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Duke University Motorsports

about

Duke University Motorsports is a student group that designs and builds open wheel, single seat racecars to compete in the Formula SAE competition sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers. The team consists of Duke students from both Pratt and Trinity, in all classes. The purpose of the team is to provide students with a way to gain practical design and manufacturing experience in a fun and challenging setting. Designing and building a custom racecar is not an easy task and cannot be done by one person.

The process of creating a successful racecar begins early in the academic year with the car's design. Before any tubes are cut and welded, the entire car is designed using CAD (Computer Aided Design) software. This allows us to integrate all the components together and resolve potential problems before manufacturing begins. The design process is generally completed early in the year, at which point the focus switches to building. We manufacture a large number of the parts on the car, including the steel space-frame and the carbon fiber body. Parts such as the engine, wheels, and tires are purchased, but a great deal of customization takes place. While the engine is originally used on a Honda motorcycle, the complete intake, exhaust, fuel, and control systems are custom, leaving the engine design team with a great deal of freedom.

2008 FSAE Competition Results

The 2008 season started with the aggressive target of beating our previous year's best-ever 23rd place finish. The design teams had improved the cars performance and the drivers now had a full year of FSAE competition experience under their belt. The first several events of FSAE 2008 looked very promising. The team effectively worked together under the pressure of competition and smashed their 2007 results in every single event by as many as 20 positions. In fact, coming into the final day, the team was indeed on course to fight for a top 20 position overall. Unfortunately, as is often the case with racing, things do not always go perfectly to plan. The car ran slightly "rich" during the final endurance event. This means that the engine was using fuel at an abnormally high rate, costing the team in the important fuel economy category. Despite a strong running and a competitive time, we finished the event without any points. Still, Duke managed a strong 42nd place overall for FSAE 2008. More importantly, the competition was a fantastic learning experience for all involved, and the team looks forward to using everything we learned to run even stronger for 2009, where we again target a finish in the top 20.