Tulane University’s Formula Racing club hosted its fourth annual car show with over 155 rare and vintage cars on Sunday, Feb. 22, on the Berger Family Lawn.
The club reached out to sponsors, local garages and members of the car community in New Orleans to get cars for the show. According to Tulane Formula Racing President Michael Roux, about 20% of the cars are owned by Tulane students, professors or alumni. The remaining 80% of the cars displayed are from local community members.
“We try and get everyone involved regardless of the affiliation with Tulane,” Roux said.
The Formula Racing club has been active on campus since 2021 and has had an on-and-off presence at Tulane since 1952, Roux said.
According to Roux, the last formula racing club at Tulane was in 2006. Tulane Formula Racing alumni Harley Cluxton went on to race for the North American Racing Team in the 1970s, while alumni David Love helped found Monterey Historic Automobile Races and competed with his famed Ferrari for nearly 50 years.
“Even in the 50s and 60s, there were female drivers for the club, which was really unique at the time. They went by the name of Scuderia Peanuts,” Roux said.
Now, the club holds watch parties during the Formula 1 season and hosts go-kart races open to students. Roux said the club also has a collection of race cars, including a Stohr WF1, a Sports Car Club of America prototype car, a Mini Cooper that can race in the B-Spec, two Formula Fords and multiple two-stroke Rotax go-karts.
The club is currently teaming up with five Tulane engineering students to build a Formula SAE race car for a capstone project. Formula SAE is a student design competition organized by the Society of Automotive Engineers International.
“Our goal with Formula SAE is to compete against other schools,” Roux said. “We are one of the founding universities in a series called CRS, the Collegiate Racing Series, where we are having a Miata race car built for us.”
Besides racing, the club also teaches students how to drive a manual Mini Cooper and hosts business events. The club brought the head of McLaren’s North America aftersales program to speak with students about the nature of working in the Formula 1 industry.
“Its a good way for students to get into the industry … Because of our size and the amount of work we put in, we get to do a lot of fun stuff,” Roux said.