By: Nick Austin – Spear Reporter | The Spartan Racing Club showcases their newest race car. (Photo by Nick Orozco – Spear Photographer)
Upon entering the Spartan Racing clubhouse the first thing that catches the eye is a room littered with parts of previous iterations of winning cars.
Spartan Racing team members work hard to build the fastest Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) car in the world. SAE is an organization that oversees the student Formula SAE events both nationally and internationally.
Out of the over 350 student-run clubs at SJSU, none may be as intense as Spartan Racing.
Each major section of the car has its own department with its own lead and team. Some of the departments include the powertrain, the chassis, the strategy and vehicle dynamics.
“Most of the engineering knowledge I know now, I attribute to the club,” Rahul Shetty, chassis lead for Spartan Racing said.
Spartan Racing assures new members that they will be smoothly integrated into the team and that every member will find a role no matter their major.
“Whoever’s interested is more than welcome to show up to the clubhouse or just show up to the shop and we’ll get them started,” Robine van Veen, president of Spartan Racing said. “We want everyone to have an opportunity to learn. We don’t like to gatekeep the club or gatekeep knowledge.”
The current iteration of the club has been around since 2008 but was originally conceived in 1989 with SR-0, which was the first Spartan Racing car, being created as part of a senior project.
The Spartans compete with other SAE clubs worldwide to design, produce and race an electric car at the International Formula SAE competition at the Michigan International Speedway in June.
“We have schools from all over the country. Also from Canada, Mexico and South Korea,” Clarence Choi, treasurer for the team said. “All these teams around the world are going and doing the exact same thing, trying to be the fastest car.”
The competition consists of five smaller events.
First is a static event where the car is presented to judges for scrutiny as different team members must defend their designs and building choices.
Second, is an acceleration test where cars compete to cover 75 meters of ground the fastest.
The next three events challenge the car’s limits.
The skid pad test examines the cornering speed of the car through a specific type of corner designed to examine the maximal lateral force and top speed.
The autocross test puts the car through challenging driving conditions such as tight and sharp turns over a single lap to assess the handling of the car and overall driver’s skill.
Finally, the endurance test evaluates the durability and efficiency of the car over an extended period of time.
Drivers of the car are contributing members of the design and production team. Their skills are put to the test by participating in go-karting races during the year prior to driving the car in competition.
Spartan Racing is not funded by SJSU, but financed by sponsors and donations. This can lead to some challenging decisions as members look to build a competitive car.
If the club were forced to pay for the entire car itself, they estimate it would cost between $200,000 and $250,000.
The team has been lucky enough to have sponsors that will supply certain materials that are essential such as carbon fiber.
Even with sponsors, they still spend about $110,000 of donated money on the car.
This money comes from alumni of the club as well as anyone who chooses to donate to the club through its website.
The development of each year’s car is divided into two-calendar sections.
“Right now we’re in conceptual design review, which is the second phase of design reviews,” van Veen said. “Then we will have the final design review where they will really solidify what they’re going to be doing.”
Spartan Racing uses the previous year’s model as a building block for its current iteration.
“It makes it easier on us, since last year’s car offers a lot of data, like of it running at competition or at testing,” van Veen said. “It’s a good thing to build off of for next year.”
It’s then up to the current designer to do research on their own car as well as other teams and how engineering practices would apply to the club’s design component.
Spartan Racing puts on a “design freeze” at the beginning of January. This means that any designs for any part of the car that have not been fully approved or researched will be scrapped so the team can focus on the production.
Even with a development plan, sometimes the unexpected happens and it requires some overnight shifts.
The team’s previous gas-powered car, which was retired in 2022 because the members wanted to keep up with industry trends, provided one more stressful night before its departure.
“Two years ago I stayed up for about 20 hours. It ran, it was loud, it was obnoxious, it was fun,” Choi said. “We blew up the engine just doing tests.”
Three members from the powertrain department had to stay the entire night to rebuild the engine using scrap pieces to get the car working again.
All the years’ work comes down to a couple of days in June when the team takes its car to Michigan.
This competition is the culmination of all the sleepless nights and stressful meetings.
“It feels really good to see everyone’s passion, their drive and their energy that goes into this car on this project,” van Veen said. “It’s really beautiful to watch it develop over the whole year. It’s so moving to see that all of our late nights, all of our hard work cultivated into something top performing.”
Rivalries between teams naturally begin to heat up as teams are in a year-round battle to see who will develop the best race car.
“It’s definitely a good, fun competitive rivalry that we have with a lot of the other teams that we’ve come to know over the years,” Shetty said.
Spartan Racing considers itself more than a racing team, the club considers itself a family.
“I’ve made a lot of friends along the way and I’d like to say some of them are my best friends now,” Choi said. “The people that stick around, that stay the late nights, the bond you have with them is very unique.”
