Competition Info:

Formula SAE Michigan

Car #65

Ranking: 92

Team Members:

Basel Ismail
Kailash Bhatia
Matthew Manten
Dalton Lamoureux
Edison Su
Abdullah Sharkawi
Nicholas Bukovy
Andrew Lehman
Parker Good
Devin Harmsen
Antoine Leduc
Christian Rioux
Nicholas Hubert
Kegan Van Niekerk
Michael Septon
Alyssa Lahti
Manseerat Nijjar
Dylan Parsons
Ryan Veninga
Simon Hunt
Enjeriko Puevas
Aleksa Grahovac

Car Photo

Shop Photo

Team Story

This team reached out to team alumni which was well received. 10 or so alumni joined Zoom calls to share ideas with the team.

The team leaders were able to get 10 volunteers involved to help with all the necessary duties.

All steel was ordered by December. Manufacturing of the frame commenced over the winter holiday.

The team was diligent to setup the social media accounts and gave immediate credit to sponsors who donated.

A GoFundMe page raised over $700 which helped with competition expenses.

Competition Story

By Matthew Manten

TWR-15 started overheating within the first lap of endurance. It was clear by lap 5-6 that the car was billowing steam and then on the last lap the wiring on the drivers left caught fire, or as FSAE calls it, the car experienced a “thermal event” – I believe the engine got so hot it ignited the wiring. This conclusion was agreed upon by the judges after they took the car for a couple hours to inspect it.

We had no issues when we were doing dyno pulls/testing the car. During tech we had to relocate the water reservoir, maybe air introduced to the system when we refilled it caused a heat pocket. Our catch can was full and the rad nearly empty so the water must’ve gotten real hot – the data log maxed out at 120°C so that doesn’t tell us much.

As far as what we should have done differently – mounted our water reservoir vertically instead of on an angle so it’s easier to burp and we should have had our wiring in a metal loom on the engine side.

We had one of the heaviest cars at competition as our goal this year was just to get something down that would pass tech. for next year, we’re telling them to throw out this frame design and focus on small and light. If they can do that, they’ll be in good shape.

Hopefully all the media/social attention we’ve gotten this year makes it easier for TWR-16 to raise funds, as that was our biggest challenge.

Overall we’re happy with what we’ve accomplished, even if we’ve only placed 92nd. We got our own trailer thru EEEF and we’ve managed to generate faculty support in a way that I’m not sure has ever existed. I’m excited to see what the future of TWR holds.

Lessons Learned

• Engage all faculty to ensure support.
• Foster a healthy team culture.
• Leverage support from volunteers.
• Test engine for long durations to ensure that cooling capability is proven.