After a successful competition in Michigan in late May, Cal Poly Racing earned fourth place in the design finals of their formula combustion vehicle and ranked fifth overall in the country.
Cal Poly Racing is the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) chapter at Cal Poly and it comprises three teams: the Formula team, Baja team and a business team. More than 100 students play a part in building three vehicles that compete in yearly international competitions at the end of the school year.
The Formula team made a combustion vehicle run by a fuel-burning engine called “Karlie” and an electric car named “Kiki,” while the Baja team specialized in building an off-road dirt racer. The manufacturing, design, building and testing of the three vehicles are organized in subsystems that allow students to apply their mechanical knowledge and learn about specific focus points of a vehicle, such as the engine, brakes or suspension.
Materials engineering junior Elijah Schulz is the Team Lead for the Formula team. Schulz led his team during the Formula SAE Competition of their combustion vehicle against other universities, scoring sixth out of 120 international teams and fourth in the design competition.
“It was pretty stressful for everyone because you work all year on this car and you only get one shot,” Schulz said. “It’s really about making sure everything is ready to go and I think we did better than everyone expected. We were able to get through the tech inspection first try, which is really amazing.”
Cal Poly Racing works year-round in building, manufacturing and testing their vehicles, and after competitions, the teams start the process of creating the design for next year’s cars.
“It is a fully comprehensive team, it is fully representative of the industry and it’s really what a small scrappy start-up tries to do during the year,” mechanical engineering senior Aaron Fang said. “It’s a great hands-on experience and I can’t emphasize that enough.”
Fang is the Technical Director of the Formula team. With endless responsibilities varying by season, Fang works on data analysis, calculations and mentoring new members.
“Along every step of the way, I see my role as guidance-oriented — what does the vehicle need at a given point, what does the team need at a given point and then realizing the goal of winning our competition,” Fang said.
Like many members of Cal Poly Racing, Fang says that he applies the theory and skills learned in his courses to make the cars function better, and he said Ground Vehicle Dynamics (ME 416) was his “guiding star.”
Mechanical engineering freshman Bradley Kern jumped on the opportunities Cal Poly Racing offered. With experience in robotics, Kern looked forward to continuing complex team project-style engineering on the Formula team.
Now the engine subsystem technician, Kern’s role includes designing the intake system for the Formula engine and regular maintenance on the engine. He said the Formula team is unique since they create both the electric and combustion cars which share the same platform and have similar components and features.
While Kern usually exclusively works on the combustion car, he has contributed to building sensor mounts for both combustion and electric vehicles.
“The electric and combustion teams interface with each other, [unlike at] other schools. You’re not locked into either the combustion or electric team when you join,” Kern said.
The Baja team competed in Oregon the first week of June and earned seventh place in the endurance race that lasted four hours on a three-mile course.
“It was an intense course, to say the least. We had to pit-stop three to four times and each time we got the car in, replaced something really quickly, sent it back out and got it back on the track,” mechanical engineering senior and Team Lead of the Baja team Joshua Wright said. “It was definitely NASCAR-style and it was super fun.”
The Formula team competed with their electric vehicle, “Kiki” in the Formula SAE Electric Competition from June 14 to 17. The team said they were looking forward to returning to Michigan to participate and are hopeful for the outcome.
“Making an electric car, it’s not harder, but it’s newer. There’s less infrastructure there but I think we can do really well. It will be definitely challenging but it’s nothing we can’t handle,” Schulz said.
With a constant mindset on their present projects and how to make them better in the future, Cal Poly Racing said they look towards building the upcoming three vehicles for the next academic year and the future opportunities to follow.
“This club has been my family in college, which is really cool to say. I have some friends outside of this club but I definitely spend a huge percentage of my time at the Aero Hangar, doing my work or just with the other people in classes and outside of classes,” mechanical engineering junior and Driver Controls Lead of the Formula team Brienne Berger said.