Penngineers race toward the finish line

The sounds, speed and adrenaline of racing could sum up the atmosphere in Levine Hall on Tuesday when Penn's Formula SAE team unveiled its car for this year's competition.

Formula SAE is an annual competition between colleges and universities worldwide. Teams have approximately one year to build a car and then compete with other teams on the race day. This year's race will be held in mid May in Detroit.

The 13-member team, called Red and Blue Racing, is sponsored by General Motors, Lockheed Martin, Hewlett-Packard and other companies in the automotive and manufacturing industries.

The team started designing the car last summer and began putting it together this past fall, completing the entire car in under a year. The team is comprised mostly of students majoring in mechanical engineering and applied mechanics.

Although the team placed 88th in 2006 and 83rd in 2007 out of the competing 125 teams, Wharton and Engineering senior Gregor Zetsche said that this year the team hopes to place in the top 20. He said he believes this is possible since the "team is committed."

The 2008 car will be Penn's fourth vehicle and what the team describes as its "most sophisticated yet."

The event began with a short introduction about the team and the competition. The students then unveiled the car and spoke for a short while about it. Informational posters adorned Levine Hall, offering information about the vehicle's design and the conceptualization that goes into making a racecar.

The team also prepared a short video to show the audience, which was comprised of professors, alumni, students and friends of the team members.

"It is really impressive that they can build a car every year," said Francesca Lattanzio, a senior in Engineering who is not involved with the project.

Now that the team has completed production, they will start testing the car and prepare it for the upcoming competition.

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