One day after graduation, a group of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering seniors will travel across the country to watch their senior project win or lose.

A five-person team of AME seniors, enrolled in AME 412, Mechanical Engineering Design, are re-outfitting a hand-built formula racing car constructed last year by another group of AME seniors. They will accompany their car to Detroit the weekend of May 18 to compete in the Society for Automotive Engineers' Mini Formula Style Vehicles competition.

The formula car is one example of a project engineering majors must complete in order to graduate, said group leader Justin Jans.

"The average class projects are human-powered vehicles, different modifications ... stuff that's just typical. Stuff that didn't interest me," he said.

What did interest Jans was re-outfitting the formula car's cooling system and gas tank, he said.

Jans said he gives credit to the group that built last year's car because it designed and constructed the basic car and frame, whereas this year's group is optimizing specific components.

"We're using a lot of it (the original car)," Jans said. "Stuff that didn't work last year, we're changing."

Each member picked and researched a specific area of the car to improve, Jans said.

Chris Cambridge worked on the car's body and induction system, Lee Rodriguez worked on the suspension, Blake Tennison worked on the steering and shifting and Aleka Nichele worked on the rear brakes, he said.

The group is still using the Honda 600 CBR F2 motorcycle engine from last year, but decided to removed a leaky turbocharger, Jans said.

Cambridge said they are using a motorcycle engine because the contest limits engine size and the Honda engine is the most practical in terms of horsepower.

Even though last year's car was not ready to race, Jans said, it was awarded enough points in other categories to place ninth out of 71 entries.

The group hopes this car will compete in all events including tests for endurance, skidding, acceleration, crash worthiness and engineering design, Jans said.

The competition is helpful in terms of job connections because many professors and engineers attend, he said.

Some schools the team will face have obvious advantages, Cambridge said.

Other teams have up to 40 members working on their cars and budgets up to $50,000, Cambridge said.

"We just can't build a car and do all the analysis these other teams are doing."

Blake Tennison said other schools have the advantage of sponsorship by "the big names" such as Ford and Chrysler.

Even though the group is facing stiff competition, Tennison said, its ultimate goal is to "get to Detroit and be competitive."

Winning is not the group's sole reason for competing, said group adviser and AME professor Parviz Nikravesh.

"It's just the prestige of attending this competition."

Designing, creating and implementing the improvements represents two semesters of work, Cambridge said.

While the project has proven to be a "very intense" time investment, Jans said, the hardest task has been raising money.

Students are not supposed to pay for the project out of their own pockets, but past students have dipped into their own pockets as they struggled to meet the deadline, Jans said.

The reason for this is simple, he said. "Our grades are based on whether we finish this or not."

The UA Foundation recently donated $1,500 and local businesses have provided $1,000, Jans said. The College of Engineering and Mines and the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering department are providing money for the group to travel to Detroit, he said.

Cambridge said the group is still trying to raise approximately $1,500 for hotel fees.