| Formula SAE team plans to continue winning tradition | 
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| Written by Chase Webster, The Shorthorn staff | ||||
| Wednesday, 27 January 2010 10:51 PM | ||||
 
Industrial engineering junior Matthew Martin, left,
and mechanical engineering senior Blake Hinsey, right, work together on
the frame of one of the FSAE cars as mechanical engineering graduate Chris
Craig walks past Wednesday in the Formula SAE Shop. The FSAE team often
works as late as midnight. (The Shorthorn: Michael
Minasi) Now the Formula SAE meeting room in Woolf Hall is adorned with two race cars and the numerous metals, plaques and trophies. The self-proclaimed “hot rod nut” now trains a team of over 20 past and present students to design, build and drive Formula SAE race cars. Every year they race in both national and international competitions. And they win. Formula SAE is an international contest sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers. The UTA Formula race car team has won more Formula SAE competitions than anyone else in the world with eight first place finishes. The secret, Woods said, is continuity and a long history of building cars. “Accumulatively, these guys are volunteering over 10,000 hours of their time a year,” he said. “They’re making what in the industry would be a million-dollar car.”  Unlike other Formula SAE teams, the team at UTA
builds a new car from the ground up each year, said chief engineer Eric
Leichtle. They keep the design components that worked well in previous years and integrate new parts to fit the ever-changing rules of the competition. This year the team is building a one-cylinder car with a turbocharger and is working on a design for a hybrid vehicle to be used in 2011. “We don’t have the resources to design a whole car each year,” Leichtle said. “We keep what works best and the rest goes.” Formula SAE statsFull team members: 12Associate team members: 8 Formula Racecars Built: 24 Formula Racecars Sold: 6 First place wins in Formula SAE: 8 First place wins overseas: 3 Second place wins: 4 Third place wins: 4 “We’re trained as engineers, not managers,” he said. Team captain Blake Hinsey has also noticed that the team has become more green as veterans graduate and new students step up and fill in positions. “It builds a lot of character,” Hinsey said. “Committing to something like this and seeing it through.” There are a lot of details that need to be met to ensure that all the designers keep to the same team vision. Other than the tires, every part of the vehicle is designed and made in the basement of Woolf Hall. The students that take part in the program gain an experience that will help them for a lifetime, Woods said. 
Industrial engineering junior Matthew Martin works
on UTA's first hybrid FSAE car Wednesday night in the Formula SAE Shop in
Woolf Hall. The Formula SAE team meets every Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. in 102
Woolf Hall. (The Shorthorn: Michael Minasi) Still, for many of the team members, the most rewarding aspect of building one of the world’s fastest cars is getting to drive it. It’s like riding a roller coaster that can go anywhere you want it to, shop foreman James Merkel said. UT Arlington’s Formula SAE race car was the second fastest car in the Sports Car Club of America, said Woods. The cars can go from 0-60 in under four seconds, Woods said. “Before you know it you’re halfway across the track,” Leichtle said. “You don’t even know how you got there.” Participating in the program not only allows students the opportunity to build race cars, it also gives them the ability to become instantly productive in the workforce, Leichtle said. Merkel said he has enjoyed his past two years with the team. “We have to design, build and learn to drive this thing in a year,” he said. “Getting that done on time is always an uphill battle. There’s no brakes.” Views: 156 | E-mail
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