General Contest Information
Purpose
The Formula SAE competition was conceived for Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) student
members to challenge themselves by designing, building, and competing with a small formula style
race car. The competition is presented as a scenario in which the team is producing a prototype
car for possible production, so the car must be reproducable and have cost of less than $25,000.
The designs are restricted, so that students must challenge their knowledge, skills, and
creativity to produce effective entry. At the end of the project, a student will have exercised
skills in teamwork, scheduling, budgeting, manufacturing, and subsystem design and integration.
Competition History
The Society of Automotive Engineers was formed in 1905 and continues to work share information and advance ideas related to human mobility. It is now an international organization with over 89,000 members.
The Formula SAE Competition has its roots in the older SAE Mini-Baja competition. Baja, which began in 1976, involves the production of an off-road vehicles built around an 8 hp Briggs and Stratton Engine. In 1981, with a little prodding from interested students, SAE organized the first Formula SAE competition, with much more open rules to allow greater engineering creativity. In that first year, only four cars were entered. Since then, the event has grown incredibly, with competitions in the US, Australia, Japan, and Europe.
Formula SAE 2005
The 2005 competition will again be held in May at the Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan. After the opening date, the number of entries quickly reached the 140 team limit, and competition is expected to be fierce.