The Cornell Formula SAE team raced away from its first transatlantic competition with a fourth-place finish in acceleration. The student engineering team, which designs and builds race cars, competed against nearly 80 other teams at Formula Student Germany Aug. 2-7 -- its first race on foreign soil in its 24-year history. The event was held at Hockenheimring Baden-Württemberg.

Equipped with their latest car, ARG11, the students easily passed the competition's stringent "scrutineering," which is a quiz to determine the car meets specifications, before beginning their competitive run. ARG11 finished 11th in design and was close to making it into the final design competition, according to student leaders.

"The main complaint from the design judges was the fact that our car was substantially heavier than our competitors," said Neil Lewis '13, Cornell FSAE business team leader.

The students finished fourth in acceleration, seventh in autocross, posted a 6.2-second time in skid pad, taking 25th place, and started off on a strong endurance run.

"Unfortunately, we had a part failure on lap 20 of 28, which prevented us from finishing the race," Lewis said. They finished 25th overall.

Earlier this season, Cornell Racing took a first-place trophy in acceleration at FSAE Michigan. They also placed ninth in design, 10th in skid pad and second in three-view drawing. In Michigan they placed 14th overall out of 100 teams.