In the Hall 7 of the workshop at the College of Engineering, busy movements of the students can be seen. The lights are on in the morning, afternoon, evening, and even early morning and those who are preoccupied with busy movement are the members of the automobile club, ‘KORA.’ With enthusiastic desire to make a vehicle, the passionate students are willing to do intense labor. In the Formula Society of Automotive Engineers (FSAE) that is held every year, KORA surprised the world by securing the top 10 in the Formula Society of Automotive Engineers (FSAE) for 2 consecutive years in 2009 and 2010 defeating world-renowned engineering colleges from automobile powers like U.S., Germany, and Japan. Although it seemed to encounter stagnation, KORA secured the 18th spot in FSAE based on consistent effort and now, it is targeting to become the best in the world. As if a driver who made a temporary stop at a red light, it accelerates again with a green light to spring higher. What is the prime motor of their efforts and challenging spirit despite the hardships? Let’s listen to their stories.

First of all, explain about the automobile club, ‘KORA.’
As its name suggests, it is a vehicle-oriented club that belonged to the Department of Automotive Engineering in Kookmin University. Based on the principles on automobile or theories learned in the course, we design a car and by deciding its practicality through program-oriented interpretation, a car is produced to compete in a racing event. It is not just to make a car for racing in a competition but to come up with a presentation on design knowledge or production cost for a car. Also, we have a presentation as to what strategy is to be implemented when our car is commercialized before competing in a race. Series of such courses can be seen following the mechanism of the actual automobile industry.

 
How does ‘KORA’ prepare for an automobile competition?
In order to make a complete car, at least 20 up to 30 ~ 40 people work together. Centering the ‘Front Manager,’ parts like chassis, brake, transmission, suspension, engine, and frame for a car are divided to make a team. Based on each team, the part managers educate freshmen on a variety of knowledge to make a car. Sometimes, part managers of a previous racing competition transfer overall matters to the team managers of this year’s competition to prepare for the event.
 

 
What is the reason for resulting in low rank in the FASE after 2010?
Actually, the reason of the falling rank was due to the car that failed to stand the endurance race as explained before. Our car was unable to run for 3 consecutive years in 2011, 2012, and 2013. This race is really challenging as such quality was not tested through many cars. So it is the struggle as to how perfect a car can be made at once. Because of this, 1/3 of a car is unable to run in this race. For the past 3 years, we encountered repeated failures due to different reasons but after 4 years of trials and errors, we finally completed the race. All of our cars were not slow; nonetheless, all failed to complete this endurance race and it resulted in falling from our rank. As our car completed the rank this time, we regained our status up to a certain level although there is still to plenty of room for improvement.

 
What did you feel after the previous event?
We never thought that cars in low rank were poorly made cars. Rather, we thought they were different cars. The team that prepared in the previous event does not consistently prepare for the next event but a newly organized team prepares for a new event. Therefore, the members want more challenge and advanced car compared to the one that raced in the previous event. Although the previous team established more stable system, the members want to create a new car according to their concept through slight changes. It is the pride of the designers. So we are not sorry for rank fluctuation caused by the change made in the car. Maybe there was increased possibility of securing higher rank if we made the exactly the same car. However, the new members with new parts made the best use of their ability for their car so the rank was the result of what they did. Since the members prepared by devoting time for 7 ~ 8 months, they are very satisfied with their car. Of course, it was good to have better rank but real happiness comes from the race of the car they made.

 
The flare to regain better score was fired in the event. What is the prime motor?
The biggest objective of the car this time was one that could stand racing for a long period of time since there were different reasons of failing in the endurance race in the past 3 years. Another problem arises after solving one problem and then another problem occurred. Thus, we were able to understand the reasons of the failure that we encountered. Through such experience, we found the knowhow to prevent the state that failed the race of a car. Meanwhile, we could trace the pattern of a stable car. Maybe it is not the prime motor, but accumulated experience through trial and error was the reason of our improvement. By developing other technologies based on such knowhow, we will obtain higher rank.