LSU TigerRacing is moving from parking lot trial runs to the big leagues.
In just two weeks, the TigerRacing FormulaSAE team will compete against 119 collegiate teams at the FormulaSAE international competition in Brooklyn, Michigan, the largest competition of its kind in the world.
Mechanical engineering junior Eric Murrell, the team’s powertrain chief engineer, said the team has been preparing for this moment since May. The preparation began shortly after the completion of the 2015 competition, when the team gathered to assess shortcomings and plan changes for this year’s car, he said.
The team decided to adjust the car’s weight bias rearward and altered the style of the car’s rear differential, changing how the car handles and the way it drives. Murrell, one of the team’s competition drivers, said the changes have made the car both faster and easier to operate.
Mechanical engineering sophomore Van Le, the team’s engine internals subsystem lead, said another important change was redesigning the car’s transmission. Le altered the car’s transmission from a motorcycle style arrangement to a car set-up, making it easier for the drivers to quickly shift gears during competition.
Another of Le’s duties involved assessing the viability of engine parts and ensuring the car’s engine was in peak operating condition.
“One goal for the team that we really stressed last year and this year was reliability,” Le said. “At competition, it’s really critical that you don’t run into any issues during competition, and having engine issues is really the worst thing that could happen because it’s very vital for the car to run.”
Another point of focus was being able to successfully communicate the car’s design to an audience, Le said. The first part of the competition, the static event, involves justifying the car’s design to judges in both engineering and business presentations.
The car is judged on its adherence to competition rules, overall design quality and cost efficiency. The engineering portion is followed by a business presentation, in which the team emulates a company and competes in a “Shark Tank” style business pitch in front of a panel of judges, Le said.
From there, the team moves on to the most challenging portion: the dynamic events. Le said the events — endurance, acceleration, skidpad and autocross — challenge many teams. If a portion of a car’s design is flawed, this is where the team will struggle the most.
Though the team hopes to compete well against the other collegians, Murrell said the competition is less about podium standing and more about how the car stacks up compared to previous years’ performances.
“We really don’t worry about the place so much as the point score increasing because the point score more accurately reflects that our knowledge in the car increased,” Murrell said.
This year the team has set a goal to increase its overall score to 650 out of 1,000, up from the previous year’s score of 572. If the point increase also boosts the team’s scoreboard standing, that’s just an added bonus, Murrell said.
The team’s focus on growth and improvement isn’t limited to its competition score. Le said the team grew from 21 to 31 active members this year and hopes to continue attracting passionate students.
“Before it was really a small group of friends who recruited some people,” Le said. “We’re going to try to expand that to be more immersive with the student body, be more inclusive to other majors beside engineering and build our administrative side.”