Student Group Races to New Heights

Moving Toward a Faster Future

Although the team may have access to the latest tools and technology, at times the affordability of the materials needed to fabricate the fastest car can become an obstacle.

“Overall, racing in general is kind of expensive,” said Mark Wise, the team’s manager and a fourth-year finance major in the McCombs School of Business. “What we have been running the last couple of years is a steel tube car. We could always go carbon fiber, but there is a huge cost differentiation there.

“The more sponsorships we secure, the more we can learn how to use these materials, so there is an educational benefit as well as a benefit to making the car that much lighter and faster.”

And lighter and faster are definitely two of the team’s goals for the 2012 worldwide competition — it hopes to place among the top five teams.

This summer, the team took eighth place out of 80 teams, making it the best the team has done in three decades.

“When it was announced that we had made the top 10, that was a good memory,” said Drew. “Just walking up to the stage — it was worth all the hard work in the last five years.”