The UAlberta Formula SAE team is in Barrie On. for their first race competition of 2019. (File photo)
The sweet aroma of high-octane race fuel, the screech of tortured tires and the throaty, chest-vibrating growls of large four-stroke motorcycle motors permeate the air. Small, open-wheel vehicles with elaborate aerodynamic wings and exposed powertrains fly around a track at nearly 90 km/h, engines screaming as they are pressed to their absolute limits.
This is Formula SAE, an international student-design competition pitting engineering students from around the world against each other in an all-out motorsport competition. This week, the Faculty of Engineering Formula SAE team is in its first true test of the 2019 race season this week at the Formula SAE North event in Barrie, Ont.
Lauded as the premier student-design competition in the world, the Society for Automotive Engineers Formula SAE Collegiate Design Competition allows students to demonstrate their design and automotive engineering skills directly to industry representatives such as General Motors, Ford and Tesla.
The intensity and fierce competition of Formula SAE forces students to take risks with completely new and creative automotive design, solve problems and engineer solutions in real-time, and to place all of their work on the line as their cars compete in one of the most mechanically stressful contexts possible: a race.
The University of Alberta Faculty of Engineering has been fielding a car in the North American races of Formula SAE for 20 years. This requires a massive, multi-month effort from a team ranging from first-year undergraduates to graduate students who have spent more than five years on the team.
"New members come and go every year," said team leader Skylar Dunning. "But for the most part, people who come to competitions have been on the team for a couple of years."
"Design, build; compete". This is the motto of Formula SAE. The competition is conceptually based in the idea that a hypothetical manufacturing company has contracted each team to design, develop and manufacture a formula racing machine, and the car is thus judged based on its real-world production value as a weekend-autocross car for amateur racing drivers.
The design process can take as long as five months and must pass a critical design review before the team can access the university's funding and begin manufacturing the race car.
"We get together as a group with our faculty advisor and run through the entire design of the car, top to bottom: every single system," said Dunning.
Only by proving its ability to design, to come up with novel solutions to engineering problems and to conceptualize an entire year of manufacturing work is the race team finally able to start building the car.
"We sort of have always jumped right from the computer to real life," said Dunning, something that forces the team to solve problems in real-time, in the real-world.
During this year's testing phase, the team discovered that the rear differential was breaking loose from its hinges under the stresses of race-speed acceleration.
The destruction of the car during the test-phase truly demonstrates the unpredictability of motorsport, and the team's willingness to risk thousands of hours of work it takes to compete in motorsport.
"We had a few issues on the rear end of the car with things just falling apart," Dunning explained. "We learned from our mistakes and stiffened it up for this year."
The race team is ready to build one of the best cars it has ever produced by changing the power plant of the car from last year's turbo Yamaha WR450 engine with a much more reliable, and nearly 60 horsepower KTM 690 cc engine.
"We kind of just bolted it in and it runs good at the same weight," Dunning said. "So it's just a better power-to-weight ratio."
That power-to-weight ratio happens to be approximately one horsepower per every 6.7 pounds of the car's weight, making this index of the car's performance comparable to that of the 330 km/h 2018 Ferrari 488.
In the words of team member Michael Carter, "shovel the horsepower in."
Building a race car with Italian supercar performance is not cheap, and Dunning explains that most of the funding is provided by the Faculty of Engineering, "but pretty much everything on the car, like the paint for example, is sponsored."
The team relies heavily on direct support from the Faculty of Engineering as well as industry sponsorships to develop the car and bring it to competition.
"We might be able to get machining done at one place and parts from another, so industry partnerships are huge. Without them we wouldn't really be able to function as a team."
On June 19, 2019, the University of Alberta Faculty of Engineering Formula SAE Team will enter its build in the 2019 Formula SAE competition in Lincoln, Neb. There are several events that the team's car must enter, including an acceleration test, autocross, efficiency and the dreaded endurance challenge.
"The hardest event is endurance," said Dunning. "By far."
The endurance challenge requires the cars run at full speed around a track for 22 kilometres.
"That might not sound like much," Dunning said, "but most of the student-built race cars don't last the whole race. So let's say 100 cars start the endurance, thirty or forty might finish."
The challenges of manufacturing a vehicle become obvious during this competition, as parts and bodies begin to fail.
"It makes you really appreciate your street car when you get in it and it starts and you can drive it to work, 20 kilometres every single day, and we can't even do it once."
Industry has clearly recognized Formula SAE as the premiere proving-ground for mechanical and automotive engineering students.
"I think lots of people get their jobs while they're there because recruiters are looking for students who have very applicable experience in the industry." Dunning underlines the opportunities for employment available to FSAE competitors, particularly at the race events. "If you go there looking for a job, there's a good chance that you can get one from various aerospace, automotive or manufacturing companies."
Several of the team members will have a chance to drive the car in competition.
Dunning explained that driver selection "depends on the events, some of them might be tailored to a smaller, lighter driver and some of them are better for the faster person. So you kind of balance skill and dedication to the team."
The team has high hopes for this year's competition and is planning to break the six-year losing streak, demonstrating the members' unique determination to learn, to improve, and of course to go fast.
"Slowly over the past five years we've gotten better," Dunning said. "This year should be the best competition we've had in a long time."