Auburn University Formula SAE Racing Team, is a club at Auburn where student design, build and race their very own Formula SAE cars. This club has been a part of the Auburn campus since 1995 and continues to grab attention today. The team consists of two divisions: business and engineering. Although each division works on different aspects of the project, their work goes together in creating a winning racing team.
This team also gives students the chance to take knowledge from the classroom and apply it to a real-life scenario.
“The primary purpose of the organization is hands on learning experience,” says Nick Boehm, team captain.
This year’s team captain is part of the business division of the team. Boehm is a finance major, who began college as a marching band member. After deciding that the marching band was not for him, Boehm found his way into AUFSAE. Last year, the team had their leadership elections. Boehm was nominated, and this came to a surprise to him.
“I was pretty shocked honestly,” said Nick Boehm.
As elections progressed, Boehm became team captain. With this new role, Boehm was faced with a yearlong dedication to AUFSAE and all the responsibilities and hard work that this group puts in.
Each year the team designs a car in the summertime and continues to work on the design aspect until about October or November. After the design is completed, the team starts to build the car, which usually takes around three to five months. The building time varies if certain parts from the previous year are reusable. Once the car is built, the team test tunes the car at the local airport. If all is well with the car, the team is ready to compete with competitions beginning in May. As the team is competing, they will also be starting over the cycle by designing next year’s car.
The team competes nationally and internationally. The first race is the Formula SAE Michigan, the second race is the Formula SAE Lincoln, and the final race is the Formula Student Austria. Although the final race is traditionally at Germany, the team placed 9th on waitlist and chose to compete instead at Austria for this year.
For this year’s car, the team had some challenges along the way. Unlike some years where certain parts are reusable, this year the team found themselves having to do some rebuilding. By doing this, the team was able to reduce the weight from last year’s model by 100 pounds.
“We’ve intentionally designed it to be as light as possible and reliable,” said Nick Boehm. “This year’s car is definitely going to be the best car so far.”
In less than a month away, the team will compete at Formula SAE Michigan.
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