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I just wrote a long response and hit a wrong button and lost it...
Its a great experience, don't expect to just be a test driver. You need to contribute to design or fabrication to earn seat time. Much depends on the resources available to you at your school, I was at Penn state and we had unlimited machining capabilities and a decent amount of money to build really sweet cars.
Since they are basically go-karts on steroids you develop car control skills quickly.
I'm not sure how much freedom is given to students anymore, 15 years ago we were pretty much on our own so we had a bunch of fun taking the cars out and "testing" on a giant skid pad that was designed to test buses.
I was always interested in cars, but formula sae planted the "racing" seed.
It's going to very wildly by school but if you have an interest in vehicle dynamics and limited experience or other opertunities to build cars, you might really enjoy it.
I went to Cal Poly Pomona which fields a top 10 or so car nationally usually. I had a lot of experience building, testing, and racing my own cars prior to college and the Formula team wasn't for me. I got a job working at a Porsche shop that specialized in racing instead and found that vastly superior in experience........ and made money while I learned as well.
What you get out of it will depend largely on what level of team your school has, and what your expectations are. Either way, it's a major time sink if you want to work your way up the team high enough to get some seat time and true FSAE competition courses are too tight for safety reasons to really allow the true potential of the cars to be realized.
Some people that I know who stuck it out found that it helped them get a job, others, it just reduced their GPA.
Last edited by Evan Fullerton; 08-05-2015 at 01:35 AM.
If you're looking to get into automotive engineering as a career, at least on the cool stuff, it's a very useful point to have on your resume (I did it 20 years ago, most of the people I work with did it, and I work on the very coolest of stuff).
This is not for me, but my daughter who is entering her freshman year in college. She's not an engineering major, but rather business. Her interest in Formula SAE comes from the fact she's raced competitively in karts since she was 5, been in 2 world karting championships in Europe and now is driving a 944 Spec. She attended her first meeting and they made her the business lead to get sponsors, promote, etc. As you can imagine, the FSAE is top heavy in engineers and not many in business.
She told me that they pick 5 drivers who have worked the most on building the car which sounds fair -- the only problem is that most of their racing experience comes from K1 indoor karting and not very much of anything else.
Understandably, the design and building of the car is paramount for an engineering student, but my theory is that if you have a driver who can be 3 sec. faster than anyone else on the team, the car will place higher against other university entrants which in term makes your car/program/university look better.
In researching this program, there are certain universities that have huge advantages for the simple reason they are near manufacturers and donate money, time and wind tunnels for the use of the university cars (University of Michigan).
The other thing that I can't wrap my head around is that there is no minimum weight the car has to achieve!!! So Berkeley has a car that is 2XX lbs and others are more than double that?!!
I might be thinking too much like a racer with the emphasis on the end result rather than the process and being competitive...
Change her major, to engineering major, business minor. I know they had a great program going at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). I had an opportunity to tour their lab. Very much down to business, automotive engineering.
Change her major, to engineering major, business minor. I know they had a great program going at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). I had an opportunity to tour their lab. Very much down to business, automotive engineering.
Never going to happen. Despite business majors required to take calculus and stats, advanced mathmatics is not her strength.
From what she said, the upper classmen have gotten offers to work at car companies when they graduate which is a plus.
She also said there's a professor on campus that used to work for a Formula 1 team, but he's not interested in working with the SAE team even in an advisory role...
Here are some cool pics of last years car built from scratch minus the engine. Last year they went with a Yamaha R6 600 cc motorcycle engine (4 stroke of course) but they had issues with tuning. My guess is that its a problem between the motor, ECU and wiring harness not unlike the ones we had when we dropped an '88 engine in a '84 chassis without a '88 harness.
I did FSAE back in the day. Designed the suspension and brake components, helped lay up the carbon fiber chassis, etc. It a great way to learn about car tech, but also about teamwork, deadlines, testing, and leadership. I do some recruiting now and FSAE (or baja) can help produce good candidates with valuable hands-on experience. It can be a big time commitment depending on level of involvement.
Driving is really like 1% of the FSAE experience (if that). Often teams go to competition with little to no testing. Most of the time is spent in the lab designing the car and in the shop building it (countless hours). The people who put in the hours earn their drive. More time is spent at competition in design reviews than driving the car. It's really a design competition, not a race.
Ironically there's a pick-up truck with a huge San Diego State FSAE decal on it in my office parking lot today (same logo as your picture above). Must be a summer intern or someone taking a tour of the shop.
