General Information about FSAE

Formula Society of Automotive Engineers, or FSAE, is a competition which challenges students from across the globe to design and build open wheel Formula-style race cars. This challenge is presented to teams as a fictitious company contracting design teams to build a prototype Formula-style race car for the avid amateur autocross racer.

Each design team must satisfy a series of design requirements that not only demand clever problem solving, but also put the design team’s engineering prowess to the test. The competition culminates with the world’s largest automotive event. This competition is held annually at both the Motor Speedway in Detroit, Michigan as well as at the California Speedway in Los Angeles, California. Just about every major university in America as well as teams from Europe, Australia, South America, and Asia come to compete their race cars in this four day engineering competition.

FSAE at the University of New Mexico 

Formula SAE at the University of New Mexico differs greatly from the majority of other universities in the United States. Only a handful of colleges offer this program as an actual class that counts towards your degree. Here at UNM, Formula SAE is offered as one of two options for completing the required senior design project. FSAE is spread over the course of three semesters. In the first semester students will be introduced to the design and mechanics of everything that goes into a winning race car as they design their own. In the second semester, students will have an opportunity to leave the classroom and apply all of the theory and skills that they have developed as they begin manufacturing their newly designed car. Finally, in the third semester, students will test and tune their race car as they prepare for competition. At UNM, we train the students who built the car how to drive a race car; there are no outside drivers brought in for the competition.

By offering FSAE as a three semester course, students obtain real world experiance in seeing a project through from concept to production to testing and servicing that one would not be able to get from regular course work or internships.

The experiences gained from involvement in the program not only prepares students for careers in engineering, but also builds lasting friendships and a family bond amongst team members. Each year, graduating team members go on to get top jobs at companies such as Honda, Boeing, and GE. However, not just the automotive and aviation industries are interested in graduates involved in FSAE; every facet of engineering has companies that are attracted to the skills, knowledge, and experiences gained from being involved in FSAE. In short,the real world experience that students get out of the program give them an advantage over traditional students when they enter the work force after graduation.

To read a brief summation of the history of FSAE or the history of UNM Lobo Motorsports click on the links below.