The 2008 Formula SAE Championship is now history. I was there at the Michigan International Speedway, near Detroit, with a group of students from Montreal's École de technologie supérieure.
A total of 104 teams from universities all across the globe were gathered to celebrate their passion for auto racing and technology. Over the past twelve months, students spent countless hours developing and building an open-wheel race car powered by a bridled engine not exceeding 600 cubic centimeters.
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We left Montreal three days prior to the competition. After all stationary tests were completed (weigh-in, inclinometer, braking and sound tests, etc.), not to mention a marketing presentation, it was time to hit the track for a series of dynamic tests.
Of course, we started with accelerations. Kudos to Maxime and Jean-Philippe, who spent the entire night reinforcing a specific part with carbon fiber. The day before, we realized that a major component had suddenly cracked and we wouldn't be allowed to drive if a repair wasn't performed immediately. Alain, a former ETS student and Formula SAE participant who's now working at Lotus, agreed to lend us his garage for the night. At 5 a.m., the part was ready to be installed and, three hours later, the car was finally back in top shape.
We quickly got over this little mishap when we arrived at the track and the team was told that they'd been chosen as one of the 14 semi-finalists for the design contest. Great news! After all, our performance in the first round didn't seem to impress the jury and some of us had almost lost all hope of advancing to the next round.
Time to make the most of this second chance. For three hours, the judges evaluated every little detail in the vehicle's design. This long and painstaking process served to narrow down the finalists to four. The ETS team had a pretty good chance according to judge Steven Fox, who told me that his fellow evaluators had plenty to say about our car: "These guys always seem to be one step ahead, he said. But in order to prove the quality of their design, they'll have to perform well in the dynamic tests."
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