UW students are testing a cutting-edge electric race car at Pacific Raceways. They’re about to show the country—and the world—what it can do.
If you’re out at Pacific Raceways between races and ProFormance events, you might see an unusual race car being tested. Going by the name of T37, the car is the creation of the UWashington Formula Motorsports Team, a group of student engineers who are deep into the challenges of designing, fabricating, and testing the best formula-style electric race car they can imagine. ProFormance Racing School is involved in the team efforts. Supporting young and upcoming engineers, drivers, and technicians entering the world of motorsports is one of the ways we help build our auto sports community.
T37 is not just a hobby or school project: the team is set to compete this mid-June in Michigan against engineering teams all over North America. Then, in August, they’ll take the car to Germany to face global competition.
UW Formula Motorsports: tech with a long history
The UWashington Formula Motorsports team has been around for 37 years, since before Tesla, Rivian, or Lucid were born, and even before General Motors launched the EV1, its first electric car. The team’s 108 members are divided into subteams that handle different aspects of the effort: mechanical (chassis, suspension, etc.), electrical (software, etc.), and administrative.
Taylor Lai, a third-year University of Washington engineering student and the team’s Drive Coordinator, notes that tech people don’t get to stay in a tech bubble: they also play an admin role, whether it’s finding sponsorship or producing media. “We produce engineers who are multi-faceted, with both tech and interpersonal skills.”
A car like no other
T37 is a 4-wheel-drive, fully electric race car, created from scratch by the students. Even the chassis, a carbon fiber monocoque—something only seen in the top level of wheel-to-wheel motorsports— was made in-house by the team. Fabricating the chassis alone took about one and a half months.
Up until 2019, the UWashignton Formula Motorsports team worked on ICE vehicles. T23 was their first EV. Each year has seen advancements in design and performance.
The car uses a 6.63 kWh battery, weighs a scant 216 kilograms without a driver, and goes from zero to 60 in 2.5 seconds. Top speed is just 70 mph, a result of rules about how much power the car can draw. Reliability and performance, not raw speed, are the goal.
More evidence that T37 is not your typical EV road car: the 4WD in-hub motors power each wheel independently, enabling some advanced control schemes. The driverless version uses LIDAR to look for cones and guide itself around the track.
Competition: Michigan this summer
The group seeks validation for their efforts on the national and worldwide stages. Mid-June will see them entering T37 in the Formula SAE Michigan Competition (SAE stands for Society of Automotive Engineers). They’ll be facing engineering teams from no less than 117 other institutions, mostly North American, all seeking to create the most advanced electric race car.
The competition challenges teams with static and dynamic events. The latter includes acceleration trials, figure 8s on a skid pad, autocross, and endurance trials. Endurance, says Taylor, is the critical one. The 22-kilometer run tests the battery and cooling system to the limit.
Static events test the team’s capabilities rather than the car’s: how well they designed it, how they managed cost and manufacturing process, and how persuasive their business presentation is. Those skills are essential to advancing from a prototype to a production car.
Competition: tomorrow the world
In August, the group takes their vehicle to Germany for the Formula Student Germany competition, where they will compete with teams from 25 nations. Most teams are from Germany, which means UW will be up against formidable German engineering. Adding to the challenge is the support the German teams enjoy from the country’s automotive companies.
“They’ve been doing it longer,” says Taylor, “so we can learn a lot from them. The German teams have been doing custom motors and inverters, that kind of thing. We can see the way they handle architecture.
This year, we attempted a driverless race car for the first time. The Germans have been doing that a long time as well.”
A dedicated force
Late nights are business as usual at this stage. Ideally, team members should be putting 20 hours a week into the project. “But most put in 40,” says Taylor, “and some even do 60 hours a week. So it’s really a full-time job.”
The team needs to work this hard to get the car assembled, pass tech inspection, and then make it “break fast and break at home,” meaning have all failures occur now, rather than at the Michigan International Speedway or the Hockenheimring. Reliability comes from driving the car as much as possible, which is why ProFormance Racing School has been helping UW Formula Motorsports book as much track time at they can at Pacific Raceways.
Institutional knowledge
Unlike most of the teams competing in Michigan and Germany, UW Formula Motorsports has a long history. 37 years gives them a wealth of institutional knowledge that gets passed on to new members every year. About 20 new students join the team each year as seniors move on.
The long history of the team was one of the things that drew Taylor. “I could see it was well-established and well-organized. I appreciate a team that has all its learning opportunities laid out in front of me.”
While Taylor is a Drive Coordinator this year—booking testing time at Pacific Raceways, creating test plans, arranging transport for the car—next year she’ll be Operations Director, handling logistics and other matters related to winning the competition.
The road ahead
Engineering students are a diverse lot, with different goals. Being on the UWashington Formula Motorsports opens doors to many internships, which allow members to explore different career fields. Taylor is interested in space, in particular, satellite structures. Meanwhile, she and her team are putting in as much working time and drive time as possible to get ready for Michigan and Germany. All that time and effort work to the advantage of UWashington Formula Motorsports, and ultimately, to the cause of EV cars in the world.
