!Spartan Racing would like to thank you for your support in the 2014 design cycle and competition season. Your sponsorship has allowed us to travel and compete at three competitions with the best car we’ve built in our six year history. Despite the effort put forth by all of our student members, this rewarding project would not be possible without the materials and services offered by our generous sponsors. Below is a comprehensive report on our experiences in Michigan, Ontario, and Nebraska so you can get a glimpse into the effort you generously support. !Our first trip included the 9th and 10th competitions for our team and the first competition outside the United States. Increasing the number of competitions on our itinerary offers the chance for students to learn faster, and boosts our international exposure.!!FSAE Michigan, Michigan International Speedway!Brooklyn, MI!!&!!Formula North, Barrie Molson Center!Barrie, ON!!We first arrived in Detroit after tornado delays diverted us to various other cities in the midwest. Once regrouped, we drove to the cabins in Brooklyn, Michigan, which are about ten minute from Michigan International Speedway. The car was admitted through tech inspection, the prerequisite to competing in dynamic events, without needing modifications. This is not the case for many teams, but thoroughly reading our 160 page rulebook and running through preliminary inspections was a team goal this year to save us time and give the correct impression that SJSU is an experienced team. In the pits we were neighbored by Hawks Racing of Hamburg, Germany, and Equipe Fórmula FEI of São Bernardo do Campo, Brazil, both of whom were friendly and talked to us quite a bit. We were also visited in Michigan by alumni Randy Floresca of General Motors, who is heavily involved with SAE International, and Joey Penniman of Tesla Motors, who volunteered as a tech inspector. Despite very poor weather, we were able to compete strongly and achieve an 8th place finish in autocross (~2 minute lap). The final event, endurance (~30 minute race, 20+ laps), is run in reverse order, meaning the fastest cars in autocross run last. Because of this, SR-6 was on track with the fastest FSAE cars in the world. We have always looked up at top-ranked teams like Stuttgart and Oregon State as in a completely different league, and it was amazing to see our car on track with the best of them. We finished 15th overall, our highest placement in Michigan by 7 places, and received an award for one of the top seven three-view drawings.!!After the competition in Michigan concluded, three of our students drove north to attend the Optimum G applied vehicle dynamics seminar on their own dollar to learn more about race vehicle dynamics over a four day period. The rest of the team traveled directly to Toronto, stripped and rebuilt the vehicle in an evening, and tested over the next two days near the shore of Lake Ontario. We were hosted by the University of Toronto Formula SAE team, who provided us access to their shop, testing area, and dorms. After two days in Toronto, we drove an hour or so north to Barrie, Ontario, to set up for competition. We were the first team on site and talked to the organizers for a few hours while unpacking the car from its crate and reassembling it.!

