With more than 120 competing universities from around the world, Formula SAE is the largest student automotive design competition in the world.

Vinh Pham, manager for U of T’s 2002 team, put the event in perspective: “Formula One racing is a big spectator sport. The largest TV-viewed sport is the Olympics, at one billion people, next is World Cup Soccer with 500 million viewers, and next is Formula racing, which has 350 million viewers worldwide.” Formula SAE is like a junior version of Formula One—a way for students to get involved in something big.

The event requires students to design, build and implement a production plan for a cost-effective and high-performance formula-style race car. Students get to apply classroom skills and theory to a real and exciting engineering project.

In 1999, U of T team’s first year of competition, it finished 54th among more than 90 competitors. In 2000, the team placed 8th overall out of 104 teams, winning the Dynojet Top Horsepower Award. The same year at Formula Student, a similar event in England, the car placed an outstanding 2nd overall, in addition to winning the Ricardo Dynamic Stability Award.

Unfortunately, in 2001, U of T’s car suffered a suspension malfunction, forcing the team to quit an endurance race. After that failure, the team did extensive research on the car. The results were very encouraging and the team geared up for competition in Detroit in May 2002, but they were faced with problems again and finished 30th out of 140 universities.

“One of the wires from the alternator…melted because the original [part, taken from a] motorcycle, wasn’t designed for the amount of power that we were drawing from it. So, we had to rebuild it with thicker wires,” explained Jeremy Koudelka, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student and head of drive train on the team. “It was really disappointing because we knew that we had an amazing car this year. We ended staying up through the first night because we had a design presentation that we had neglected.”

“The car wasn’t tested at all. It was finished the night before the competition. The suspensions didn’t work,” said Pham. During the race, they had to change the entire suspension system.

That race was an eye-opener, and entirely changed the focus of the team. Their mission became more than just a quest for good engineering and race results. “One thing we’ve realized is that team spirit is more important than anything else,” said Pham. “We’re really good friends now. We go clubbing, racing, or just for coffee all the time, and it’s great.”

With the race in England a month away, they were a confident team. “We weren’t so nervous this time, we knew what we had,” said Koudelka. “Detroit was crazy—we were constantly working on little things we had to get done, but we had had a bit more time to relax and work on it and fix the problems before the race in England. The car ran fine there, and we slept great, and went out to pubs at night.”

In Leicester, at the Formula Student race, the team secured a 2nd-place overall finish. Koudelka explained the changes to the car: “We had laid out an entirely different suspension so that steering efforts were reduced a lot, so there was a lot more driver compatibility. We offered a moulded seat, so that it conformed perfectly to everybody on the team, from the smallest to the tallest member. It was a really big selling point with the design judges.

“It also offered other ergonomic enhancements, like the positioning of the shifter—it was in an easier-to-access place. It offered a lighter, stiffer chassis than before because we made it in two parts instead of one, so that we could pull the entire thing apart easily for faster modifications. Using different manufacturing techniques, we made the car much lighter. The 2002 car weighed only 449 pounds.”

During and after the race in England, the U of T team had lots of time to travel around and hang out with the other teams.

“A couple of British teams really stood out, they had great designs and we’ve borrowed some of their expertise to make our car better as well. It’s not like manufacturing. Other teams can come up, drive the car, take pictures or even exchange technical information. We also keep in contact with them all the time. There’s a very wide network for sharing knowledge,” said Koudelka.

“The European teams are incredibly outgoing. We rivalled a British team for a soccer match and kicked their ass, which was great. We went out to pubs with some of the British teams while we were there, and we hung out with the German team right beside us. They were pretty serious guys, though.”

For most members on the team, the Formula SAE project is about learning. They learn about management and dealing with people, gain confidence and work towards a career in engineering while doing something exciting. Many students on the team also do a fourth-year thesis about a part of the car.

Koudelka said some of the team members even switch to part-time in their last year, to give more time to the project. “Everybody rushes through life and doesn’t take advantage of so many opportunities. That’s what we’ve been doing for two years now, rushing. This team is perfect now.”