Wayne State Formula SAE team takes home design award

Wayne State University engineering students were proud winners of the Henkel Technologies Award for best use of structural foam in their mini-Indy style car at the 2005 Formula SAE competition at the Pontiac Silverdome May 18 to 22.

The WSU Formula SAE team should be proud of its accomplishments during the past 12 months, said Michele Grimm, associate dean of Engineering and the team's advisor. "The Wayne State car matched up well with the top competitors. A completely new car was designed compared to 2004. The judges were impressed with the use of the structural foam for the frame and the unique, adjustable anti-roll bar."

This was the second year of competition for the Wayne State team, made up this year of a dozen sophomores led by three graduate students. While the first-year team focused on building a strong, reliable car that could make it through the endurance event, the current team concentrated on trimming the car's weight from 646 pounds to a little more than 500.

The Formula SAE competition began as the Mini-Indy in 1979. The scaled down formula racing cars compete in a series of both static and track events over a period of five days on the sprawling Silverdome parking lot. The college teams build a new car each year, taking advantage of wide latitude in engineering the chassis, suspension and powertrain.

The 2005 field was made up of some 120 cars from universities around the world, including Australia, Finland, Korea, Singapore, Japan and Central and South America.

If not for their lack of competition driving experience, the Wayne State car would have placed much higher in the standings for the track events -- the Autocross, Acceleration, Endurance and Skid Pad events, said Grimm. The drivers were not able to train on last year's car because it was damaged in a test drive accident not long after the 2004 competition. The new WSU Formula SAE vehicle was not completed until days before this year's competition.

Much effort went into documenting the design and development of the car that will be helpful for future teams, said Dmitry Frankstein, team captain. "Everything and anything went into binders. All the decisions we made were documented, including research materials, so we can learn from our mistakes as well as what we did right."

Said Grimm, "The 2005 car now stands as a strong starting point for development of a multi-year program of Formula SAE cars in the upcoming years."

A drivers training program will be developed this summer to better prepare next year's team, Grimm added. Using the 2005 car as well as their own vehicles, team members interested in driving in future competitions will participate in autocross events organized by the Detroit Region of the Sports Car Club of America to gain experience in car control and competitive techniques.

Along with Frankstein, the team leaders are Sumeet Yerunkar (assistant captain), Andrew Pavelescu (team manager), Gil Poisson (manufacturing manager) and Jeremy Schipper (suspension manager). Major sponsors of this year's WSU Formula SAE car are Schenk Pegasus, Metro Technologies, Synergeering, DaimlerChrysler, Ford Motor Company, BASF, Henkel Technologies, and the College of Engineering.