Something not everyone gets to drive...
 

As some of you know, I'm a mechanical engineering undergrad at Rutgers. Each year a group of us get together and build a scaled down open wheel formula style racecar. Today I finally got to drive it(no video though). It's powered by a 08 CBR600 motor so it's got some serious power and is capable of pulling 1.7g's.

Here's a picture of it and link to our facebook page to check it out some more.
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-...00405060_n.jpg


Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/RutgersFormulaSAE

Also, here's a video of us running an endurance run at Michigan International Speedway in the beginning of May where we placed 9th nationally.

http://youtu.be/p2rdVwf2nvQ#t=15m27s


Btw, every "like" on our page helps us become more marketable so help a fellow member out!

Go RU. I remember watching the team practice in the RAC parking lot.

I don't use that site but I do like it.

At an NNJR auto-x last August we had a Rutgers engineering formula car running. That thing was quick.

That thing looks like a good time!

Looks sweet. Cant wait to build one in Texas and race you guys...

Yea, we practice all over, the RAC is usually last minute late night testing since nothing was around(now they have a bunch of new dorms over there). The car was awesome to drive and I can't wait to get more seat time. I definitely want to set up my car for auto crossing after the fun I had today.

Very cool. That kind of program is where guys like Kyle Tucker and Mark Stielow got their start.

I would enjoy driving that.

Looks awesome, can I get a turn?

And you people wonder why I say drag racing is boring after a couple times and that corners are where it's at :lol:

I believe it takes a donation of 20k+ for us to allow a group of people a drive day. The cost of the build this year was about 25K while most schools in the United States spend about 40-60k and international teams have budgets of 80+k a year.

how much of the previous year's car do you reuse? parts, design, ect? I dabbled w/ some of the team on the car when I was there for grad classes a few years back. Didnlt have lots of time w/ work and school. Did more on the formula car during my tenure for undergrad at a dif university.

that looks really fun.

Big $ items are reused like the shocks(3k), brake master cylinders, motor, brake calipers, rims, and a few other things. The chassis is redesigned each year as well as the controls and we are just starting to mess around with launch and traction control.

I did that at NJIT in the early 90's... We also did the Baja buggy one too. Lots of fun, but problem is a lot of the members of the team were more interested in arguing about motor oils and spark plus than they were about important items like suspension or tires.

lol, from what I hear not much has changed with NJIT. Last year before I was on the team Rutgers basically helped them rebuild the car at competition in California because they had no idea what they were doing.

Bandit88 was involved in the NJIT FormulaSAE a few years ago.

NJIT is not allowed to use power tools on campus. No lie. A few years back, I think they failed tech for oil leaks when they tilt the car.

Useless school for providing any sort of hands on, real life experiance work.

/off topic

My buddy Steve was on the Rutgers team a while back. He actually owns their old car now.

Too many managers & thinkers and not enough hands on people. All of those people went on to work for big business - guess they needed it for their resume... lol

Amen! Must be the modern workplace - engineers sit in an office while work gets done by techs in some factory hundreds of miles away, if not overseas. I graduated in the mid 90's (and again in 2001), so we were allowed to use power tools. Then again, most professional engine builders don't use power tools and never have a problem with leaks.

Will you guys be at the alms race atlime rock again this year?

Unfortunately not. Last year all of the team leaders put more of an emphasis on getting seat time while taking away from time spent engineering the next car. The current car will be up in Toronto at an FSAE event in the beginning of October. I'm trying to get some sponsorship through E-town to run at their road course so the car may get some drive time locally, but until then we will just be doing testing in the Rutgers stadium lot.

Nice, I Saw the car on Rutgers day a month or 2 ago.