

The first step in using Inspire was to learn how to use the tool successfully. SolidThinking Inspire in the design process After struggling to complete the project with some other tools, I downloaded solidThinking Inspire.” “Knowing that the mount had to be extremely light, while also being as stiff as possible, it seemed like a perfect project to try Inspire on. “It immediately caught my attention,” he said, “and I thought it was fascinating, but other priorities came up and I did not have a chance to try it at that time.” When the project to redesign the bracket mount for the rear wing package came up, Nate immediately thought of Inspire. Nate first learned about solidThinking Inspire from a flyer he saw posted on campus. Keeping that in mind, a huge goal with this year’s car was to reduce the weight of the entire wing package, while also ensuring that it was very strong and stiff.” Nate Lenz, Cyclone Racing’s Technical Director at the time, noted, “With last year’s car, the internal wing structure was very heavy, to the point that we would see some very excessive roll, and a few times, even though the car was super-fast, we would find ourselves up on two wheels. When designing their latest vehicle, CR22, one of the team’s goals was to reduce the weight of the vehicle’s rear aerodynamic wing.

Teams must demonstrate a top-performing racing machine on the track, and also demonstrate their working knowledge of both engineering and marketing through a series of presentation events. Most aspects of being a professional racing team are evaluated and judged, and the team operates largely from private sponsorship with support from Iowa State University. Cyclone Racing is currently ranked fourth in the United States and fourteenth in the world out of 550 teams. Cyclone Racing, Iowa State University’s Formula SAE team, consists of 40+ active members who design, build, test and race a formula-style race car each year to compete with approximately 80 teams representing seven different countries at the Formula Lincoln event and some 30 different teams at the Formula North event.
