UCI Ready for Racecar Engineering Season

September 1, 2023/by Prof. McCarthy

The Vehicle Performance Engineering Lab is clean and ready for the return of students in the coming weeks. This sequence of videos introduce 1. the vehicles in the lab, 2. a close up of Rogue, and 3. a close up of our EV Prototype.

Introduction to the UCI Racecar Engineering Lab

Here are our current mini-baja, ice and EV race cars, which are the foundation for our vehicles for 2024. Many thanks to our sponsors, particularly Chris McMurray.

Close up of Rogue our mini-Baja racecar

This is a close up of Rogue, our mini-Baja vehicle that competed in Oregon in 2023. This vehicle will be the foundation for our 2024 design. Please help us out at http://Zotfunder.give.uci.edu/racing

Close up of our EV Prototype

This is a close up view of our EV Prototype. It is the foundation for the design of our 2024 EV competition vehicle. Please help us at https://Zotfunder.give.uci.edu/racing

MDA Press

2024 UCI Racecar Engineering

August 9, 2023/by Prof. McCarthy

Universities across Southern California start soon, and Engineering teams will begin the design and fabrication of their race cars for the the SAE Formula ICE and EV and the SAE Baja 2024 intercollegiate competitions. These student race teams need the support of their alumni, so please contact your home team and find a way to help.

UCI Alums and Friends: Our young UCI engineers were kept out of the Racecar lab for too long because of Covid. They are back and committed to demonstrating the high quality of UCI Engineering at the SAE intercollegiate competitions. And we need your help.

If UCI racecar engineering has impacted you in any way, or if you are passionate about our racecars and competition, I hope you’ll join the community of alumni and friends who support UCI Racecar Engineering by donating to https://zotfunder.give.uci.edu/racing.

Registration fees are due in October and we need running cars by March 2024. Here is the breakdown of costs:

Registration fees for the SAE EV and Baja competitions: $5,000
Kohler CH440 engine: $1,200
Subsystem Costs for Baja vehicle: $11,000
Subsystem Costs for EV vehicle: $15,000

It is easy to see that this $35,000 campaign is just a beginning. Additional funds such as costs for travel to the competitions, are not included in the campaign total so I hope I can count on your support today and for years to come. Please contribute in whatever way you can. The impact of your support is immeasurable!

2021 UCI Baja Race Team

June 13, 2021/by Prof. McCarthy

I have seen intercollegiate engineering competitions like the Baja Validation Event organized by SAE International become important educational experiences. Working together to accomplish a complex task, forces students to become engineers. They see first-hand the benefits of integrated design, simulation, fabrication and testing. And perhaps, more importantly, they learn to work as a team, communicating effectively, meeting responsibilities, respecting differences, and pushing toward a shared goal.

This video captures the results of the work of the 2021 UCI Baja Race Team, who designed, built and tested their vehicle while under the severe pandemic restrictions. I hope you see the commitment and hard work of these young engineers under uniquely difficult circumstances show that our future is in good hands.

Smitty’s Video Lectures on Racecar Engineering

July 24, 2018/by Prof. McCarthy

Here are Smitty’s video lectures on Introduction to Racecar Engineering assembled into one post. I am sure you will find these 20 videos to be of great value.

01 Getting Started

02 Weight and Balance

03 Strength and Stiffness

04 Chassis Design

05 Suspension Design

06 Shock Absorbers

07 More on Suspensions

08 Springs

09 Steering

10 Caster

11 King Pin Inclination

12 Toe and Camber

13 Tires

14 Transmission

15 Electronic Fuel Injection

16 Performance Ideals

17 Team Don’ts

18 Team Do’s

19 Smitty’s Library

20 Thank you

MDA

2018 UCI Phantom FSAE Autocross

July 17, 2018/by Prof. McCarthy

This video captures the first autocross run by Matt Clark at the 2018 FSAE Lincoln competition. If I remember correctly is was 62.7sec, just behind their earlier 61.9sec run. Matt’s second run, the final of four runs, was anticipated to be even better but there was a problem with the car.

This view of the course, driver, and front wheels is excellent for understanding the challenges of this competition.