Percy
What is Percy?
Percy is the nickname of the 95th percentile male anthropometric template used in FS to verify compliance with the rules that the vehicle "must accommodate drivers whose stature varies from a 5th percentile female to a 95th percentile male...” This requirement is included to clarify the type of person covered by Rule A1.2 “Vehicle Design Objective” which states “… teams are to assume that they work for a design firm that is designing, fabricating, testing and demonstrating a prototype vehicle for the non-professional, weekend, competition market.” Cars built just to fit the members of a specific team, not the wider potential market, do not meet the requirements of the Rules.
Origin of Percy and the Name
Percy has appeared in the FSAE rulebook in paragraph form and in various diagrams for over two decades. An example from the 1995 rules:
<a class="image"><img alt="" src="/images/thumb/2/23/1995_Percy.JPG/300px-1995_Percy.JPG" decoding="async" width="300" height="310" class="thumbimage" srcset="/images/thumb/2/23/1995_Percy.JPG/450px-1995_Percy.JPG 1.5x, /images/2/23/1995_Percy.JPG 2x"></a>
Starting in the 2007 season, compliance with Percy became a mandatory requirement. Initially teams were penalized by points in the Design event and disqualified from Design Finals if Percy did not fit; however, they were allowed to drive in the Dynamic events. Eventually, Percy was implemented in Scrutineering and the team must pass in order to drive.
Dimensions
To assist the teams, the following data has been assembled to give some significant dimensions for a 5th percentile female and a 95th percentile male. While this data is primarily based on North American subjects, the information we have from the UK indicates that the UK subjects are a just fraction of an inch shorter in height and even less in sitting height. Therefore, we believe that this data is representative for North America (the USA and Canada), Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand, which are the major potential markets for a vehicle of this type.
The numbers in the diagram refer to the “Dimension #” in the left hand column of the chart above.
<a class="image"><img alt="" src="/images/thumb/f/f8/Percy_numbers.JPG/300px-Percy_numbers.JPG" decoding="async" width="300" height="129" class="thumbimage" srcset="/images/thumb/f/f8/Percy_numbers.JPG/450px-Percy_numbers.JPG 1.5x, /images/thumb/f/f8/Percy_numbers.JPG/600px-Percy_numbers.JPG 2x"></a>
Priscilla
Priscilla, or Percy's wife, is the 5th Percentile Female equivalent template. Currently, Priscilla is used only in the design event if a Judge or other volunteer meets her dimensions, and is used as subjective evaluation criteria to determine if the vehicle was truly designed to fit the range given by the rules. Priscilla does not have her own template nor is checked in Scrutineering.
