• Think about what other people are thinking.

• Give honest feedback without being a jerk.

• Take your own and your team’s feelings seriously.

• Notes for students

• Notes for Design Judges

• Set up business and school relationships.

• Recruit and organize a team.

• Write and raise a budget.

• THEN design and build the car.

In the time it takes to read this sentence, design finalists are capable of presenting data from the same day’s Autocross, along with analysis of which assumptions the data validates or invalidates, how it fits with all their other testing, and what the next steps are to continue improving the car and drivers. They do this for everything, all year.

They made a whole host of small changes that were almost imperceptible to the eye but aerodynamically significant. They also gave the car a nose-down rake by lowering the front suspension and raising the rear, both ever-so-slightly. All of the changes made the car significantly safer to drive at high speed. But the Ford Indigo was never going to be driven at high speeds as a show concept car – right?

There was one closely held secret design condition. It was secret because management would not want us to ‘overdesign’ the V12. The truth is, with clever engineering, planning for significant power increases adds very little weight and cost if you know what you are doing and if it is done up front.

Chris Warren provides some tips for what to expect and how to approach the design event.