Tiger Racing building on past experience

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By Brian Fontenot

There is a dynasty in the making on LSU’s campus, and it’s a sport few would think is taking place at universities all over the world. It’s the Formula SAE competition, a mini version of Formula One racing from the ground up.

The competition is held by the International Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). Students, typically those majoring in mechanical engineering, build scaled-down, open-wheel versions of Formula One racecars and compete in a series of events to gauge the car’s design, the building team’s business plan, the car’s durability and fuel economy and just how fast the car can go.

Lance Brumfield, the captain of the Tiger Racing team and the vice president of the SAE club on campus, was part of last year’s team. And being able to say he was part of last year’s team is one of the big pluses for the 2008 team.

Brumfield said his team’s design strategy is to combine the best aspects of the cars from 2006 and 2007. This legacy of design is something teams haven’t been able to draw on in the past. LSU has competed sporadically in the competition in the past, but only in since 2006 has it seen teams competing over consecutive years.

“The benefit is we get to pass on knowledge to the next year,” Brumfield said.

Participating in the event is actually a senior project for mechanical engineering majors. This year’s team has 11 seniors on it, as well as some underclassmen.

The competition is a yearlong event. Tiger Racing and the more than 100 universities expected to compete in the event will spend the fall and spring semesters fundraising, designing, building and testing their cars for the eventual trip to the Michigan International Speedway, scheduled to run May 13 through 16.

Tiger Racing’s main concern for its car this year is the endurance and fuel economy part of the competition, which accounts for 40 percent of the total scoring.

This trial is a grueling 20 km run designed to make even the best cars break down and test fuel economy. Last year, only 40 of the 120 cars entered in the competition were able to finish the run.

“That’s where a lot of cars actually fail,” said Norman Eger, a Tiger Racing team member.

Not only are the cars scored on how quickly they can finish the marathon, a car has to finish the entire run to take home any points at all.

Neither the Tiger Racing car in 2006 or 2007 was able to complete this trial.

“We’ve kind of had problems over the years with the endurance competition,” Brumfield said.

“We’re not spending all this time to have something go wrong with the competition,” Eger said. “There is Tiger pride associated with this, too.”

Even though endurance is of the upmost importance, the speed and acceleration are what make building a racecar from scratch fun.

Last year’s car could reach a top speed of an estimated 97 mph. While having a high top speed is nice, it’s not everything.

“Acceleration is more important,” Eger said. “You’re going around a track and you need the pick up.”

Last year’s car could go from 0 to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds. A Porsche 911 Turbo, by comparison, can do the same in 3.7 seconds.

“The reason it can accelerate so fast is it’s light, weighing about 450 pounds,” Eger said. “It has a huge power-to-weight ratio.”

The cars are typically powered by street motors, usually a Yamaha 450. This year, the Tiger Racing team plans to use an ATV engine, which at one cylinder has less power but is a lot lighter.

For more information on Tiger Racing, visit: tigerracing.lsu.edu.

Originally Published: Issue 707 - October 1, 2008

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