Brown Formula Racing 2025 Car "Rhode Runner"

Brown Formula Racing is a Brown University's premier design and build team. Our goal is to develop and race a formula-style racecar for FSAE Michigan, the largest collegiate engineering and racing competition of its kind in North America. We pride ourselves on running a team where anyone can join and learn regardless of experience or academic concentration. In fact, the majority of our members have never used the tools or software we employ before joining our team. This makes the learning experience all the more valuable.

Last year's car, "Rhode Rage," shown in the cover photo, marked a milestone in the team's history as the first to feature an aerodynamics package, including a front and rear wing, as well as electronic throttle control. Nearly every subsystem underwent a complete redesign, and every component on the car was remanufactured. With more than 250 kilometers of testing, Rhode Rage stands as the most thoroughly tested and validated car in the recent history of Brown Formula Racing. Despite encountering various electrical issues at the Michigan competition, the team achieved a commendable 46th place out of 120 teams, securing Top 20 placements in the Business and Cost categories and Top 30 placements in Endurance and Engineering Design.

Additionally, the team attended the Toronto Shootout last year, a smaller competition hosted by the University of Toronto, with a much smaller selection of only 20 teams. The team finished 4th in the internal combustion class and 6th team overall.

After focusing on reliability last year, the team is looking to reduce weight in many ways, one of which being a fully titanium exhaust system. With the tube sizing constraints of a Honda CBR 600RR engine, there are no production titanium merge collectors in the sizing we need on the market. Since they have to be custom, and we don't have the capabilities to precisely weld or bend such a part in house, especially titanium, we've decided to 3D print them. PCBWay would be invaluable in helping us with this endeavor. Highlighted below are the parts we would get printed. Of course if possible we would prefer to have entire primary tubes printed to avoid having to jig each invidivdual bend, but we understand that that may be infeasible.

With a reduced budget this year, PCBWay's sponsorship would allow us to keep moving forward and making improvements to make us even more competitive at next year's competition.

The titanium exhaust package will save 2.2kg, or roughly have the weight of last year's system, a massive improvement, since reducing weight allows the car to accelerate faster, both longitudinally and laterally. We are excited about the opportunity to collaborate with PCBWay and achieve our goals through their support.