Photography by ERAU Motorsports
Postal issues and a month-long delay won’t slow down this Formula SAE team. They don’t have time for it. FSAE teams need to design, manufacture, and test their cars all within just a year.
Parts delays? That’s something no FSAE team wants to deal with. But delay on a chassis? That’s a bigger problem. After all, no chassis means essentially no car.
A chassis from VR3 Engineering, the most popular FSAE client for chassis tube cutting, normally has a delivery time of about a week or so. Based in Canada, a large percentage of Canadian postal workers went on strike in December–the same time ERAU Motorsports placed its order.
The hope of getting their chassis by the time students returned from winter break was dashed as an originally two-week-long wait turned into nearly a month-long one.
Even though students were fresh from winter break, stress was high. Those first few weeks after the break are critical for teams as they give students the perfect time to work without mountains of homework to worry about.
There was nothing they could do about the chassis–even though the idea of driving to Canada themselves was thrown out there–but waiting wasn’t an option.
“Delays are inevitable,” shares Travis Kerridge, the team's graduate teaching advisor. “But you can't just sit around and wait, there are other things that needed to be done.”
Students began to focus their energy on other areas that they could work on while they waited for the chassis, such as their electrical harness and carbon fiber components.
Finally, on January 29, ERAU Motorsports received a late Christmas gift–their chassis tubes.
Just four days later, the bare bones of the ER09 were complete and fitted with its electrical harness and powertrain systems. Now, for the moment of truth.
It’s alive people!
With the roar of the engine, cheers from around the lab erupt as students see the first signs of life from ER09. ERAU Motorsports completed its first engine fire of the season, a full 2 days before their adjusted goal time due to the chassis delay.
Up next on the ER09 to-do list? A rolling chassis.
View all comments on the GRM forums
You'll need to log in to post.
