“We were one of the first Formula SAE teams invited,” team captain and mechanical engineering senior Jon Bianchi said. “We like to interact with everyone looking at the car and try to answer any questions they may have about the car and our team.”

The auto show provides team members with an opportunity to share their passion and be a part of one of the automotive industry’s most prestigious events.

“To be able to display your car and know there are all these unique and special cars upstairs is amazing,” aerodynamics team leader and mechanical engineering senior Dan Riggs said. “People at the show really seem to understand how special an opportunity it is to work on something like this.”

However, the auto show is far from the only exciting event the MSU Formula SAE team participates in.

“We were on (ESPN) College GameDay when they came for the Oregon game, we were in the homecoming parade, we were also at two smaller auto shows in Michigan during the summer,” Bianchi said.

The team also competes in two racing events during the year against other collegiate Formula SAE teams. In recent years the races have been at Michigan International Speedway and in Lincoln, Nebraska. However, Riggs said it’s not finalized where the team will compete this year.

These races while fun, are not without their stressful moments. 

“Two years ago at the Nebraska competition we had two engine failures and ended up missing a day of competition to rebuild our engine in our hotel’s parking lot," Riggs said. "We still managed to finish sixth overall, pretty stellar considering the events leading up to the competition.”

It’s a long journey between designing the car during fall semester and building it in the spring, but a journey team members said is well worth it.

“I love the whole process of everything coming together,” wheel assembly project leader and mechanical engineering sophomore Kyle Raden said. “In just a few weeks we go from having nothing to having a car sitting in front of us.”