Berkeley Formula Racing

Who We Are

We're so happy you took the time to visit our page! We are Berkeley Formula Racing, a student-run organization that designs, builds, and races a single-seat car each year. Our goal is to give our members an opportunity to use what they learn in the classroom in a real-world application. We're thrilled to be able to inspire students and showcase our engineering knowledge. We rely heavily on the donations of people like you to be able to build our car.

Since the team’s founding in 2001, we have expanded from a small team to one of the best in the nation. We're proud to have about 70 active members this year from a variety of majors and different backgrounds. Our team is made up of 9 subsystems: Aerodynamics, Brakes & Driver Interface, Business, Chassis, Drivetrain, Engine, Electrical, Suspension, and Vehicle Dynamics. We work to ensure that everyone is welcome on our team, regardless of experience or background.

During the Fall semester we enter into the Design Phase in which each subsystem undergoes multiple design reviews with sponsors and alumni to ensure that they are working efficiently toward the goals they set at the beginning of the year. Once design is complete, we begin our Manufacturing Phase. During these two months, student machinists make over 300 unique parts for our vehicle and student welders weld our steel space frame chassis. The rest of our members assist by preparing and assembling steel tubes for chassis welding and fabricating foam molds and carbon fiber sheets for the aerodynamic devices.Once we assemble all these components, we move into the Testing Phase where we work to debug the car, validate our designs, and tune the car for optimal performance. At the end of Testing we will be to able to go to Competition fully prepared in May of next year!

STEM education is important to our members because we strive to create opportunities for innovation and education outside of the classroom, which not only help to improve our car for competition but also help improve the our knowledge in design and project management. This would not be possible without sufficient funding so we thank you for your time and consideration. As with everyone, COVID has significantly impacted our team. Several sponsors that we’ve relied on to make up our budget haven’t been able to sustain their support through COVID. That’s why your support is so important, now more than ever. We hope that this crowdfunding campaign will fund us to get the support and parts we need to continue through our design and manufacturing process for B23 this year.

Where Your Donation Will Go

We need $10,000 to be able to complete our car. To see exactly where your money will go, we’re breaking it down:

$3500 - Wheel Shells

$4000 - Chassis Manufacturing

$1000 - Engine Exhaust System

$1500 - Vehicle Dynamic Sensors e.g. IR Rotor Temperature

We would not be able to succeed without the generosity of our community. We know that this is a hard time for everyone, and we are thankful for anything you are willing and able to donate. Please reach out to us with any questions or comments. Thank you again for your time and support!

For any questions or concerns, feel free to reach out to us at calfsae@gmail.com. Check our website out at fsae.berkeley.edu, and follow us on Facebook (facebook.com/calracing) and Instagram (@calformulasae).