KYLE ODEGARD For the Democrat-Herald | Posted: Friday, July 10, 2009 12:00 am
Engineering students design, build race car
CORVALLIS - Oregon State University students have built a car that goes 0 to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds, corners like it's on rails and stops on a dime.
"Quite a thrill ride," said Trevor Takaro, a junior mechanical engineering major.
The Oregon State Formula team, which built the vehicle, finished second out of 45 university teams in a Society of Automotive Engineers competition last month in Los Angeles.
On Monday, the car will be shipped to Germany for an international contest that Takaro said is an unofficial world championship. Twelve OSU students and three German exchange students on the team will make the journey a week later.
While many teams continually expand on previous designs, the Beaver squad made huge changes this year, switching from a steel to carbon fiber chassis and from four cylinders to a single cylinder engine.
"Everything is simpler and lighter," Takaro said. And that means fewer headaches chasing problems, he added.
Eileen Nall, another team member, said OSU's 307-pound vehicle was the talk of the California contest. The car emphasizes acceleration over top-end speed, because it will be racing on tight road courses. Still, it can go 90 mph.
The SAE competitions include acceleration, endurance, fuel efficiency and traditional autocross race contests, as well as design, marketing and other elements.
The cars have to be open wheel, open cockpit, with a single seat and there is a 610 cc limit, which is about the size of a medium motorcycle engine. The Beaver car is 450 cc.
Takaro is looking forward to seeing the various designs in Germany. "There are all these different ways you could solve the same problems," he said.
The Oregon State Formula team has about 30 members and is an extracurricular activity for most students.
Still, Takaro has spent more than 12 hours a day, seven days a week on the car for the last few weeks. He and Nall said designing and building the car have been great engineering experiences, and look good to prospective employers.
Some of those companies help sponsor the squad, which also gets funding from the university. The car cost more than $10,000, and companies contributed many in-kind donations. Team members will pay a portion of their travel costs to Germany.
This year, the Oregon State Formula team is collaborating with German university Berufsakademie Ravensburg.
This is the best year ever for the Oregon State Formula team, which was started in 1989, but OSU's Baja SAE team has finished strong in major contests for 10 years, Takaro said.
"We have this real sense of momentum right now," Nall added.
The team members plan to post updates from their travels and the Formula Student Germany contest, which takes places Aug. 5-9, to the team blog at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/formulasae/