News And Updates

6/28/2007

We are proud to announce that Lehigh SAE placed 11th for overall car design at SAE Detroit. It was the first time the team made it to design semi-finals in 11 years. We also received 1st place for the Society of Plastics Engineers' Composites Award. Unfortunately, the car did not make it through the endurance event. It was on the verge of finishing the event when the car broke down on lap 20 out of 22.

At SAE West, we placed 29 out of 68 teams with an honorable mention for innovation.

We would like to thank all of our sponsors for being a part of our team this year, and helping us to attain many achievements. We look forward to the 08 season.

4/28/2007

The 2007 SAE car was officially unveiled at Starter's Restauraunt in South Bethlehem, PA last Wednesday the 18th. Please see the 'current year' section of the website under 'our team' for more details regarding the car.

3/31/2007

Welcome to the newly remodeled Lehigh FSAE website. We apologize for any inconvenience you may face as bugs are still being worked out.

12/6/2006

New pictures of the 2007 FSAE project have been uploaded to our webshots account. Please check there often for more visual updates to our progress.

12/1/2006

Plenty has been happening here at Lehigh as we prepare for the 2007 competition circuit. The 2007 FSAE car, aka the X36, is close to being completly designed and manufacturing has already commenced on many of the key area's of the car. Over the next two weeks, our monocoque will be infused, routed, and wet layed giving us a complete chassis before the break. Going with a similar overall design to the X35, the WR-450 will be returning along with full carbon suspension links and some large composites in other areas that we aren't quite ready to talk about yet. None of this would be possible if it weren't for our many sponsers, including the key ones below that have donated at least $1,000 worth of goods (most have given much more!)

For the 2007 X36 we would like to thank Yamaha for the donation of a preproduction 2007 WR-450 off of the line, this "crate" engine will be the powerhouse that drives us at both the FSAE event in Detroit and the FSAE-West compeition.

The Hexcel corporation donated over 100 yards of aircraft grade carbon fibre for the 2007 chassis monocoque. Without this donation it is doubtful the Lehigh would have been able to maintain its reputation for innovate composite design and usage on a FSAE vehicle.

Huntsman composites has come through and donate the needed epoxy system for use on our VARTM infusion. One of the key ideas behind the Lehigh composites is the low cost of VARTM by using materials and resins that do not require an autoclave to fully cure. The expertise at Huntsman was able to provide us with the best possible solution with an epoxy that cured at room temperatures, had extremely long pot life, and would work with the Hexcel fabric donated to us. We are very grateful for not only the materials but the professional help and support that we have recieved.

Innovative Composites Engineering has helped us to design and implement filament wound carbon tubes for the 2007 car.

The donation of 10 seats of Solidworks student edition has been invaluable to say the least. Coupled with full versions of COSMOSWorks and COSMOSMotion the Lehigh team has been able to design at a speed unheard of last year. In our second year with Solidworks, and 9 more seats than in previous years, the ability to design and prove our ideas before manufacturing has been amazing. Using the Motion package, we have perfected an in-house suspension simulator that not only accomlishes what more expensive packages such as Susprog can do, but also lets us treat different load cases and check clearances right on the overall car assembly.

We owe a special thank you to all of our sponsors, not just those listed here, for without them we wouldn't be able to design and build the competitive cars that we do.