Like many engineers in the automotive world, lots of us here at MSIMA undertook the time-sink gauntlet that is being a part of a Formula SAE (FSAE) team. Hell, some of us even drove the little scamp. Not me though. But I got something better out of it… carbon splinters.

With the wealth of personal experience we all have post-graduation paired with an over abundance of ideas forever locked away in our brains, we sought it fair to give those deep in the FSAE trenches some, shall we say, helpful advice. (This also applies to Formula Student, we promise!)

And I probably should make some sarcastic comments about fan cars, but you crazy bastards over at Formula Student in Europe actually pulled it off, and none of us here ya MSIMA would want to discourage that. So do it again, please.

10. Tuned Mass Damper

Fuck if I know what that is, I’m the “fit this obviously incorrect part in this hole” guy, not the “intellectual contributions” member.

9. Closed Wheels and Cockpit

Ah the suggestion every freshman (usually in aero) makes after watching a 10 minute F1 tech video from Autosport. And you probably made them feel bad for breathing next to the car (fore shame). But, you ignoramus, why not? The aero advantages are clear! Plus the marketing team could have so much room to play with. Technically both of these additions would make the car illegal, but that’s why you plan to bribe the judges. If it works in LeMons racing and it works with politicians, why couldn’t you do a little “professional lobbying”?

8. Liter Bike engine

Yes, it is explicitly forbidden. However, at least one freshman must suggest it at the interest meeting as a right of passage. Be more creative and suggest a two-stroke because the future belongs to engines that are emissions non-compliant by design and struggle to stay lubricated. That, or an LS. Pick your poison.

7. A Windscreen

At least once in every team’s history, some bored aero member will run a case or three testing a few little “windscreen” designs. These usually look the like little wickers and chevroned plates seen on F1 and Indycars. And they usually come to the conclusion that there’s no real benefit to be had, especially at actual FSAE speeds. YOU FOOLS, YOU SIMPLETONS! MAKE IT BIGGER! The wings are already horrific caricatures of a full sized car just to make some downforce at 30 mph. So clearly we just need a bigger windscreen! So what if that’s going to be a 1ft tall flat plate? Y’all are always after more forward balance anyways. Is it rules legal? Dunno, haven’t read them in years,

6. Fusion360 for Everything.

Is it too much of a pain in the ass to get those pesky Solidworks/Creo/NX/Inventor licenses? Or god forbid some cheeseball suggests using Catia V5 because “iT’s WhAt ThEy UsE iN InDuStRy”. Silence all the haters and embrace Autodesk cloud software. Sure the program might chug after your assembly surpasses 50 parts, but that just means you’re gotta make a really lightweight car! Plus you can make tool paths in the same program. It’s just like you’re in NASCAR! And that’s not even the best part! It’s technically free! Or at least until AutoDesk updates their terms of service again…

5. Carbon Monocoque

There comes a point in every team’s history when the idea of running a full carbon tub is brought up. And for most of us in the U.S., we just kick it down to the car that’s a couple years out. Maybe the 10th one, or the 20th. Halfsender. That welded chassis is going to have a nose that looks like it’ll need corrective penile surgery anyways. So why not just bite that damn bullet now? Cost? Experience? Hubris? ROME WASN’T BUILT IN A DAY, BUT GOD DAMN IT THE LAYUP FOR THE CHASSIS SURE WILL BE!

4. Whatever this is

Back in 2021, I was presented with this beautiful model as a suggestion for what the next car should be. Yes, that is from the game “Besieged”. At first glance, you might think “did you kick him out of the team for starting a group chat with new members in order to further push that design with people who didn’t know any better after politely explaining the rules and physics violations of his prior schemes?”.

No, he eventually became composites lead. But let’s take a closer look here, because there is real substance. Having trouble designing side pods that properly duct flow into a radiator? Just block them off, now you don’t need to worry about it. Is your wing at a questionable angle of attack, it hasn’t been validated it in three years, and your tufting shows wild flow separation behind the roll hoop? Just get rid of it, and make it into a spoiler. You have a lot of over-body flow that’s being WASTED. If 60’s Can Am cars did it, so can you! And don’t forget the front wing that wraps around like a chimera child of a 2024 F1 car and gen 1 formula e car. No induced drag am I right?

I shouldn’t even be posting this, because the secrets it gives out are too juicy and numerous to count. Safe to say, whoever builds this will will static and dynamic events with minimal effort.

3. Autodesk FlowDesign Free CFD

What’s that? Auto desk purged any trace of every version of their CFD program called Flow Design from the internet? Well, that’s a shame. Mind you, I’m specifically talking about the free version, though both have disappeared. According to one website , this stupid thing was running LES, which I highly doubt. But if true, then congrats to the noble team who manages to run an LES sim with no mesh control.

But who needs to worry about all those fancy comp-methods terms anyways. W-Cycle? Prism Layers? What even is a Spallart-Almaras? It sounds unhealthy, ew. We all know CFD jargon is made up by big Aero to keep YOU in the dark. So why not use this un-configurable piece of now pirate-friendly abandonware to just shut up and give you the damn data. “Oh but we can’t check the wall y+ to–” shut up nerd and give me the damn pretty colors to wipe my ass with.

2. Formula Hybrid

How freaking cool would it be to have a hybrid powertrain??? In a Formula SAE car? Yeah, that would be awesome and I’m sure all the ICE teams would switch so such a modern and unique futuristic version of the outdated internal combustion nonsense.

1. Infinite Design Cycle

Is your team struggling to make a new car in 6 months? Are you guys considering switching to a 2 year design cycle for a bit just to make sure that knowledge is transferred and you can actually design, build, and fly test the damn car before going to competition? Well, why worry so much? I present to you an idea from the deepest recesses of my mind: the infinite design cycle. You can’t have a part slip past design freeze when there are no deadlines dipshit. Just a constant, never ending loop of PDR, CDR, testing sessions, tear downs, and rebuilds. Think of it, what’s better than having no testing hours? ALL THE TESTING HOURS. And when that limit of your patience finically goes towards infinity and the school “politely suggests” competing or else funding dries up, you’ll surely have designed the ideal FSAE car.

Bonus edition: Title 9 violations

Is building an entire racecar without pay not stressful enough? Well, besides the mechanical drama, you can always engage in the not-so-fun and not-acceptable variety of drama. For all the joys of motorsports, there’s always *that guy* who either was never taught how to behave, or because of his religious and political beliefs, believes it’s a mission from God to scare any women away from learning how to build a racecar. After all, nothing affirms your heterosexuality better than 100% men.