For their 23rd race car designed and built from scratch on Clemson’s campus, the Clemson Formula SAE team has been preparing for months to compete in a world-renowned racing competition at the Michigan International Speedway in May.
FSAE is an international competition where teams design, build and compete with other universities to build formula-style race cars. Teams create the cars from the ground up and manufacture them to compete annually.
“One great element of FSAE is that we have to design and build a new car for every year’s competitions, so we are always busy, and when we are busy, we are learning,” Production Lead Thomas Crump said. “Like most teams, we’re in a time crunch to get the car ready for the biggest global competition in Michigan, but we’re all excited to represent Clemson’s engineering program at such a large scale.”
They will be up against over 100 student teams from around the world in a series of dynamic and static events hosted by SAE International.
With a team of over 50 active members that help build the race car with eight divisions, it has taken over 30,000 hours to prepare the vehicle for running.
“The Tiger 23 FSAE car is an overhauled design from previous cars with improvements in every area of design. As we prepare the car for competition, we look forward to seeing it perform well and showing off our hard work to the automotive world,” Chassis Lead Nick Couch said.
This year’s car will be a significant departure from previous cars by making it 80 pounds lighter and increasing the power by more than before. After April 6, the car is expected to run for initial testing for the competition.
“As a team, we compete in many race competitions with schools in the South as well as all over the globe,” Aerodynamics Division Lead Alivia Murphy said. “We have gotten to see many different engineering and motorsport approaches from all kinds of different teams and companies, many of which recruit our members for job opportunities.”
A big change coming for next year is the composite research and modeling for the team’s first-ever hybrid composite frame. This allows students to gain hands-on engineering skills in the automotive industry.
“Over the last few years, I have had the opportunity to work with a lot of talented young engineers as my teammates, and I have done what I can to help them on their journey as they have helped me,” Team Lead and Chief Engineer Michael Cloer said. “The biggest thing that the Formula SAE team offers to students on campus is a fun and exciting way to develop their skills as engineers in a fast-paced and ever-changing environment.”
The Michigan competition will take place from May 17-20 before they begin their next car design for the upcoming year.

Gallery • 2 Photos

RICHARD OUCH // COURTESY

This year's car will have a similar frame and model to this race car from last May.