Discussion: Tiny race cars....

Jayhawk Motorsports. I was on the chassis team in 2002-03 as my senior design project.

Our car only had 90 horsepower or so, but it weighed under 500 pounds, so it had some giddy-up. It was a hoot driving it around west campus.

I'm not sure if this still holds true, since I don't follow as closely anymore, but Cornell used to be the team to beat at competition.

I've seen them racing around in the parking lot, too. It looks like fun.

Last night, I saw a group playing cricket in the same parking lot.

You never know what you'll see on West Campus.

90HP? Jeez, times have changed. Back when I was working on the RIT car, we were using about half that much. For that matter, my street-legal-stripped-down-to-1100-pound Geo Metro had only 55 and it surprised more than a few V-8 owners.

The FSAE rules limit engine sizes to 600cc, so we used a 599cc Honda CBR600F4i engine.

I didn't do much with the engine, other than design the rear half of the carbon fiber monocoque that mated with the engine.

Well, I'm sure that having a horse for every 6 pounds makes it quite a rocket, though I rather expect that engine has a very narrow power band. I drove a 3400-pound Winston Cup car at Kansas Speedway once that was de-tuned to 600Hp, so roughly the same power/weight ratio (but a whole lot more torque). Quite fun.