June 2026 Blog

The team was fortunate enough to receive additional funding from the UNB Faculty of Engineering to support a week-long trip for a few team members to the Michigan International Speedway, where the Formula SAE Electric competition was held. This event brought together some of the best student engineering teams in the world, showcasing their cutting-edge designs.

Our team learned how the competition is run, as well as how the top universities prepare for the week-long event. Furthermore, the members who attended had the opportunity to speak with other teams and observe common design trends. From discussing the challenges teams faced with their vehicles to seeing their many successes, the event was nothing short of inspiring.

While the path ahead may seem daunting, the team returned with the reassurance that we are on the right track. There is still plenty of hard work ahead, but if watching the cars fly around the track taught us anything, it is that the effort teams put in is certainly worth it.

Electrical

This past month, we completed the PCB design for the BSPD. We are currently validating the design and plan to have the boards manufactured in the coming weeks.

In addition, Topattery has begun manufacturing our battery pack, and we are hopeful it will be delivered by the end of the month.

During our visit to the Michigan International Speedway, we had the opportunity to validate the design of our shutdown circuit and the overall electrical architecture of the car. This confirmed that our approach of keeping the design as simple as possible is both practical and effective.

Chassis

This month the notching and bending of the frame tubes began at Sunny Corner. With the chassis manufacturing process beginning we are hoping to receive a tacked chassis ready to be welded by the end of July. Also, our chassis design was validated and important insight on improvements were noted during the trip to the competition at Michigan International Speedway.  Moving forward the team continues to move along the design process of the battery brackets, driver seat and steering system as well as general integration of other subteams.

Dynamics

This month the team finalized the rear suspension geometry as a pushrod-with-bellcrank layout and secured a bearing sponsorship covering both hubs and control arms. We are now compiling our bill of materials as we finalize smaller design details before moving to manufacture, with material purchasing set to begin as a next step. Observations from the Michigan FSAE event also provided valuable insight that is being incorporated into ongoing design refinements.