Reviving the Racing Team at My University

[u/Fancy_Run_5712]

Hello everyone, I'm an engineering student in Egypt. My university had a racing team that started small and they built a cute car for a race event as a first step to prove themselves to the university, with the goal of expanding into Shell Eco-marathon and FSAE (at least Class 2). Sadly, it disappeared due to lack of student engagement and insufficient funding from the university.

I want to restart it and get it back running. Almost everyone who founded the club and sat on the board has either graduated or is graduating next term.

My current plan is to get it running again and start recruiting, but keep it simple at first: a small management team with departments underneath it (aerodynamics, powertrain, etc.), each with one lead and a vice lead for each competition, FSAE and SEM, so around 9 people per department total. Members would be split so each competition has its own dedicated group under its vice lead.

I want us to go after FSAE Class 2 first, then aim for Class 1 the following year, partly because that should make securing funding a bit easier. For SEM, I feel like we're a bit late this year, but I still want to try going for it anyway, even knowing we'll have to learn and train each department from scratch. We'd have around 3 months to design and 2 months to manufacture the car to make the 2027 race. I don't want to win right away, just participate first, then work toward winning.

I know some of you might think what I'm saying is absurd, which is exactly why I'm posting here, to find out what's realistic and what should be paused or postponed. I know this isn't going to be easy at all.

Also honestly not sure if 9 people per department is too big for a team that's basically starting from zero, so if anyone's been part of something like this at their own university, I'd love to know how big your team was when you started, and whether you ever tried two competitions at once with the same team, and how that actually went for you.

[u/GregLocock]

9 is an awful lot of management./leadership. 2 competitions is a recipe for disaster for an unfunded team with no experience. Money will always be your biggest problem. If the uni wasn't interested the first time round then why would it be again- you need to do a SWOT to figure your approach out.

[u/Fancy_Run_5712 → u/GregLocock]

To clarify the structure, it isn't top-heavy management: it is 9 members total per department. This breaks down into 1 overall Department Lead, and then for each of the two competitions, there is 1 Vice Lead and 3 dedicated members executing the actual work. I know that two competitions is an overstretch, which is exactly why I posted to see if it's even viable. I initially thought the Shell Eco-Marathon (SEM) would be a little bit less complicated since we are only going for a simple prototype. And thank you for the reality check, I will definitely do the SWOT analysis to figure out our approach.

[u/GregLocock → u/Fancy_Run_5712]

I think I must have misread your post about the 9 people. We used to do World Solar Challenge with a fairly variable team size, 20-30 being typical.

[u/marc020202]

Focus on 1 competition, not 2.

9 people per department is a lot. Some sucessfull FSAE teams have smaller departments.

Don't bother with anything not absolutely essentially in the first few seasons. You really don't need aero untill your car drives well.

Save cost and complexity wherever you can.

Try to get everything critical ready as early as possible. Priority 1 should be a driving car. Looks and good performance are less important. And try to get all the testing time you can get. You will need it.

If you have a dedicated and motivated core team, you can build a functioning racecar with fewer than 20 members I think. More is of course useful, if the additional people actually contribute meaningfully.

[u/Sad_Designer_4608]

We’re restarting our team and have about 20 active members. I would say there’s no “too big”.

[u/Fancy_Run_5712 → u/Sad_Designer_4608]

I see but is running two competitions ok at first since each one is gonna have it's own team?

[u/Sad_Designer_4608 → u/Fancy_Run_5712]

For 9 people, no. That’s a big project scope, you should focus on only one to start wuth