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" On Thursday, I was a judge for the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) inaugural Formula SAE West collegiate competition. It was a blast. The three-day competition, an offshoot of the original Formula SAE competition that started way back in 1981, pits university teams against one another in a competition to design, build and race small formula-style autocross race cars.  The teams generally use tube-frame or carbon fiber chassis with four-cylinder sport bike engines to power them. Some are turbocharged. And at least one team had their aero package tested in a wind tunnel. They are quick with a capital Q. How do 0-60 times around 3 seconds and lateral grip on the skidpad in the neighborhood of 1.2 Gs sound?  But the challenge goes way beyond producing a one-off high-performance car for the competition. The students must assume that a manufacturing firm has contracted them to produce the prototype car as a potential production vehicle. So the cars must be low cost, marketable and meet all the goals established by SAE. And they are judged in a variety of static and dynamic events. After seeing the handiwork of these inventive young minds at this event we can say the future of the automotive industry looks very bright indeed.  We worked the Presentation portion of the competition where the teams convince a panel of judges (us) that their car is the one best suited for small-scale production. The team from Michigan State easily topped our panel&amp;#039;s score sheets. They were confident, poised and polished. In fact their presentation was so thorough\u2014it wouldn&amp;#039;t have been out of place in a Detroit conference room. They placed second in the Presentation scoring overall. Nice job guys. \u2014Ben Stewart Safety Stop: Northridge California&amp;#039;s Matador Motorsports awaits a tech inspection at Formula SAE West collegiate competition. Photos by B. Stewart Power Up: Michigan State prepares to install a new engine.  Go Kart: Heavy on the GO.  Rubber, Meet Road: University of Missouri Rolla gets new slicks before competition. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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