The Formula SAE team at Western Washington University has returned from the Detroit student design competition with our best overall finish in 9 years. The team finished 54th out of a field of nearly 140 competitors, despite a disappointing failure in the final and most important event, a 22 km endurance race. Regardless, the team is very proud of its performance at the event and looking forward to next year’s competition. The team would not have been there at all if not for the support all our generous sponsors.
Formula SAE is a competition for students to conceive, design, fabricate, and compete with small formula-style racing cars. The restrictions on the car frame and engine are limited so that the knowledge, creativity, and imagination of the students are challenged. Starting in 1978, the competition and has grown quickly into the largest student design competition in the world, with 8 events worldwide each year, drawing nearly 300 teams internationally. The Detroit event the team entered this year is the most highly regarded of these, with the largest number of teams entering and often the highest level of competition. That level has grown rapidly in recent years, with many of the top teams running turbocharged engines, advanced traction control and engine management systems, telematics, and wind tunnel-tested aero packages on a full carbon fiber monocoque chassis. Top teams can have over 80 members and often come from research universities, with extensive university and corporate sponsor support and a few with six-digit budgets. Needless to say, the event is quite a challenge for a team of just over 20 students from a small university in the northwest corner of the country. But the dedication of students, the resources of a top-notch automotive program, and the support of our sponsors has helped the team to meet and overcome these challenges.
This year’s event was held at the Ford Proving Grounds in Romeo, MI from May 16-20, requiring some students to take nearly two weeks out of school to travel with the vehicle. Viking 38, the 38th vehicle built entirely at WWU, was entering its second event after a failure-plagued event the year before in Los Angeles. The majority of team, on the other hand, had never been to a Formula SAE competition and would suddenly be thrown into the trials and tribulations of their first SAE competition. The weeks leading up to the event had been filled with last minute carbon layups, final testing, and preparing for our design, cost, and sales presentations. In an incredible feat of coordination, and a bit of luck, everything came together just before the car was loaded onto the trailer and the group of students embarked on a three-day journey across America.
The team arrived in Detroit by truck, plane, and train to a thunderstorm and torrential downpours. As the rain began to clear, abandoned buildings and empty sidewalks revealed the dismal state of the city’s once bustling downtown.
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