The team attended an autocross event hosted by the Twickenham auto club this past weekend. The day proceeded in the typical SCCA Autocross format whereby drivers race for the fastest times of the day. Each driver gets a number of attempts throughout the day to set fast lap times. Present were our Formula SAE neighbors from Auburn university and an assortment of privateers with street cars ranging from Minis to Corvettes. As should expected, the FSAE cars set the fastest lap times. Southern Poly and Auburn's best times were extremely close. Results can be found here. Events like this are always fun for the team. They give us an opportunity to hone our driver talent pool in a relaxed environment. Given the opportunites we will attend more Autocross events in the future.
posted Jul 15, 2009
Victory at Barber/Auburn/Redbull 1st and 3rd
This past weekend the team competed against 5 other Formula SAE teams at Barber raceway near Birmingham. The Auburn/Redbull invitational was created as a semi formal practice to give teams an opportunity to foster new driver talent. The events consisted of acceleration, autocross, skid pad and an endurance race around the short track. In the collegiate spirit of FSAE teams could be found lending tools and exchanging tips but as always the competitive rivalry was alive. Auburn, the University of Alabama, the University of Maryland, Mississippi State University, and Vanderbilt University participated. The university of Maryland had quite a drive. The morning started out with rainy and somewhat cold necessitating the use of rain tires instread of the usual slicks. First came tech inspection which all teams breezed through. Afterward, the acceleration in the wet was a challenge for the drivers requiring particular finesse on launch by all teams. Next came autocross and skidpad. By this time the track started to dry. When the time came for endurance the track was dry enough to switch to slicks. Our 2007 car(right) brought home 3rd place despite a DNF in endurance due to a high speed collision with some rather large cones. This resulted in cosmetic body damage and two bent a-arms rendering the car unsafe to proceed. One of Auburn's cars came in second. As always Auburn was well organized and a fierce competitor. The SPSU 2006 car(left) took home 1st, having won every event. We thank Auburn, Redbull, Barber and the other teams for making this possible.It is safe to say that every team thoroughly enjoyed the event.
Pictures will be up the the media section soon. From now until April the team will concentrate its resources on making the 2009 car the best it can be while honing driver skills. We also have some adventures into an innovate technologies for 2010 in the works. Those are secret for now.
posted Jan 26, 2009
Auburn Red Bull Invitational
We have received word that Auburn and Red Bull will once again be hosting an informal invitational for FSAE. It will be on January 24. We enjoyed the last Red Bull invitational and look forward to this one. This is an event for teams to bring their old cars and compete in an Autocross, acceleration, skidpad and Endurance race. It should be fun!
posted Dec 06, 2008
November Update
Things are alive and full of activity. We are now officially registered for Formula SAE Michigan and Virginia. This is exciting because it will be the first time the Southern Polytechnic team has ever had the opportunity to attend multiple events in one year. We thank our school and our sponsors for making this possible. In particular we would like to thank our newest sponsor Hitachi power Tools.
VIR is a smaller event that is relatively new to formula SAE. We are thoroughly excited. VIR will be April 22-25th. Formula SAE Michigan will be May 13-17. For more details on either event see the official formula SAE website athttp://students.sae.org/competitions/formulaseries/.
While we are readying for the 2009 comeptition we are already beginning to think about the 2010 compeition. Schedules and plans for the next generation Southern Polytechnic car are coming together.
This past weekend the team competed against 5 other Formula SAE teams at Barber raceway near Birmingham. The Auburn/Redbull invitational was created as a semi formal practice to give teams an opportunity to foster new driver talent. The events consisted of acceleration, autocross, skid pad and an endurance race around the short track. In the collegiate spirit of FSAE teams could be found lending tools and exchanging tips but as always the competitive rivalry was alive. Auburn, the University of Alabama, the University of Maryland, Mississippi State University, and Vanderbilt University participated. The university of Maryland had quite a drive. The morning started out with rainy and somewhat cold necessitating the use of rain tires instread of the usual slicks. First came tech inspection which all teams breezed through. Afterward, the acceleration in the wet was a challenge for the drivers requiring particular finesse on launch by all teams. Next came autocross and skidpad. By this time the track started to dry. When the time came for endurance the track was dry enough to switch to slicks. Our 2007 car(right) brought home 3rd place despite a DNF in endurance due to a high speed collision with some rather large cones. This resulted in cosmetic body damage and two bent a-arms rendering the car unsafe to proceed. One of Auburn's cars came in second. As always Auburn was well organized and a fierce competitor. The SPSU 2006 car(left) took home 1st, having won every event. We thank Auburn, Redbull, Barber and the other teams for making this possible.It is safe to say that every team thoroughly enjoyed the event.
We have received word that Auburn and Red Bull will once again be hosting an informal invitational for FSAE. It will be on January 24. We enjoyed the last Red Bull invitational and look forward to this one. This is an event for teams to bring their old cars and compete in an Autocross, acceleration, skidpad and Endurance race. It should be fun!