Who We Are

Hot Wheelz is a multidisciplinary, student-run solar racing team at RIT. By combining engineering, business, marketing, and teamwork, members gain valuable hands-on experience while tackling real-world challenges.

Annually, we compete in the track-based Formula Sun Grand Prix, and strive to qualify for the cross-country counterpart: The American Solar Challenge. Through design and building experience, we are preparing students for leadership roles in all industries.

Meet The Subsystems

The business & marketing group is responsible for promoting the team on social media, apparel, organizing university events, and overseeing other outreach initiatives. The group also works with the team manager to help coordinate sponsors.
Chassis is responsible for the structural foundation and body of the vehicle. They design and weld the steel frame in-house. They utilize carbon fiber and fiberglass to create composite aerodynamic shells.
Controls manages all low-voltage systems. This includes interfacing the accelerator pedal with the motor controller, as well as implementing systems for lights, horns, cruise control, and telemetry.
Driver Interface is responsible for the steering system, cockpit mounting, seat/headrest, and driver safety. They work closely with Chassis, Propulsion, Controls, and Unsprung to integrate components into the cockpit.
Propulsion is responsible for the design, assembly, and integration of the vehicle’s high voltage systems. This includes the batteries, motor, motor controller, solar panels, and all the PCBs/wiring that encounter high voltage.
Unsprung is responsible for the vehicle’s braking and suspension systems. They design, validate, and manufacture uprights, a-arms, hubs, and calipers in-house.
Vehicle Dynamics is responsible for the simulation engineering of the car. This includes creating lap time simulations, crash simulations, and conducting Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling of the entire vehicle.

Where We Came From

The Hot Wheelz Electric Vehicle Team was founded by a few female engineering students, an enthusiastic advisor, and a vision to compete in an on-campus electric vehicle competition. In our first year as a team, we took 1st place out of 12 teams in an electric dragster race.
The next competition required us to redesign a “Power Wheels” vehicle with the goal to complete as many laps as possible in an hour. We placed 3rd out of 15 teams and won an Innovation award.
The last competition’s focus was on having speed and maneuverability to complete the course in the fastest time. We placed 3rd out of 12 teams.

We designed a brand new electric race car from scratch with the goal of building and racing the car in 2016.
In our first year at this new competition, we placed 3rd in the Electric Drive Class and received two professionalism awards: the General Motors Spirit of Formula Hybrid Award and the Fiat Chrysler Gracious Professionalism Award.
After a summer of research and a fall of design, we rebuilt our car from a bare frame with new batteries, a sleeker body, improved mechanical systems, telemetry, and more. We competed again at Formula Hybrid in May 2017 and this time took 1st place in the Electric Drive Class and received IEEE’s Excellence in Electric Vehicle Engineering Award.
Using our existing knowledge of electric vehicles we created a series hybrid Formula-styled car. We competed in May 2018 and placed 3rd overall in the Hybrid Category. We also received 2nd place for the Test Equity and Keysight Technologies Hit the Ground Running Award in recognition of our organization and overall readiness for competition.
We worked to build a parallel hybrid Formula- style car and placed 4th overall in the Hybrid Category. We also received the Test Equity and Keysight Technologies Award for Project Presentation and the IEEE Excellence in Project Management Award.
We returned back to our roots and worked to design an electric Formula-style car, utilizing the existing chassis from 2019. In May 2020, we placed 1st overall in the Electric Category, placing 1st in Project Management and 2nd in Design.

We embarked on a new chapter in our team's history, venturing into the realm of solar-powered race cars. 2021 was the beginning of a long design phase, with the primary objective being to optimize efficiency by minimizing weight and drag.
With the design for the new car nearly complete, the team began plans to manufacture the chassis and essential components. Ultimately, the team decided it would make more sense to jumpstart progress with a used solar car, rather than starting from scratch.
In 2023, Hot Wheelz purchased a used car from Anderson University. The car was stripped down and needed many adjustments to the frame and shells to make the system compliant with current competition regulations.
With the steel frame and shells in a working state, the team was able to integrate components onto the chassis and begin installing the electrical system. The team also began completing documentation to qualify for the Summer 2025 Formula Sun Grand Prix.
In Summer 2025, Hot Wheelz went to our first Formula Sun Grand Prix. During Scrutineering, the team received a green/passing status for Driver Registration, Electrical, Mechanical, Solar Array, Safety, Impound, Body & Sizing. We learned what further work was required to pass Driver Operations, Lights & Vision, Battery Protection, and Dynamics.
The Electrek Formula Sun Grand Prix this year was in Brainerd, MN. The team achieved 3rd place for their battery enclosure design in the Siemens challenge, a contest which ran alongside the track competition. This year, Hot Wheelz received many greens in scrutineering, but unfortunately, motor controller issues kept the team sidelined from advancing to dynamics testing.
This competition will take place during the summer of 2027. Stay tuned for updates!