I'd like to ultimately get my 10 year old daughter (and her 8 year old sister) into a STEM program and am wondering about activities to get her interested. Is there a FSAE website along the lines of GRM or a print magazine associated with the program to show an overview of what different cars the various participants are building and how they're doing? Could we set up a thread to do that, perhaps on the Build pages?
Second question--I was under the impression that FSAE had a class structure of different engine and fuel types. Based on a quick scan of the current rules last night it looks like they're only doing gasoline and electric. Am I correct in that?
There is one FSAE set of rules that governs wheelbase, max engine size, required equipment and frame / crash protection. Combustion cars are allowed to choose between 93, 100 or E85 for fuel with the only difference being restrictor and fuel tank size. Electric cars have been supplemented onto that set of rules with a large set of requirements to govern the safety of student built battery and high voltage systems.
Hopefully things have improved and someone more recently in the loop can comment on the media side of things. In the old days coverage by SAE was limited and there was a small forum going for technical discussions and BSing. The European series historically did way better with media coverage of the competitions, I would take a look at Formula Student Germany (FSG)
If you're looking for actual videos and pictures of the design series the individual schools normally run their own websites and create media content. SAE Baja is worth looking into as well, there's actual wheel to wheel racing and jumps.
Ram50Ron said:
If you're looking for actual videos and pictures of the design series the individual schools normally run their own websites and create media content...
This. And, they give you a little look into what potential schools might be like.
Racecar Engineering magazine has lots of coverage of the European version, Formula Student.
There's Formula Hybrid as well, which, as the name implies, permits hybrid drivetrains with a smaller ICE allowed (250cc.) They're not really different classes within the same competition, the events are run separately altogether.
I thought FSAE was primarily college based. There is another group that does elementary through high school called Greenpower. Headquarters locally but international. I help work the local events.
https://www.greenpowerusa.net/
