In the lead up to the FSAE-A competition this year in Melbourne, our team worked tirelessly towards preparing our car, QEV-2. Our executives, leads, and their sub-teams were all heavily involved and had contributed countless hours over the previous months in preparation.

As the competition was our last major event of 2019, our team thought we would reflect on the year that has been, and cover some of our highlights and favourite moments.

In July, QUT Motorsport held its inaugural Industry Outreach Evening inviting representatives and professionals from a range of industries. It was an opportunity for our members to hear from experienced individuals and gain knowledge moving forward in the team. We were grateful to be joined by representatives from many companies including Thiess, Triple Eight Racing, Feline, PARTEC, RPM Global, Synchrony, Excel Technology, Team Arrow and Cromarty. It was a great event for our team and we hope to be joined again by these amazing companies and many more at future industry Outreach Evenings!

Photo by: Michael Hanau

Early in the year, we were honoured to be joined by Volker Richter from BMW Germany. He spent some valuable time with our Executive Team to help develop effective management strategies for a large diverse team. We also had the privilege of having a workshop for the whole team in a Q&A style presentation, where we were able to get a deeper understanding on a range of important topics from Mr Richter.

One of our highlights of 2019, was when our team successfully ran QEV-1 for the first time. It was a massive achievement that many of our members both past and present worked incredibly hard for and are continuing to do so.

Our 2019 Aerodynamics Lead & Driver on the day reflected on the milestone: “ The QEV-1 project was an ambitious challenge from start to finish. The hard work of a number of alumni and current members over a number of years allowed us to get the QEV-1 vehicle running. Despite no longer being elegible for competition, the vehicle creates a great platform for our 2019 QEV-2 and future electric vehicles. To finally see it run was a great feeling for the team and showed that our team is capable of following through with our innovative technology“

Photos above by: Michael Hanau (1) & Alison Powell (2)

Our team held a stall along with other Queensland FASE-A teams at the Gold Coast 600 on the 27th of October to engage with the public and inform them about our team.

A highlight from this event was when some of our members were invited into the Triple Eight Racing team garage. Our members (as seen in the image below) including our Mechanical lead (Austin Bury), our Aerodynamics Lead (Isaac Baldry), Treasurer (Ben Davie) and Team Principal (Luke McCallum) were lucky enough to be shown around the Triple Eight Racing Team garage. We would like to extend a huge thank you to Mark Dutton, Team Manager of Triple Eight Racing, for the invitation and for organising the tour for us. It’s something that our members will not forget!

We were honoured in November to receive the QUT Guild’s club of the year. This honour was well deserved after the countless hours the team have spent this year working towards our ambitious goals. We greatly appreciate this recognition and we will continue to push ourselves further every year.

Our Launch Night for QEV-2 was held on the 28th of November. It was a great night where many of our friends, family, sponsors, QUT Staff and other teams attended to celebrate with us. The evening saw some of our leadership including Luke McCallum (Team Principal) and Isaac Baldry (Aerodynamics Lead) speak and reflect upon some of the key features of the car as well as the journey the team has taken to reach the point of attending competition. We were also privileged to hear from Professor Gordon Wyeth, Executive Dean Science and Engineering Faculty and also by our Team Supervisor & Senior Lecturer for the Science and Engineering Faculty, Dr. David Holmes.

Photos above by: Michael Hanau

There have been countless other highlights throughout 2019 and we look forward to experiencing many more in 2020. However one of the biggest achievements for us was attending the FSAE-A 2019 Competition in Winton, Melbourne. Although there was disappointment amongst the team as we did not get an opportunity to compete dynamically, we did achieve some awesome results in the Static events including 2nd place in Business Presentation, 5th in Cost Report and 9th in Design Judging. Pictured below is our Business Team, Adyasha Nanda (Business Manager) and Jack Chilton whose contribution secured us 2nd place in Business out of 16 competing teams.

The commitment and perseverance of the entire team throughout the event was inspiring and we look forward to attending many more in the future.

You can see more photos and details from our experience at comp in our FSAE-A Competition 2019 blog post: https://www.qutmotorsport.com/post/fsae-a-competition-2019

Photos above by: Alison Powell

We hope to continue to have many more memories such as these in 2020 and we extend a huge thank you to all that contributed including our team members, sponsors and Queensland University of Technology (QUT) staff.

Alison Powell

Media Coordinator

Luke McCallum

Team Principal