We were excited to host a webinar with one of our long time sponsors
PTC this month! For as long as any of us remember, the team has been
using Pro Engineer CAD software to model our car, test fixtures, and
jigging. In an effort to grow our relationship with PTC and gain a
competitive edge, PTC has agreed to donate its latest software Creo
2.0! This will be available to the team members for download and
contains all of the latest and greatest CAD features that will both
save us time and allow higher quality models and drawings. Engineers
Matt Kloos and Brandon Brackey spent a little over an hour with the
team demonstrating Creo 2.0’s new features and answering questions.
This was good timing as we will now be able to send new members home
for Christmas break with some homework: Learn Creo 2.0!! Armed with
these new found knowledge and Creo 2.0 I am confident that the team
will be well equipped to tackle design work in the future months!

Quad day was a success, Thanks to everybody for stopping by and checking out the car.

There will be a meeting tomorrow at 4 PM in Room 112 Transportation Building. This will be for the ME199 SAE class for students who want to pursue credit for participating in an SAE design team.

The first Formula SAE general meeting will be Tuesday at 7 PM in the “Engineering Student Project Laboratory”. If you have a Smart phone it will lead you directly to the shop. Otherwise, take the 22 North or 13N Silver to “Goodwin and Materials Research” and head directly behind the building. There is a path that leads through the building since the doors will be locked. We are the first building directly behind materials research.

We look forward to seeing everybody at our meetings and make sure to arrive early on Tuesday because the room will be packed!

Brought ~1000lbs of high density foam up to Ingersoll in Rockford this weekend to be machined for our undertray mold. Also, uprights

This weekend we were featured on Channel 3 News on Sunday night after taking FTD (fastest time of the day) at the CCSCC Autocross in Rantoul. Check out the Results here: Autocross Results and full lap time results here: Laptimes

For more info on local autocrosses, visit the CCSCC website.

Right now the shop is packed, lots of work getting done including…….cost report!

Looking forward to competition in May.

A big thanks to Bennett Metal Products for their support! Here is a video of the rear upright being machined up in Mt. Vernon

Also, enjoy a few photos of some of the in house parts we have been working on.

Also, a big thanks to our new sponsor Schlumberger for their support!

Come join us at our booth at Engineering Open House! We will be displaying some of this year’s work along with the 2010-2011 car. Look for us on the Engineering quad and make sure to stop by if you have any questions.

Engineering Open House is on March 9th from 9-4 PM and on March 10th from 9-3 Pm.

Hope to see you there.

Be sure to “like” our page at:
http://www.facebook.com/IlliniMotorsports
We will be using this page to keep in touch with sponsors, alumni and future members. Thanks for checking us out!

Illini Motorsports is officially entered in the 2012 FSAE competition to be held at Michigan International Speedway in May. The Orange and Blue will be wearing #51, or as we like to think of it (5+1) celebrating our 6th place finish at California last year. We will be eligible to register for the Lincoln, NE competition in a month, so check back for updates

In other news, the 2011 Goodyear Shootout did not end well for the Illini Motorsports team. Despite setting competitive times during the autocross event, an exhaust system failure managed to start a fire during practice, preventing us from participating in the Endurance event. See the following video for a few hot laps and a hot, hot finish

Despite the failure we had a lot of fun at the Goodyear testing facility in Akron, OH. The track was amazing and the Goodyear staff did a great job putting on the event. A special thanks to Goodyear and all of our sponsors who make this possible.

Come on out to see the Illini Motorsports 2011 Car in action this Sunday, August 28th.

The Off Road Illini and Illini Hybrid Racing teams will have their cars out in good form as well so you wont want to miss this.

We will be at the Assembly Hall South East parking lot at noon.

See you there
-Jack Sormaz

Quad Day was a good time as usual, we had a lot of fun showing off the car and sparking interest in the team. Thanks to everybody who came by to chat.

For those of you interested in joining our team, I mentioned today that I would be posting information about the Google Group we will be using to get info about meetings and shop time out.

The following link should allow you to join the group – If it doesn’t I’m sure I’ll get a bunch of emails so look for an update momentarily.

http://groups.google.com/group/illinimotorsports

Regards,
Jack Sormaz

The Illini Motorsport team will have the 2011 car out on the main quad today for Quad day, be sure to look for us near Noyes Lab.
We are looking for both young and experienced engineering students to help with design and manufacturing as well as ambitious business and marketing students to work on our business model and sponsor relations.

Our first meeting will be held on Monday, August 22nd from 3-5pm in 253meb.
Hope to see you there

IlliniMotorsports@gmail.com