It must be time for Critical Design Reviews.
Most systems are now entering their CDR phase in development, meaning the Mech-E cluster has become a very popular place on campus. Upcoming systems to be reviewed are shifter and body/aero, with suspension having been review last Friday.
Exciting news this week! Thanks to our friends at Cartesian Tube Profiling, we just received a delivery of beautifully pre-cut steel tubes for our chassis. As of now welding has already begun, and the frame will begin shaping up in the next two weeks with great precision in the Formula Garage. With that manufacturing is full underway, as the welding jig is now assembled and people are stepping up for machining hours.
Designs are also being finalized, with Powertrain and Unsprung Mass having just completed critical design reviews this week. Overall it is an exciting period for the team, and we look forward to watching our ideas and hard work grow from this point forward.
2 A.M. in the Mech-E cluster…?
There must be Preliminary Design Reviews tomorrow.
System leaders are currently hard at work finalizing their designs for upcoming PDRs, with machining having already begun on certain parts in the Formula garage.
It’s official! Carnegie Mellon Racing has been registered for Michigan as Number 67. We look forward to building CMR 67 and running it at competition, so look out for more updates as design work begins to finalize.
To honor the Clairton, PA Police Officer James Kuzak Jr., who was shot three times responding to a home invasion last year, Carnegie Mellon Racing recently re-dedicated its most recent car to Officer Kuzak at a thank you ceremony on campus last week. After the incident, Officer Kuzak donated tools to the team that uses every day to keep our cars well maintained. For this, and to commemorate his service to the community a “Thank You” plaque was presented to him along with an honor patch that will remain on the vehicle.
A local news station picked up the story and aired the footage below:
Carnegie Mellon Racing thanks Officer Kuzak Jr. for his dedication and commitment to service, and wishes him the best throughout his recovery.
Over the past several weeks we have been completing many static and dynamic tests on last year’s car to validate our design and find ways to improve. We’ve also been welcoming our new members and orienting them with the organization. Here we have our testing of CMR 57’s wheel rates, center of gravity, and a freshman grinding away at some steel.
Attention all prospective members! We will be having an information session this coming Monday (9/10), at 4:30 in DH2315 to introduce new students to the Formula SAE program, and to describe exactly we do at Carnegie Mellon Racing. We will be happy to answer all your questions, and will be following the presentation with a tour of the FSAE garage and our newest car.
Date: Monday, 9/10
Location: Doherty Hall 2315
Time: 4:30pm
We’ll see you there!
Hello new students! Welcome to the Carnegie Mellon Racing (CMR)/CMU Formula Society of Automotive Engineers (FSAE)/ fastest club on campus website.
Now hopefully the excitement of Playfair has begun to settle down and you’re starting to look into some extracurriculars. To save you the trouble of looking into all of the listed clubs that do not build race cars, I’ll just make that point clear – we build race cars. Of course by building I mean we actually engineer each car, then build it, which is totally different and also the reason CMR remains the most rewarding and beneficial organization CMU offers. If you want to learn how to be a real engineer, we will teach you.
To get a better feel for the team, how we operate, and what we do, I recommend looking back through the older posts and pictures down below. They catalog our entire build process up until the competition in Michigan at the end of the year where schools from around the country and across the world compete. This website is also where you can find updates about the team’s progress, learn about our car in the ever-expanding Wiki, check out the awesome sponsors who give us money, and even stalk out our garage via the webcam.
If you want to be as cool as this guy:
then you’re in the right place.
For more information on our organization and to check out our latest car look out for these IMPORTANT DATES:
Thursday 8/23: Recruitment activities on campus
Thursday 8/30: Car show with UPitt FSAE
Wednesday 9/5: Activities Fair on the CFA Lawn (if rain then Weigand Gymnasium)
Today the team returned to Pittsburgh from Michigan International Speedway to celebrate our accomplishment this year. All events were completed and executed with barely any issues, demonstrating a remarkable improvement in the quality of our design. The breakdown of our placing is as follows:
Skid Pad – 56th
Autocross – 55th
Acceleration – 39th (4.659s)
Completed Endurance
Total – 41st out of 120
The design judges also provided their essential feedback on how to improve the car and presentation for next year. Their main concerns were dropping weight and having a more complete analysis to present during judging, which will certainly be addressed in future plans.
Ultimately this year marked a turning point for Carnegie Mellon Racing, as we have now established ourselves as a cohesive and competitive team with our 33rd percentile finish, the second best in team history . Upcoming years can look to iteratively improve on our design and break into the highest echelon of Formula racing. Of course this success was only made possible by our dedicated and generous sponsors, alumni, advisors, and team; we thank you all for your support. Look for more great racing next year!
Today for the first time since 2008 CMR has completed endurance at Competition! The twenty laps around the course went smoothly in all aspects, and the car was the fastest on the track during most of the run. Being that only around 40% of cars finish endurance, this marks a milestone for our team and embodies how hard everyone has worked to build a competitive race car.
Here is the video of our car completing the last lap:
