As you may recall, we are a very young team [2nd year] at UNT. We have contacted the major automotive manufactures that we have seen on dozens of cars [and beyond that], GM, Ford, Toyota, Honda with absolutely no luck. Most have online submission forums that we have meticulously gone through trying to make sure we submit the most appealing request we can come up with. We've seen teams with 2-3 different major manufactures supporting them, so apparently the money is out there for FSAE teams in general.
I am just looking to see if there is another way we can try to tap into something that so many other teams do, if we're just flat-out missing something. I know sponsors are kept tightly to each team, we aren't looking for a hand out of information..but if it boils down to "my Dad is an engineer for Ford and got us in", well, we can't do much about that. At this time our advisor isn't involved with raising funds and our University doesn't have any contacts, to our knowledge, directly with manufactures. With the exception of Peterbilt, which is under PACCAR, which is who sponsored/donated the building our engineering facilities are in and we've been told will not directly support student organizations. Peterbilt does offer some services which we've used [5-axis milling for our body panel bucks] and also likes our guys for internships.
Thank you for any help you can provide.
Michael Goodman
SAE UNT - President