A spectacular late summer day. Half-scale Indy cars shining in the sparkling sun. The whine of highpowered motorcycle engines—or the eerie silence of an electric racer, until its tires squeal at the start and its transmission begins to scream. The smell of alcohol-fuel exhaust mingled with burgers on the grill. And applause and cheers from eager young engineers.
That was the scene Saturday, Aug. 31, as Lawrence Tech hosted its 15th annual Grand Prix for studentbuilt race cars that compete in university events sponsored by SAE International, formerly known as the Society of Automotive Engineers.
LTU students involved in organizing the event called it a success, despite mechanical challenges that plagued LTU’s Formula SAE piston-powered race car.
“The teams all had fun,” said Dominic Catenacci, Formula SAE co-captain and a senior mechanical engineering major from Utica.
Catenacci said the out-of-town teams LTU was hosting, from Grand Valley State University, the University of Toledo, and Kettering University, “all got a lot of laps in with their vehicles, which was really nice.”
James McCarthy, a senior mechanical engineering major from Pittsburgh, Pa., agreed with Catenacci’s assessment of the day’s activities.
“Overall, we thought it was a really good event, a really good time,” said McCarthy, who’s also a member of the LTU men’s volleyball team. “We know everybody from the other teams had a great time. We had a lot of positive feedback from the other schools, so obviously we thought it was a really successful event.”
And about LTU’s Formula SAE car? Initially, the car was stymied from running on the course by a brake issue that turned out to be merely a bad brake pad, but diagnosing the problem took quite a bit of time.
Then, when the LTU car got running—in fact, when it was almost finished turning in a lap that would have challenged for the lead in the event—a rear suspension component snapped, taking the car out of the race for the rest of the day.
Catenacci said the car that raced in the Grand Prix, the university’s 2024 race model, has had recurring suspension issues due to an original design that was too low to the ground. The solution, using suspension to raise the car, left its parts vulnerable to excess stress and breakage.
Catenacci said he’s now finalizing the design for an all-new chassis for LTU’s 2025 Formula SAE car, which will be assembled by student welders in the LTU fabrication lab this fall.
LTU’s 2025 car will also use a new engine. The team is moving up from a Yamaha R6 motorcycle engine to the newer R7, a 689-cc power plant that has just two cylinders vs. four in the R6. “That will present new challenges for us,” Catenacci said.
The team meets virtually year-round, with the biggest team meetings on Friday afternoons, Catenacci said—all with the aim of bringing home honors in the spring 2025 SAE competition season.
LTU’s SAE teams have six-figure budgets, most of which are covered by sponsors, whose names and corporate logos adorn the cars each year. For information on sponsoring LTU’s various Blue Devil Motorsports competition teams, visit ltu.edu/motorsports to review each team’s goals, membership, and needs.
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