Tyler Beckett, a junior from Maple Valley, Wash., along with a group of students have organized a team capable of building a Formula Student race car. Once built, the car will be entered into a world competition for students hosted by the Society of Automotive Engineers.

“It’s the most prestigious student engineering competition in the world,” said Chad Barnes, a sophomore from Rexburg.

Student teams from hundreds of schools around the world including BYU enter their cars to see if they can outsmart and outperform the competition. Once the formula cars are submitted for competition, judges from SAE inspect and rate each one for design, presentation, cost and management.

The SAE’s purpose in sponsoring this competition is to increase the bar in automotive technology.

Students are required to design and fabricate all the components of the car except for the 600cc motorcycle engine (the students will modify it) and tires. Since these cars are going to be raced, the goal is to keep the weight down and the horsepower up.

“We hope that the car will weigh under 400 pounds wet [full of gas],” Beckett said.

The SAE limits the cars to around 80 horsepower to keep costs down for the builders. A car with 80 horsepower at 400 pounds has one horsepower for every five pounds of weight. To put this into perspective, a Dodge Viper’s pound per horsepower is around 6.5, according to Car and Driver Magazine.

Despite the SEA’s horsepower limit regulation, the engine can still be designed and heavily modified in a way to yield a power advantage over the competition, Beckett said.

The group plans on designing and installing a small turbo charger. A small turbo will increase low-end performance, giving the car quicker starts off the line.

“We hope the car will do 0-60 [mph] in less than 4 seconds,” Beckett said.

Once the car is launched into the turns, the stiff independent suspension and grippy tires will allow it to turn at tight angles and high speeds. Before any of this can happen, Beckett and his team have some work to do such as finding the funds for their project.

“We estimate that the car would cost around $30,000 to build,” Beckett said. The majority of the funding will most likely come from sponsors and donors.

The team hopes the car will be ready to compete in the summer 2008 Formula Student competition. Individuals interested in more information can e-mail Tyler Beckett at tybeckett@gmail.com.