Hard work paid off for the Carleton Ravens Racing team, which took home special honours at Canadian and American Formula race car competitions this year.

Ravens Racing includes two teams: one is comprised of 27 fourth-year undergraduate engineering students who receive a credit for creating and testing their components on a Formula Hybrid all-wheel drive car; the other team includes more than 40 volunteer students from all academic backgrounds who create and test their components on a gas-powered Formula race car.

“I think we did very well this year,” says Kenneth Chow, Ravens Racing team leader. “This is the first year our hybrid competed after we developed the car for three years. When we went to compete, it got first place.”

Chow says the team created improved parts and processes for the race cars this year – which helped them succeed when the Ravens Racing Hybrid team competed in the 2013 Formula Hybrid competition in New Hampshire between April 20 and May 2. The team took third place in design, second in marketing, and sixth in endurance – placing sixth overall.

Carleton’s next victory took place at the 2013 Formula SAE Michigan competition from May 8 to 11, where the volunteer team faced off against 122 international teams.

Chow says the volunteer team did an outstanding job – coming in ninth place in the cost event, 34th place in marketing, and tying 68th in design.

“We went from four to five people on the team last year, to more than 40 this year. So this was a huge step forward,” says Chow.

Both Ravens Racing teams competed at the 2013 Formula North competition in Barrie, Ont., from May 23 to 26. The Hybrid team members earned first place overall in their category, and in the acceleration and endurance events. The volunteer team placed 23rd in the competitive combustion class – facing the top teams from the Formula SAE Michigan competition.

Ravens Racing members will be demonstrating their cars at various events this summer, including at the Ottawa Ferrari Festival, which takes place June 15.

For more information on the teams, visit: ravensracing.com.

“The car is a product of numerous lessons learnt, fervent debates about every detail, countless sleepless nights, incredible experiences and unwavering determination. But our car is not the end of a successful creative process, it is just the beginning,” says Pooja Suresh.

The Formula Hybrid International Competition, organized by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), challenges students to design, build and competitively run high-performance hybrid vehicles. These hybrid race cars combine the energy efficiency of electrical power and the range of gasoline power to boost performance and reduce emissions. Competition vehicles are judged in static events, including a marketing and design presentation, and dynamic events based on timed runs, including acceleration (both electric and unrestricted), autocross, and a 22 km endurance event.

As part of a two-year design cycle, the team was tasked with building the RR12 and designing the 2013 vehicle.

The RR12 has wheel drive configuration with the rear wheels powered by a 250cc gas engine and each front wheel powered by an electric motor. The car can achieve a top speed of 120 km/hour and accelerates from 0-100 in less than 4 seconds. The eventual progression of the car is to be completely electric.

“An impressive design for the body, developed with help from architectural students, and a more ergonomic seat are all part of the steps we are taking to strengthening the knowledge base of the team and improving future designs,” says Suresh.

The Ravens Racing team consists of 22 engineering students, mostly from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, a small group of volunteer students, and project manager Glen Clarke and lead engineers professors Miller, Wang and Feszty.

“The transformation of our innovative designs into a manufactured race car was possible primarily due to the support of our sponsors. Their contributions provided an experimental platform for emerging hybrid automotive technologies and an exceptional learning opportunity for engineering students,” says Suresh.

Design highlights for the RR12 include:

• chassis is a tubular space frame with composite components
• suspension and kinematics design based on maximizing tire performance. The suspension is a double wishbone design that is push-rod actuated, aided by re-engineered shocks and T-bar type anti-roll bars.
• a complete set of aluminum wheel centres manufactured for the first time based on comprehensive failure and fatigue analysis to improve reliability and maintain low cost and weight.
• electric drive system powered by lithium polymer batteries
• efficient, in-house-built control system
• carbon fibre impact attenuator (nose cone)

Team members are: Kosta Christopher, Stevenson Joseph Ediza, Brad Fackoury, Mark Freill, Aydin Ghoddosei, Yuyu Gu, Sunny Gulabani, John Hamilton, Mohammad Abdul Jalil, Omar Jarrar, Curtis Johnson, David Kolkman, Candace Lemon, Saman Mani, Andrew Oneski, Udit Roy, Megat Shuib, Kyle Stitt, Pooja Suresh, Gabe Surette, and Jonathan Wiebe

Andrew Oneski and David Kolkman won the Best Overall Paper prize for “Formula Hybrid Race Car Control System’. Matthew Schiedel and Alex Hayes won both Most Innovative and Best Commercial Application Paper prizes for ‘High Performance Housing Project: Solar Decathlon’.

Between the two teams, their paper presentations won the overall championship.  Cynthia Cruickshank, from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, was the organizer of the Carleton team that wrested the trophy back from the University of Ottawa.

Photo, left to right: Cynthia Cruickshank, Andrew Oneski, Alan Perks (Chief Judge), David Kolkman, Alex Hayes and Matthew Schiedel