EPICS Creating Accessible Racing (CAR)

The Purdue University EPICS CAR team partners with the Ford Wilson Race of Champions to create a steering override system. Ford Wilson Race of Champions is an organization of parents with children with disabilities in the greater Indianapolis area. They organize a day-long event of racing self-propelled cars for the children to experience the thrill of racing. The idea is to increase children’s confidence and self-esteem and encourage participation in social activities with their peers. The children struggle with their daily activities, but the event is one day where they can soar. The CAR team is responsible for designing, testing, and implementing a special override mechanism for the Ford Wilson Race of Champions race cars. The mechanism allows for a safe and flawless connecting and disconnecting of the child’s steering wheel to the car steering system. The goal is to remove steering control from a child in the case of dangerous driving and reinstate steering control in safe driving conditions. The team built and delivered its first prototype in April of 2022. The mechanism was tested and reviewed in September of 2022 at the Ford Wilson Race of Champions annual race. As the mechanism was deemed to be successful, the team was tasked to construct and deliver six more mechanisms to be used in the 2023 race.