Welcome to the official Drexel University Formula Hybrid Club Website. The Formula Hybrid Club, formed in 2008, aims to design and build a high-performance hybrid vehicle to race in SAE’s (Society of Automotive Engineers) Formula Hybrid competition.

The Competition challenges students to design, build, and compete an open-wheel,single-seat,hybrid racecar. The car must conform to a formula which emphasized drive train innovation and fuel efficiency in a high-performance application.

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Chassis built and delivered

March 9th, 2011

The chassis for the new car is ready. After 3 weeks of hard work, the chassis team finished the sleek new frame on schedule. Kudos to all chassis team members for working with the tight time-line. Once the critical components have arrived the mounting process will begin. The new frame was put on display for the MEM open house held on 03/06 in Bossone lobby. The drive train team was present to answer questions from curious students.

Perm motor and mechanical diff.

March 9th, 2011

After many rounds of discussion, we have decided to go with Perm PMG 132 motors over mars electric. It’s high power, high efficiency and small size makes it a good choice for our hybrid car design. The higher cost is thus offset by better performance. Also mechanical differential will be used instead of electrical differential because

Formula Hybrid 2011

November 11th, 2010

The formula hybrid 2011 team is up and running. We are a team of 15 mechanical, electrical and computer engineering students working under the guidance of Dr. Kevin Scoles. There are three teams: Chassis, Drive Train and Controls. The chassis team captain is Aric Wei, the drive train team captain is Jason Souchak and the low voltage team captain is Tim Ehrlich.

The first general meeting was held on October 01, 2010 at Hess Laboratories – Formula Hybrid Garage. Major issues discussed were fund raising, team meeting times, layout time schedules and other administrative issues.

Latest Update

April 7th, 2010

One month left to competition!  Crunch time!  The senior design team is installing their electrical enhancements on the car and will be thoroughly testing, retesting, and testing again.  The club has reassembled the vehicle after it’s paint touch-up and are tuning all mechanical systems (suspension, steering, braking, cooling, etc).  The time to put our mean, green hybrid machine to many track tests is around the corner.  And the time to prove our vehicle’s improvements and driver’s skills are four weeks away!

Stop by (the back of ) Hess labs (2nd garage bay) to see the progress, or check the website again in a month to see how well Drexel did at the Formula Hybrid International Competition in New Hampshire!

Update

January 31st, 2010

Progress!  We have been taking apart the low voltage system, replaced the clutch and starter, and are developing C code for the new microcontroller, the heart of our new electrical system.  New parts are coming in, and the process of repainting will be beginning with the next few weeks!

Car Returns!

November 23rd, 2009

Good news!  The formula hybrid car has finally come back from Italy!  It’s a bit salty and rusty, but it’s in good shape.  Some parts such as the clutch will be repaired, and the senior design team will be purchasing new parts for its electrical system for improved performance. The Drexel formula hybrid club is working with the senior design team to get the car in working order, and gain prospective members looking for experience with an official SAE hybrid race car.