There are many clubs that Kookminians can join in pursuit of their own endeavors. Kookmin University clubs have various fields of interest, and here is one of Kookmin University’s internationally renowned club, KORA. The below interviews with President of KORA, Jun-Hyung Kim and Vice President of KORA, Hyun-Jin Kim will give you deeper insights into KORA.

About KORA: What does KORA do?

A: KORA, abbreviated for Kookmin Racing, is a Kookmin University club founded in 2001. We build cars equipped with internal combustion engines and participate in national and international competitions. We have an internal rule of participating in three competitions annually:

March – Singapore Shell-Eco Marathon; This competition is to develop cars to travel the farthest on the least amount of energy. May – Formula SAE in Michigan; This competition is to develop and construct a single-seat race car with the best overall package of design, construction, performance and cost. SAE stands for Society of Automotive Engineers.

August – Korea SAE Baja/Formula/EV; This national competition involves all aspects of automotive engineering for more powerful vehicles, while maintaining speed and safety protocols.

About F-18: Development from F-17, last year’s model

A: Every year, we aim for reducing the weight of the race car. For manufacturers and designers of car makers, they inevitably have to focus on reducing the weight of vehicles as it has direct impact on the performance, so it is our forever ‘homework’. This year’s model, F-18, has a concept of “Heat control, maintain high performance”. As it implies, we focused on the cooling component because the last year with F-17, its engine did not perform to its full capabilities due to overheating. Therefore, we have equipped F-18 additionally with oil cooler which enhances cooling the engine.

About FSAE that KORA participated in early May

A: Formula SAE is held each year in Michigan International Speedway. It is one of the world’s largest formula-style race car competitions participated by university students all over the world. Its main sponsors are GM, Bosch and Ford. This year, FSAE was being held for four days during May 9 and May 12. There were three key events in which our F-18 is graded upon: design event, cost event, and marketing event. During the design event, judges ask questions such as what kind of factors we took into consideration during planning and designing procedures. The cost event grades the overall expenditure on vehicle construction process and performance of the race car relative to the production cost. Lastly, during the marketing event, we are required to make a business presentation. For example, we present about methods on targeting South East Asian market and exporting our vehicles. Added to these three core events, there are events to measure F-18’s actual performance on the tracks such as acceleration and skid pad events. All points attained through these events are added up and then ranked. Top 10 participants are awarded with trophies and prizes. In this year’s FSAE, our F-18 was ranked 22nd overall among 120 other teams. Especially in acceleration event, we were ranked 3rd and received a trophy. It’s a shame that due to rainy weather conditions, F-18 did not perform to its full capacity.

About sponsorship: How is F-18 sponsored?

A: As you can see on our newest model F-18, it has many logo stickers attached on the exterior. Also, the logos are sewn on our team uniform. Those logos represent different sponsors that we currently are receiving the support from. There are different ways that KORA gains sponsorship. Sometimes companies approach us after our participation in competitions and offer sponsorships. In other times, we have to individually contact different companies and request for their sponsorships.

Goals of KORA

A: Definitely our goal is to rank the 1st in international competitions. However, there are many difficulties in achieving our goal. Many overseas university teams are supported and funded by conglomerates like Audi. Through their sponsorships, overseas teams get together with conglomerate industrial engineers. We’ve heard that they often discuss their race car designs and get advice from them. However, students like us in South Korea study on our own and ask questions directly to Korean companies like Hyundai. It is hard to maintain close relationships with the engineers without the company’s active support. The KORA members usually prepare for competitions throughout the entire year and have to be completely dedicated to only KORA. Every day we spend time from 9 am until past midnight. The KORA members are very passionate and even some of us take time off school for one or two semesters to prepare for competitions. Although we are an Asian team and our situation is not as well off compared to other international teams, what we always aim for is to be ranked in the top segment. We believe that we will continuously progress forward and become number one in the world.

Young-Woo Park
The Kookmin Review - Reporter
ywpark@kookmin.ac.kr