Chris Borchert, Josh Curran & Geoff Lister/The Ubyssey

For some, Saturday is a day to relax or catch up on things from the rest of the week. But for students involved with Formula UBC, it’s time to head to the garage.

Composed of about 25 students from first-year to graduate—mainly mechanical engineers—Formula UBC is a club that designs and builds an open-wheel race car over the course of two to three years.

Their last car took two years to build and was raced in a Formula SAE competition in Fontana, California in the summer of 2011. Hosted by the Society of Automotive Engineers, competitions judge not only the car’s performance and design but also the team’s ability to market the car to a simulated board of directors.

“There’s a lot of design that goes into the car, there’s also a lot of marketing that goes into the car,” said Michael Rooney, co-leader of the Formula UBC team. “Basically, we’re trying to make a car that will perform well but would also be economical to build at some point.”

The team placed placed 54th out of 83 last year and is looking to move up in the ranks when they go to Lincoln, Nebraska in June. “This year’s car was basically formed with everything that went wrong with last year’s car,” said Rooney, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student. “In past years, UBC’s done really well at design competitions in California, so we’re really aiming to be at least 20, even 30 positions above last year.”

Formula UBC’s previous car was designed by one team and built by another, leaving those involved in building and exhibition without knowledge on how or why some design decisions had been made, according to Rooney. “We put it together and really had barely got it running before making it to competition,” he said. “After that, we knew exactly what was wrong and what we needed to do for the next car to be successful.”

The design process needed an overhaul, according to Rooney. “Usually when you make a car you make small changes here and there…but you wouldn’t change much,” he said. “They did a complete redesign from the ground up after 2008.”

The team are aiming for a “bad-ass” feel with the body design and character of the car, which has only been modeled on a computer so far. “Every car for me has a face,” Rooney said. “I think it’s going to look pretty mean.”

The work is hard. Rooney said he spends about five to six hours on the car every Saturday. “We need a lot of manpower and a lot of man-hours goes into each car,” he said. “Sometimes it can be pretty stressful, but others it’s nice to be able to work, you know, you’re working with your buddies and other students.”

After three years with the club, Rooney says his favourite part of the year has been imparting knowledge to new members. “Everybody that’s there is willing to learn, they want to be able to put something towards their car. They’re there to invest their time, not to just twiddle their thumbs,” he said.

“Everybody on the team is basically just best friends with each other.”

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