Engineering victory

Lakehead University’s Formula SAE race team is getting some practice in before next year’s competition.

A track was set up behind Lakehead University’s athletic building on Saturday to train the drivers on how to handle the racecar . The student-organized project started last year and the team worked to build a racecar from scratch.

Brandon Porter, last years project manager, was giving tips to new drivers on how to drive and get out of the car in five seconds. Drivers have to be able to get out of the car in that amount of time or they can’t drive, says Porter.

Porter was a driver last year at the acceleration event in the Formula SAE racing competition at Michigan International Speedway. He said the team only had a few days to really get to know the car. The team was also awarded rookie of the year.

"It is nothing you’ve ever driven before," said Porter, now an in training engineer at Bombardier. "The acceleration is amazing and the throttle response is amazing. Our car weighed 200 pounds more than most cars and we were only sixth tenth of a second slower."

Porter said that the total cost to make the car was $6,000. Some cars were unable to start their engines in the morning but his team’s car was able to start up right away, he said.

Porter said that they were able to keep up to cars that cost $40,000 and were sponsored by Red Bull energy drink. He said the car was able to reach speeds of 160 km/hr at the speedway but currently could only go 108 km/hr.

The role of project manager has now been passed off to Trevor Farrow who is in his fourth year of mechanical engineering at Lakehead. Farrow worked on the frame, the suspension and body coverage for last year’s car. He is working with another project manager to make it easier as there are more people participating this year.

"It’s split up between two guys so I’m not chasing everybody down," said Farrow. "We are basically acting like engineers like we will when we are out of school. (The project) goes to credit for our final year project but it was all started by students last year."

Farrow said that a few things weren't built by the students one of them being was the engine. The eight-month project goes through several stages before it is completed, said Farrow. He said he got involved in the project half way through the year and was interested in helping to build the car.

Farrow said there are three factors when they decided to pick a driver; they had to be in their fourth year, had to have contributed a large portion of time building the car and finally a time trial. Eight students drove last year. Farrow said they haven’t picked who was going to drive this year yet.

Farrow said the project is good for job training no what field of engineering.

"Even if you don’t plan on going into automotive this project really helps you in a number of areas. In any field of engineering you are always going to have constraints: cost concerns and a good design," he said. 

Farrow said that this year’s car would be smaller, lighter and will include changes that the judges didn't like in last year's car.