University Park

Penn State student engineering team wins Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix

University Park, Pa. -- A team of Penn State mechanical engineering students built and raced a Formula-style race car to win the Caliguiri Collegiate Cup Formula Race at the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix.

The winning car, a small Formula-style racer powered by a 72 horsepower, 600cc motorcycle engine, defeated competitors from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University at the Pittsburgh event. Cars were judged on two timed events — an autocross event and acceleration run — as well as their overall design.

The Penn State racing team is made up of members of the Penn State Chapter of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), a 75-member club at University Park whose adviser is John Lamancusa, professor of mechanical engineering.

The Penn State students originally built the small Formula-style race car from September 2003 through mid-April 2004 to compete in the national 2004 Formula SAE competition held May 19 to 23 in Pontiac, Mich. Some 129 universities from 13 different countries competed. Penn State had its best showing ever with its car number 82, according to team leader Will Repsher of Milesburg.

"Weighing in at 380 pounds, this svelte machine turned many heads and had many questioning the origins of its lightness, even to the point of being weighed four times throughout the competition to appease skeptics," Repsher said. "Not only was the race car's design praised in the paddocks, but it also proved to be a challenger on the track."

In the national competition, the Penn State car finished the acceleration event second and the skidpad fourth, and it also chalked up a fourth-place finish in the endurance event where only 40 of 129 cars proved reliable enough to finish at all, Repsher said.

For the 2004 season, the Penn State race car employed many optimized design changes to produce the lightest car four-cylinder car at the Formula SAE competition as well as equaling the lightest in Penn State history, he added. Alternative materials were used in many components to decrease weight as well. The team used 3-D modeling and rapid prototyping extensively throughout the entire design process to ensure proper fit and finish of components.

Since the race car fared so well at the national competition, Repsher said the team decided to enter it in the second annual collegiate race named for the late Richard Caliguiri, former mayor of Pittsburgh, which was part of a week-long charity event for the Autism Society of Pittsburgh and the Allegheny Valley School in Coraopolis. The Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix, held in Schenley Park in the city's Oakland section, has raised more than $1.6 million for its two charities since 1983.

For pictures from the event, go to http://live.psu.edu/still_life/2004_07_23_race/index.html

Last Updated March 19, 2009

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