Winter 1997
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Winter 1997 |
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Rose-Hulman's Racing Club is alive and well, racing under a new name — Team Rose Motorsports — and a new commitment to challenge for top honors in next year's Society of Automotive Engineers' formula racing competition. The 20-member team has designed an innovative car for the 1998 SAE Formula competition on May 27-31 in Pontiac, Mich. Team leaders attended last year's event to get a first hand view of the competition. "We have several things up our sleeves," says Team Leader Zacheriah Cole, a junior mechanical engineering student. "We plan to use several unique cost-saving manufacturing processes that have never been seen at the contest. We want to surprise the competition." Those design elements that Cole will reveal include a 70 hp, one-piston 600cc engine; a 60-inch wheel base, with 49-inch track width; 10-inch wheels, with 7.5 inch wide tires; and an aluminum spaceframe chassis, with unparallel and unequal length aluminum A-arms. Magnesium may be used in some components to keep the vehicle's weight under 600 pounds. "We are starting from scratch. We are taking no ideas from other schools, unless we can't design a better process ourselves," Cole said. "We're looking at an experimental drive train system. Everything going into the car has an engineering justification. It must be the best we can do to achieve the results we want in the competition." The competition is fierce, with 75 colleges and universities from the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom participating last spring. Cornell University captured first place honors. Team Rose Motorsports has established a $20,000 budget to prepare for the 1998 SAE competition. The team has gained slightly less than $10,000 in financial sponsors. Persons interested in learning more about the club should contact Cole (Zacheriah.Cole@Rose-Hulman.edu) or visit the team's home page in the Student Life section of Rose-Hulman's home page on the World Wide Web.
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