The Clemson Formula Team posted its best finish in the past 11 years after placing 14th out of 105 teams that entered the competition at Michigan International Speedway on May 8-11th. The team finished 14th in autocross, 14th in endurance, 10th in student design, and 14th overall. The car, now nicknamed Gloria and formally named Tiger15, was piloted by Perry Ellwood, Kenny Brown, Grey Roberts, and Charlie Morgan. The 14th place finish was a huge victory for a team going through a rebuilding phase that was looking to improve on a then-best 20th place finish in 2012. In-depth detail will be coming soon through our newsletter and we will be placing photos from competition on the website soon. Thank you to all of our supporters and sponsors for helping us get the car done and allowing Clemson to join the elite of Formula SAE. A top 10 finish overall is on the horizon and we are up for the challenge.

Finals week is here and sleep is pretty much an afterthought at this point. Tiger15 is coming along nicely and the chassis has been fully painted. For the first time in 7 years, the bodywork has been painted and what better color than orange? After an impromptu paint booth and 3 days of constant rain, we popped out these bad boys.

The spring newsletter is here! This issue has updates on:

• The Spring Break Build
• NOS Energy Partnership
• Brooks Institute Partnership
• Sponsor Updates
• The Alumni Reunion Dinner

Thanks to everyone for reading!

We’re excited to present our new promotional video, courtesy of Mr. Pulley’s English 314 technical writing class. Check out the video from the link on our media page or see the video here: Clemson FSAE Promo

When the Clemson waterjet machine was down for repairs, CUFSAE found support in Fostoria, Ohio at Reinhart Ditching and Repair.  RDR offers a variety of engineering services and machining capabilities, including the 5-axis waterjet machine that was used to cut the blanks for our wheel centers.  Working with RDR has allowed us to continue one our timeline without much hesitation to finish our best wheel centers yet.  You can find RDR at www.RDRCompany.com, and tell Cliff Reinhardt we sent you!

The 2012 outside of the Mechanical Engineering Office

The Clemson National Scholars Program selects from the best and brightest Clemson applicants for a recruiting weekend with tours and interviews, ending with a select few earning a spot in one of Clemson Universities most prestigious learning experience programs.  This year’s group of 30 candidates and their families began their tour at the Fluor Daniel Engineering Innovation Building, home to the mechanical engineering department.  We were invited to showcase our car to these students in order to promote mechanical engineering at Clemson, and were proud to do so.  The prospective mechanical engineering students also received a small presentation by Baja SAE team leader, John Cleland, as well as Formula SAE team leader, Kenny Brown. Best wishes to the students, as they enter their afternoon interviews!

Our latest newsletter is live! Check out the latest news from the fastest group in Clemson.

Inside this issue:

• SPSU Invitational Recap
• Christmas Thank You!
• Car Build Update

Clemson FSAE competed against several teams at Southern Polytechnic State University in Marietta, Georgia, on January 5, 2013.  The team started the year off great with a second place finish behind NC State. Both Clemson’s ’04 and ’12 car competed in skidpad, endurance, autocross, and dyno events, ranking well among other teams in each event. The completion of every event by both cars and the second place finish shows promise for the Michigan International Speedway Competition in May. Plus, the mini-competition provided an excellent introduction to the events at Michigan for the new members on the team.

Southern Polytechnic State University has graciously invited us to a mini-competition and engine dyno day at their campus. The Clemson Formula Team will be taking the ’12 car out to compete in a mini-endurance, autocross, acceleration, and skidpad testing at the invitational. The event acts as a great introduction for new members for the May competition and provides active testing against other universities. We would like to thank SPSU again for the invitation and we’re looking forward to this event!

Better late than never; we’ve finally got our November newsletter live online!  If you were on our e-mailing list you would have got this already, so be sure to e-mail us to get signed up!

In this issue, we’ve got the scoop on our latest test day, our newest sponsors, our Christmas wishlist, on our alumni spotlight!