Formula SAE is an engineering competition that challenges teams of university students to design and build small formula style race cars.
It’s hard to call this one a side project as I spent more time on it then I did on class work. I spent 4.5 years building race cars at UC Davis, leading the team for the last 1.5 years of that. This is the last car that we completed in my time with the team. We were sponsored by my grandfather’s toy company, thus the dolls and the flaming daisies on the side of the car.
Because this was before the era of massive cloud storage, and my computer was stolen in 2009, not many pictures survived. Here is an excerpt from the very first design portfolio that I created.
FSAE taught me practical design skills as well as how to make a lot of really cool things. We did a lot of machining, tons of carbon fiber composite work, and a ton of welding. I wouldn’t be the maker I am today with out my time spent in the student shop at UC Davis.