Kevin Harvick may be leading the NASCAR Chase for the Sprint Cup standings, but did he build his entire car from scratch? Cyclone Racing did. Cyclone Racing is a student run organization that is focused on Formula SAE racing. The 45 horsepower car is designed, manufactured and assembled by its members. The vehicle tops out around 85 mph and can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds.
Roger Steinforth has been through all the data from all the computer simulations. And he thinks adding wings to Cyclone Racing’s mini open-wheel racer could cut lap times by a second or two. That’s a big performance boost for the student-designed and student-built race cars of the formula racing series sponsored by SAE International, formerly the Society of Automotive Engineers.
Iowa State’s Formula SAE Team raced all 14 laps around the twisty endurance course at the Lincoln (Nebraska) Airpark last week, piling up enough racing and fuel economy points for a solid return to the competition’s overall top 20. Over the nearly 14-mile endurance race, the team’s car burned 3.616 liters of E-85 fuel, good …Continue reading “Iowa State student engineers met their goal in Formula SAE Lincoln competition”
Greg Bott, finishing a series of 60 mph acceleration runs in a campus parking lot, pulled over to his teammates with a whoop and a double fist pump. “You like?” asked Derek Peters, the technical director of this year’s Iowa State Formula SAE Team. “I like,” said Bott, a senior studying mechanical engineering from Clinton. And then he …Continue reading “Iowa State student-engineers tune their open-wheel racer for speed, reliability”
5-28-13 update: It’s never ideal to finish a racing car after unloading at competition. And so the Formula North contest in Canada was an up-and-down event for Iowa State’s Formula SAE Team. The team finished mid-pack in the short and twisty autocross event. But delays in passing technical inspection cost the team the chance to compete …Continue reading “Iowa State formula racers think engine problems are finally behind them”