If you want to build cars for a living it's great, otherwise go karting on the weekends
^this.
Why would she want to do this? It doesn't sound like she wants to go into automotive, so... it doesn't make any sense.
Yes, we recruit heavily from FSAE, and not merely the top teams. There's talent everywhere.
As mentioned, if she thinks she can get into it for the track time - think again. Besides, half the time the cars aren't reliable enough to even get much time, except sitting in the pits debugging the cars. Pay for the time at the kart track, it'll make more sense.
If a student wants to get into automotive, FSAE (or other such projects, like Mini Baja, Electric Car etc) are highly desirable.
25+ years ago I was involved in the development of a solar electric race vehicle for Cal Poly Pomona (and two additional cars as an alum). Part of my role was getting paint and graphics sponsors.
During a critical job interview for a position as a sales engineer I mentioned that I had convinced a world-famous hot rod painter to paint the car for free. My interviewers were intrigued and followed up with the painter when he said "if he can get me to paint a car for free he can sell anything to anyone". While this is clearly hyperbole (I am not very good at sales), the role and performance clearly helped me land a job post college.
After I graduated I continued to work with the painter, Pete Santini, to finish the next two cars for the team - three and five years after the first.
So, my suggestion is that if she wants to get involved go for it. Working the business side of the project should allow her to better balance her time. And who knows, when the rumor starts about her on-track skill they may put her in the car for test. A well timed brag should bring this to the front.
Here are pictures of the cars (notice the connect to my current race number):
25+ years ago I was involved in the development of a solar electric race vehicle for Cal Poly Pomona (and two additional cars as an alum). Part of my role was getting paint and graphics sponsors.
During a critical job interview for a position as a sales engineer I mentioned that I had convinced a world-famous hot rod painter to paint the car for free. My interviewers were intrigued and followed up with the painter when he said "if he can get me to paint a car for free he can sell anything to anyone". While this is clearly hyperbole (I am not very good at sales), the role and performance clearly helped me land a job post college.
After I graduated I continued to work with the painter, Pete Santini, to finish the next two cars for the team - three and five years after the first.
So, my suggestion is that if she wants to get involved go for it. Working the business side of the project should allow her to better balance her time. And who knows, when the rumor starts about her on-track skill they may put her in the car for test. A well timed brag should bring this to the front.
Here are pictures of the cars (notice the connect to my current race number):
Solar Flair - 1990
Intrepid - 1993
Intrepid 2 - 1995
Very cool and unique cars!
Her intent is not to drive but she does want to work in the automotive industry after college and this would look good on a resume. My thought to her was why not have the best driver drive the car rather than who built it? From a practical stand point to an engineer if the goal is the design why drive in the competition portion of the project? If the car can be driven faster by someone else, it makes your design and build look better.
I think it could be a very good experience for her. The team will be 99% engineers who will be almost totally focused on designing and building the car. Things like sponsorship, alumni relations, publicity/communication, school relations, planning, logistics, etc never get proper attention because most of the engineers aren't into it; but they are very important to the success of a team. There won't be much structure or anyone telling her what to do. If she is motivated and able to work independently she could really make a difference and gain valuable experience. Teamwork and leadership skills will be tested and she will learn a lot if she commits to it.
I have done my share of new grad recruiting over the last 10+ years. Every kid in her major has taken the same classes. It's the extra stuff (clubs, projects, internships, co-ops, etc) that make resumes stand out.
...My thought to her was why not have the best driver drive the car rather than who built it? From a practical stand point to an engineer if the goal is the design why drive in the competition portion of the project? If the car can be driven faster by someone else, it makes your design and build look better.
So if I can turn a lap time that's a bit faster than yours will you let me race your car at the next event? You get it prepped and ready, pay all of the entry fees too, I'll just show up and drive.
From a practical stand point to an engineer if the goal is the design why drive in the competition portion of the project? If the car can be driven faster by someone else, it makes your design and build look better.
Haha, who "doesn't lke to drive" let alone something they helped create! I'm afraid I've offended all the engineers here. Like others have said, the driving portion is something like 1% of the project. I'm just thinking too much like a racer and even if I built it, I would want someone who was faster than me to do the course part of the competition. The acceleraton and braking portion could be anyone on the team, but in theory, whoever is lighter should be doing those exercises for performance purposes.
To Cory's point, isn't that what some of the endurance racers with deep pockets do? They fund the car/event, drive a middle stint, but have pro drivers who come in and start and finish the race for best results.
08-04-2015 | 08:43 PM
