TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) - As a crowd of onlookers lined the sidewalk of Seventh Avenue on the University of Alabama campus on April 27, members of Crimson Racing unveiled their 2016 Formula car, which zipped up and down the street with team captain Cole Frederick at the wheel.
In a couple of weeks, Frederick and his teammates will take their car to compete in a Formula SAE contest in Brooklyn, Michigan, one of two competitions sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers Student Organization in the U.S.
The four-day competition that begins May 11 has four events: acceleration, a figure-eight track on a skid pad, autocross and a 20-lap endurance trial.
“This year, cross our fingers, we will do better,” Frederick said.
Formula SAE is a collegiate design challenge in which students design and build Formula-style race cars each year for competition against other universities in the U.S. and abroad.
This is the fifth consecutive year a team from UA has competed, according to faculty adviser and associate professor Paul Puzinauskas. UA first participated in 1999, Frederick said, but has not always fielded a team.
The team includes about 25 students, organized into subgroups around different components of the car. The team must also raise money to cover the cost of competition. The senior leadership of the team began as freshmen, spending their college careers working on the car each year.
“You spend a lot of time in the shop,” Frederick said, estimating that the senior members of the team work about 40 hours a week. “If we are not working on class stuff, we are working on the car.”
The team’s designs and fundraising ability have improved each year, Frederick said. The recent continuity year-to-year has been important to the team’s success as it tries to gain ground on more established programs, including in-state rival Auburn University, Puzinauskas said.
The team has been steadily improving with each successive year of participation, learning from past failures and building institutional knowledge and momentum as it works to become a top team.
“Four or five years from now, we will be giving Auburn University and the others a run for their money,” Puzinauskas said.
The team expects to spend about $30,000 on the project this year, including building the car and travel for competition, Frederick said. The “good” teams spend roughly $250,000 on their race cars and also travel internationally for competitions, he said. Crimson Racing will only compete in the Michigan contest this year, but hopes to travel to a similar contest in Nebraska in the future.
The team offers students practical experience that helps illustrate engineering principles learned in the classroom and the excitement of racing, but it also helps them standout in the job market after college, Puzinauskas said.
“The way it really pays off financially is the sponsors seek these students out,” Puzinauskas said. “Most employers are super-excited to get these people on board.”
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Information from: The Tuscaloosa News, https://www.tuscaloosanews.com
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