When the boyz and girls from Cornell came to Toronto for our annual Shootout event, we discussed these things in person and got to know the Cornell team pretty well. They have as much support financially as many teams do. To say they have a 100,000US budget is kinda ridiculous. Our budget this year totalled $65,000CDN and that put 8 team members and a race car to the UK Formula Student competition as well as 24 kids to Michigan. Cornell told me they have approximately the same budget.
As to the discussion as to why schools win? It's quite simple actually. UOW I have not been able to throroughly check out and talk to their team yet.....so I dunno. But w/ Cornell and UTA.... it's all about the people. Their faculty support is extremely strong and knowledge is passed on from year to year in volumes and volumes of books. THe teams are cleanly thought out and continuously have knowledgable and organized leaders in their faculty advisors/supporters etc.
I'd say other teams that are close to success just have good kids on their programs with the same attributes as mentioned above.
my 2 cents.
Vinh
University of Toronto Formula SAE Racing Team
www.fsae.utoronto.ca