High Performance Formula Student Team 2013
The University’s 2013 Formula Student team began the new season with a great performance at Silverstone, the home of British motor racing. Europe’s most established educational motorsport competition, Formula Student sees universities from across the globe challenged to design and build a single-seat racing car in order to compete, demonstrate their understanding and test the performance of the vehicle.
Over the race weekend, the School of Engineering team delivered it’s best car yet. As usual, the team aims to bring something new to the car each year and 2013 was no different. The car was sporting a more powerful engine, professional bodywork and many leading motorsports componentry new to the car.
Lecturer, Dan Hibbert, who leads the team of third and fourth year Engineering undergraduate students responsible for building, driving and maintaining the car, said: “This year has been the School of Engineering’s best produced car yet. Out of 91 international competitor universities the team came 6th out of the competing UK universities and 25th overall. For the second year in a row, the team has enjoyed a top ranking in an increasingly competitive field of international universities."
The ‘cost and sustainability’ element of the competition: The contest is not just about speed. Teams are assessed on a number of different factors, including static events such as design, costing and presenting a business case, as well as dynamic testing such as tilting the car and assessment of braking capability and overall car reliability. This year the team particularly excelled in the costing and sustainability element of the competition coming 6th out of all the universities. To do this, students from the team were interviewed by judges to determine how cost effective and sustainable their car’s design was.
The team will visit the legendary German track, the Hockenheim Ring later this month for their second international competition.
For more, see www.formulastudent.com and http://www.liv.ac.uk/engineering/news/articles/formula-student-season-opens-at-silverstone/index.htm