Spartan Racing FSAE 2014 Debrief

!Formula North is an event that was organized three years ago by alumni who wanted a competition that allowed Canadian companies access to motivated engineering students, a benefit that is afforded to U.S. automakers and engineering firms in Michigan and Lincoln. However, the North organizers have been very welcoming to American teams to boast the international aspect of this type of competition, and facilitate networking between engineers from different corners of the globe. Of note, our team was recognized for traveling the furthest to compete in Barrie. We were approached by the North organizers in October because our social media presence had gained their attention, and they wanted teams from further away to compete. 48 hours later, after discussion among our leads, we registered for several reasons:!!•The opportunity to test international logistics before potentially competing in Germany in the next five years!•Expedited training and more competition experience for new members!•Increased exposure for potential sponsorship!•Fostering reputation as a friendly, competitive, motivated team!•More networking opportunities for students!•The opportunity to collect race data on a different track surface!•Good life experience traveling abroad for team members!!Having gained experience the week before in Michigan in addition to building a generally reliable car, we were able to do very well at Formula North. We placed top eight in all events, and second place overall. This is the highest placement and highest percentile in which we’ve finished since the team formed six years ago. We were also admitted to design finals, which is a second round of design evaluation where judges from different Universities and industries question students on their designs, data, and validation procedures for two full hours. Four teams were admitted to finals, and San Jose State was the only one of the four from the U.S. We placed third behind L'École de technology supérieure of Montréal and Université Laval of Québec City, both of which are international powerhouse teams. SJSU was repeatedly stated to have the most polished fit and finish by everyone from fellow competitors up to the lead design judge, which made us feel pretty good. North was a valuable experience technically, with more time for new members to network and learn about other teams’ designs and how the competition is run, and in terms of life experience since for many it was the first time they’d gone abroad.!!FSAE Lincoln, Lincoln Airpark!Lincoln, NE!!More recently, we’ve returned from Nebraska with a fifth place overall trophy! This supersedes our tenth place finish in 2011 as the highest placement we’ve attained at the Formula SAE West competition, and our highest overall at a sanctioned event. It is also the first time we’ve completed all dynamic race events since the West competition moved from Fontana, CA to Lincoln, NE in 2012. SR-6 has finished all events without failure at all three competitions entered this year, matching the total number of competitions successfully finished in 2011, 2012, and 2013 combined. This is notable due to the high attrition rate that is typical with these student built cars (only ~36% of registered cars finished endurance in Lincoln).!!

First, a competition summary: it took us roughly 24 hours to travel from campus to the hotel in Lincoln with our rented sprinter van (which we use for long trips vs. our trailer because of the much higher fuel efficiency and safety in crosswinds) and two cars. The remainder of the team, who only had several days off from work or internships, flew in on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday we executed a carefully planned registration sequence that allowed us to be the first team through tech inspection. This saved us a lot of time that we were able to spend preparing the car instead of waiting in line. All static events (design, cost, and business presentation) were completed as scheduled on Thursday. Notably, we received a 100% score in cost real case. At the cost event, a “real case” is selected at random from a bank of potential systems, and the team has to explain how that system could be redesigned to reduce manufacturing cost by at least 15%. Our experience with various manufacturing techniques certainly helped us get a high score. On Friday, our drivers set a fast acceleration time despite a stiff headwind, which eventually led to a fifth place finish. The car was slightly slower in acceleration due to the additional drag induced by our new wing package, but the design compromise led to favorable downforce for the autoX cone course in the afternoon, in which we placed fifth as well. The car went to the test track on Saturday morning for final adjustment and driver preparation before endurance on Saturday afternoon. The track surface in Lincoln is notoriously sticky, the ambient temperature high and the wind strong. This combination of factors makes for an endurance event that is very hard on the cars, which was very apparent due to the number of cars breaking down on the track. Endurance is run in reverse order of the autoX results, meaning the fastest cars run last. We therefore had the unfortunate and not very encouraging chance to see many of these failures occur. However, Adam and Martin drove very fast laps (14 laps of ~90s each) and brought SR-6 through the checkered flag in one piece.!!SR-6 Review!!Rewinding: in June of 2013, we left Nebraska with a car that proved to be very fast—we won acceleration, zipping from 0-60mph in 2.9s (faster than a number of production super cars). We had finished tenth in autocross (a.k.a. autoX) with one of only two cars in the top ten in that event without a full wing package (wings provide significant downforce numbers that allow for much higher lateral g and therefore faster cornering and lap times, but their construction requires many resources and knowledge that we did not have at the time). However, SR-5’s cooling and shifting microcontroller failed in endurance, leaving us with a 20th place finish that was quite good but could have been well into the top ten.!!We decided top ten was something that needed to happen in 2014. To achieve this, we determined through a points analysis of competition results that completion of all events with an absence of penalties was a must. SR-6 was designed around three goals: tunability, the availability of tuning options for different events and conditions and the ease at which the car could be adjusted, design for manufacture and assembly (DFMA), for a quick build cycle and easy maintenance, and reliability, so the car would finish with no component failures. The chassis was redesigned for stiffness and validated in an extensive torsional rigidity test; engine analysis was performed with Ricardo Wave software for the development of a dual-rail E85 fuel program for efficiency and a senior project team (Joy Franco, Charbel Elian, & Eric Miller) redesigned the shifting control system and final drive to eliminate noted problems. Several aerospace engineering majors performed CFD analysis with cd-Adapco StarCCM+ and designed our first aerodynamic wing package, boosting downforce numbers by a factor of five.

