This summer U of T’s Formula Society of Automotive Engineers (FSAE) Racing Team placed first in the 2003 Formula Student competition in Leicester, England. It’s the first time any Canadian team has won this event. More than 50 universities from around the world participated.

“We’ve been on a high ever since,” said team captain Vinh Pham.

The aim of FSAE is to give engineering students the opportunity to build and design a small Formula-1 style race car. In doing so, they also gain experience in teamwork, management and marketing.

Sleek, white and blue, the team’s winning car sports a hybrid carbon fibre frame and a Honda engine that accelerates from zero to 100 kilometres per hour in just 2.9 seconds.

Competitors raced individually in timed sessions. In addition to placing first overall, with a total score of 885 points out of a possible 1000, U of T also placed first in acceleration and in endurance, the most important category. “It’s worth 400 points,” said Pham. If competitors don’t finish by even one lap, they score an automatic zero. Teams were also judged in design, cost-effectiveness, handling of the car and presentation.

The team’s car was improved after last year. Suspension was tested and retested, and a lot of adjustments were made to the tires. The team also made the car prettier.

The most important innovation however was something called the data acquisition device. In the past, modifications to driving technique or to the car in general were based on information given by the driver, which is not always accurate. With the data acquisition device, modifications can be based on hard data.

For example, when one driver has quicker lap times than another, you can look at when the drivers apply their brake coming into a turn, and when they steer the wheel coming out of it.

“If [another driver] gets on the throttle earlier than me, he’s obviously gaining more speed than me. So it can remind [me] ‘okay, get on the throttle a little bit quicker,'” Pham explained.

Most teams did not complete the endurance race, and U of T was no exception. Pham’s car was running fine until it ran out of fuel five turns from the end. The other top teams also died before the finish line.

Pham and his team members suspected the track was too long, and they confirmed this by checking the information recorded earlier from the data acquisition device, which has wheel speed sensors that map out the track and calculate its distance. The track was found to be 25 km, instead of the rule-specified 22 km.

This prompted the organizers to re-measure the track. “When they found that it was indeed longer, they shortened the total distance of the race back by 4 laps. And in 4 fewer laps, we were still running,” Pham said. “In the end we won the endurance event and that gave us the overall win.” The difference in overall score between U of T and second place team was 267 points.

The team has only been around for five years. “We really wanted the schools in the U.S. and in the rest of the world to know that Toronto is a force to be reckoned with.”