Formula SAE
Formula SAE is a student design competition organized by the Society of Automotive Engineers.
It involves the design and construction of a race car, which is evaluated in a competition
focussed on quality of design and good engineering practice.
Formula SAE was founded in 1981, aimed at giving universities the opportunity to participate in a regulated event that was interesting and appealing to students. Today, the competition has expanded worldwide, draws competitors from several countries and includes nine official events, three of which are run in the USA, four in Europe (UK, Germany and Italy) one in Brasil, one in Japan and one in Australia, and several unofficial events worldwide.
These events use the same rulebook, with some minor revisions included for Formula Student UK and Germany. The concept behind Formula SAE is that the team has been engaged by a manufacturing organization to produce a prototype racing car to the given specifications for evaluation. The vehicle will be marketed as a non-professional weekend autocross race car.
Each student team designs, builds, tests and promte the prototype, that is
judged over eight events which cover performance, costing, design, presentation and economy,
and grade a score for a possible total of 1000 points:
150 of them are assigned by the engineering design event, 100 by cost & manufacturing analysis event,
75 by presentation event, others 75 by acceleration test, 50 points by skipad test, 150 by autocross event,
100 by fuel economy event and the remaining 300 by the main event of the competion, the endurance.
Every FSAE event takes place during four day, from Thursday to Sunday, in some of the most famous and
historical circuits of the world, such as International Speedway in USA, Silverstone in UK or Hockenheimring in Germany
Cost Analysis: The objective of the Cost and Manufacturing Event is to teach the participants that cost and a budget are significant factors that must be taken into account in any engineering exercise. Participants learn and understand the manufacturing techniques and processes of some of the components that they have chosen to purchase rather than fabricate themselves. This event is comprised of two parts: the preparation and submission of a written report (which is to be sent to the Cost Judges prior to the competition) and a discussion at the Competition with the Cost Judges around the team’s vehicle. This evaluates not only the cost of the car, but also the team’s ability to prepare accurate engineering and manufacturing cost estimates. The cost report, of course, must be reflective of the prototype vehicle that the team has brought to the competition. The car with the lowest retail cost gets 30 points, the most professional presentation and report receives another 30 points. On the inspection day, 20 points are awarded for the car's content and manufacturing feasibility and the last 20 points go towards how the team explains a detailed manufacturing process of two randomly selected items.
Business Plan Presentation: The objective of the presentation event is to evaluate the team’s ability to develop and deliver a comprehensive business case. This event is judged by real world management from the auto industry and the teams should assume that the executives represent different areas of a corporate organization, including engineering, production, marketing and finance, and thus may not all be engineers. The presentation is evaluated on the contents, organization and visual aids as well as the presenters’ delivery and the team’s response to questions, and the team that makes the best presentation, regardless of the quality of their car, will win the event.
Engineering Design: The concept of the engineering design event is to evaluate the engineering effort that went into the design of the car and how the engineering meets the intent of the market. The design judges will evaluate the engineering effort based upon the team’s Design Report, Spec Sheet, responses to questions and an inspection of the car. For this reason car must be presented for design judging in finished condition, fully assembled, complete and ready-to-run.
Acceleration: The acceleration event evaluates the car’s acceleration in a straight line on flat pavement. The cars have to accelerate from a standing start over a distance of 75 m. There are two heats, each one must have a different driver and each driver can have two runs (a driver has the option to take a second run immediately after the first). Scoring is determined by taking the ratio of the acceleration time of the slowest allowed car (maximum acceptable acceleration time is 5.8 seconds corresponding to an average speed of 46.55 km/hr) divided by the fastest car.
Skid-Pad: This event measures the cornering ability of the car on a flat surface while making a constant-radius turn. The track consists of a figure-eight of two circles of 15.25 m, with the start/stop line defined by the centers of them and sixteen pylons placed around the inside of each circle and sixteen around the outside of each circle. The cars have to enter perpendicular to the figure eight and take one full lap on the right circle to establish the turn. The next lap will be on the right circle and will be timed. Immediately following the second lap, the car enter the left circle for the third lap. The fourth lap will be on the left circle and will be timed. Immediately upon finishing the fourth lap, the car will exit the track. The car will exit at the intersection moving in the same direction as entered. Each car may compete in two heats. Each heat must have a different driver, and each driver may have two runs. A driver has the option to take a second run immediately after the first. The skid-pad score is computed based upon the lateral acceleration capability.
Autocross: The concept of the autocross event is to evaluate the car's maneuverability and handling qualities on a tight course without the hindrance of competing cars. The autocross course combines the performance features of the acceleration, braking, and cornering. There are two heats, with each heat having a different driver. Two timed laps have to be run by each driver and the best lap time will stand as the time for that heat. The track contains chicanes, multiple turns, decreasing radius turns and is delimited by cones, with a two seconds time penalty for every knocked over one. The time required to complete each run will be recorded and the team’s best corrected elapsed time is used to determine the score.
Endurance and fuel economy: The endurance events is designed to evaluate the overall performance of the car. It’s the main event of the competition. The event is run as a single 22 km heat, on a track that’s quite similar to the autocross one. Teams are not allowed to work on their vehicles during the heat. A driver change must be made during a three-minute period at the mid point of the heat.
Wheel-to-wheel racing is prohibited. The run order for endurance will be based primarily on the finish order for the autocross event with the fastest team first followed by the second fastest etc. The times for the endurance event will be based upon the sum of the times of each driver in the heat plus penalties and the score is based on the team's time for the event, including penalties, compared to the fastest team.
