#E240

Prior to the 2020-21 competition, the team underwent heavy internal restructuring. Building a car from scratch is difficult, lack of team coordination, annual knowledge loss, lack of documentation, and other issues exasperated that difficulty.

There’s only way to fix issues. Through hard work, and dedication. Former leadership (2018 ~ 2020) poured effort into amending those issues. Current and future members will be strongly affected by their work, who made this club possible (thank you).

Entering design session, a pandemic suddenly cut off in person meetings, recruitment, making things different from normal. Designing multiple high-level interconnected systems requires regular communication. Discord, Solidworks Product Data Management (PDM), alongside other networking and file sharing applications started being used. Regular, constant communication, made parts of the design process easier.

Fabrication was significantly more challenging. Machine shop access was extremely restricted. A single member had access though a separate research position with university. Club lab access had similar restrictions. Fortunately, the Billups family kindly let us borrow their garage in the evening to fabricate our race car. Vaccines for the Covid-19 virus gradually rolled out over this period, and somehow, we succeeded. A car was successfully built and entered FSAE Nevada. While E240 did not pass technical inspection, each team member, freshman through senior, gained valuable experience and warm memories. Including record 117-degree heat in a desert. Hydrate people!