Category Archives: News

After a challenging month leading up to and during Formula Hybrid Competition, CMR has officially competed in our first electric competition!

In one of the most successful finishes in CMR history, 14e took home 3rd place overall in the electric category, but winning 1st place in design! This in addition to the IEEE Engineering the Future Award which recognized the most progressive and technologically advanced vehicle.

Although a week of all-nighters during competition for our electric team was not enough to overcome the electronics issues and ultimately prevented us from passing inspection, as a first-year vehicle CMR has accomplished much more than any competitor or judge ever anticipated.

We are looking forward to build on this success at our next competition this June in Lincoln, Nebraska, and also for next year’s vehicle.

With Hybrid Competition closing in, wiring has reached a never before seen level at CMR. Orange conduit surrounds the tractive system and the Charge Car Garage is humming non-stop until competition. Look out for us at Formula Hybrid starting on Monday!

Today CMR hosted it first ever unveiling for our new electric vehicle. CMR 14e braved the rain in all but our battery packs to show off to the CMU community and new President Subra Suresh. He was very excited about the project and told us to go for the win!

Several all-nighters in the past week have pushed us extremely close to driving, with only a few more wires in the accumulator containers to run, along with attaching conduit for the Hybrid competition in 17 days.

The past two weeks have seen the majority of all mechanical systems get mounted to the chassis, including the motor supports and drivetrain.

We were also very excited to welcome our Formula Hybrid mentors: Nathalie, Zachary, and Scott from GM in our Garage. They had extremely helpful feedback and prepared us well for how Hybrid will operate.

All 6 deadlines in the past week (2 competitions worth) have been submitted as well, leaving CMR to focus on wiring and getting the wheels spinning.

CMR has been working the past two weeks assembling the high voltage battery modules. The packing straps and endplates are now on 3 of our 4 modules, and the accumulator containers are ready to go!

Suspension has also been finalized, with body work chugging along with their fiberglass layups. The next week will see a whole lot of wiring so stay tuned while CMR 14e gets Energized!

With Spring Break now here at CMU giving our team a much needed break from classes, CMR has stepped up with some major achievements.

This past week saw our entire suspension come together and allowed us to reach the rolling chassis stage. In an exciting process, 14e was rolled down Forbes avenue to the Charge Car garage where it will undergo all electronic work and testing.

Two battery modules have also been completed, meaning we are already halfway done with our accumulators without any major issues.

CMR also visited Sci-Tech Day to demonstrate 67 to middle school students. Many were happy to sit in a real race car and experience real engineering!

Wow, what a gorgeous chassis.

With a beautiful Carnegie Mellon Racing Red powdercoat, our completed chassis is now gracing our Garage. Assembly is now set to begin! Look for more exciting progress in the next week.

Where is the chassis?! Thanks to a heroic effort from our welders this past week, CMR 14e’s chassis has been sent to powder coating over a month earlier than in previous years. Our Garage looks empty now that tab production has ended. Notice to multitude of new tabs and chassis structure required by our 100% electric powertrain. Look forward to the shiny new chassis arriving next week!

Not to stay idle, CMR took this opportunity of a clean Garage to show some local high school students who are interested in STEM careers around the Garage. It was great seeing young students excited about race car engineering!

CMR has entered the final tabbing phase before the chassis is sent out for powdercoating this week. Brand new high-voltage wire routing tabs can be seen, along with the huge high-voltage disconnect switch required by the rules.

A sweet driver training corner has been set up for taking breaks in the Garage too, keeping us sharp during these cold winter months.

Although this digital training might be enough for most teams, CMR stepped up this year by attending PittRace’s first Snowball Enduro. With sub-20 degree temperatures and an ice-covered karting track, CMR raced many other teams in a slipping and sliding filled competition. We scored a Second Place trophy, which is not bad considering 2 of our 3 teams broke their karts mid-race.

Our welders have been working overtime in the past week to finish welding the chassis and position all CMR 14e’s tabs onto the vehicle. You can see the new accumulator protection chassis tubing on either side of the main structure.

Both G10-FR4 accumulator containers have now been epoxied together and will undergo final touches this week before battery pack assembly begins. Module compression endplates have also been waterjetted and post machined.

To add to this eventful week, our Garage has undergone many improvements. New light fixtures, part washer, CNC coolant filter, large computer monitors and air heater have made working in the shop much more productive. We are excited to spend all our free time down there this semester!