THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 21 2013
PAGE 9A
RACING
Jayhawk Motorsports builds race cars for competitions
HANNAH BARLING
hbarling@kansan.com
Building top-quality race cars from scratch is more than a hobby for engineering students.
Jayhawk Motorsports is a student group that designs, builds and races formula cars. The team builds two cars each year: one electric car and one combustion car that runs on ethanol. Reaching 60 mph in four seconds is the ultimate goal.
There are three teams within the Jayhawk Motorsports team: chassis and aerodynamics, suspension and powertrain.
The powertrain team works on the engine and the components of it, such as the exhaust and the cooling system. Jeff Dickinson, a senior from Manhattan, is the team lead of the eight-member powertrain队. Dickinson said that they use the cars from previous years as a guideline to figure out what went well and what didn't go so well.
Overland Park senior Matt Toft is the Leader of the seven-member suspension team. The suspension team works on parts of the cars such as the shocks, breaks and steering. Toft said the ultimate goal is to get as much force into the tires as possible. Toft has been interested in cars since he first started driving and plans to go into automotive
engineering.
"It's the freedom of getting away"
Toft said.
Adam jeffries, a senior from Leawood, is a mechanical engineering major, and the leader of the seven-member chassis team. The chassis team creates the body of the car. The bodies of the two cars are made up of several layers of carbon fiber. The design is first cut out of foam, covered in carbon fiber and then baked until hardened.
"Our biggest thing this year is reducing weight," Jeffries said. "It's an intricate process."
Some Jayhawk Motorsports team members spend 40 to 50 hours per week working in the shop. The middle of March is their goal to have all of the parts machined and put together, with April 1 as their running car deadline. Jeffries said that this project is as close to real life work as the students can get.
"It's one of the most challenging things a lot of us will ever do," jeffries said.
Robert Sorem, the faculty advisor for Jayhawk Motorsports, has been working with the team since it first started in 1993. There are about 50 team members total, including volunteers. Sorem said that the multidisciplinary aspect of the team is one of the best parts of the program.
"It encompasses everything in engineering." Sorem said.
Jayhawk Motorsports competes in multiple national competitions each summer. Last year, the team finished building one of their cars in the trailer on the way to a competition in Detroit. They finished around 60th place because they had no time to test the car after finishing it. But within one month's time, they managed to fix the problems and ended up earning first place overall at the Formula Society of Automotive Engineers West competition in Lincoln, Neb.
IT Adkins, a graduate student from Lenexa, was one of the racers last year. Adkins got into cars through his dad and said his best shot to be involved with racing was to be an engineer.
"You can see a difference between a team that tested their car a lot and those who just finished," Adkins said.
Jayhawk Motorsports' first competition this year will be in Michigan against about 120 teams from around the world. The electric car will compete at the first ever Formula Electric Competition in Lincoln, Neb., this summer. The team is also registered to compete in Austria in August.
Edited By Tyler Conover
GEORGE MULLINIX/KANSAN
Members of the Jayhawk Motor Sports team sand down the battery box. It will be covered in carbon fiber and contain the lithium batteries.
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The 2012 Formula SAE (right) and the 2012 Formula Electric (left). Both vehicles were built and designed by the Jawhawk Motor Sports team and entered into competitions where they are judged on a wide variety of criteria such as design, performance and marketing.
GEORGE MULLINIX/KANSAN
Valentin Wonner, who works with the vehicles' powertrain, shows off a differential. The differential aims the engine power at the wheels and acts as the final gear reduction in the vehicles.