They also generated new sponsor connections, bringing in tens of thousands of dollars worth of composites materials and access to production facilities. Manager Vince Donatini revised operations and finance, using QuickBooks and a purchase request system to track our sponsor funding and expenditures, and chief engineer Ryan Sharp set up a SolidWorks PDM (product data management) server with the help of SJSU IT for team-wide consolidated CAD management. Marketing manager Kevin Krakauer delivered numerous presentations for the procurement of sponsorship thanks to team member networking and COE (College of Engineering) support.!!Through these means and others, we built a car that addressed the design goals we set last August and consequently overcame the points deficit we were determined to resolve. We built a car that design judges and our friendly competitors deemed operationally and aesthetically worthy of being considered a top car in each of the three competitions we entered. Formula SAE / Formula Student lead design judge Claude Rouelle of Optimum G stated that if he had to buy one of the four design finalist cars at Formula North, he would buy San Jose State’s. Faculty advisors from Auburn, Oregon State, Cal Poly Pomona and others noted that SJSU, previously “not on their radar,” has become a team to watch. It was an honor to have teams we have historically looked up to for advice wandering past our pit to take pictures. We are glad to have developed the ability to inspire our next generation of FSAE team members here at SJSU, and perhaps a few competing teams that are just starting out, as we did in 2008. There is a great responsibility in this engineering competition to ensure that all knowledge gained is shared.!!Finally, to note: though we’re happy to have gathered a few more, this competition is not about trophies. It is not about proving the worth of your university, or yourselves. It is about networking—networking with sponsors, both local and international, networking with brilliant students at other universities to add to our technical perspectives, with recruiters to maybe land our dream job, and most importantly with a growing community of friends spanning the globe. We have gone home from competitions we’ve failed at nearly as happy as the ones we’ve dominated because of this. We know the good BBQ spots in Iowa City, where to find E85 fuel in Brooklyn, Michigan, what the night life is like in Barrie, Ontario, and where to be careful of wind gusts in the plains of eastern Wyoming. These are the things we’ve learned in addition to the strength of various carbon weaves, the suspension kinematics, the thermal properties of materials, and the like. The combination of life experience and technical experience we gain is something that is simply irreplaceable. Most of us didn’t sleep much for two months—we’ve been covered in cuts, grease and oil, running on the dream of a winning car and a few tacos, and we can’t imagine it any other way.!!Once again would like to thank you for sponsoring us—we can’t thank you enough for helping us make 2014 a stellar year. Congratulations to the team for a phenomenal season, and cheers to another in 2015.

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Team photo at FSAE Michigan in Brooklyn, MI

SR-6 on track in endurance, FSAE Michigan 2014

Spartan Racing FSAE 2014 Photos

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Driver Martin McKeefery hot on the trail of Oregon State in the final laps of endurance, FSAE Michigan

SR-6 poses with the 2014 car from University of Toronto on the test track prior to Formula North

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Team photo at Formula North in Barrie, Ontario

Our Formula North 2014 runner-up trophy Kind words from RaceCanada.ca

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Team photo at FSAE Lincoln in Lincoln, Nebraska

SR-6 sits before the judges table in Lincoln as the judges discuss

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Driver Adam Wigginton navigates the sea of cones on the autocross course in Lincoln

The team in a good mood after Adam finishes Autocross

SR-6 against the big Nebraska sky

SR-6 exist the dynamic area behind overall fourth place car Cal Poly Pomona and second place Texas A&M

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The team debriefs before packing up on the eve of SR-6’s final endurance in Lincoln

SR-6 endurance drivers breathe a sigh of relief Our 5th place overall trophy from Lincoln! ! !