Jun 6 2006
This year’s University of Hertfordshire’s Formula Student car will be launched this month ready to race in July.
The launch ceremony will take place at the University’s de Havilland Campus on Wednesday 21 June at which Sergio Rinland, former Formula 1 Technical Director will give some insights into the world of car racing.
A unique component of this year’s launch will be a major exhibition by students from the faculty of Art and Design, who will be presenting materials that lead guests through the design and development of a racing car. This event will add a whole extra audio visual dimension to the launch process.
With just 29 days to go to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) Formula Student race which will be held at Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome, Leicester on 5-8 July, team leader Dan Jones and technical director David Denyer from UH Racing, claim that this year’s car will be the “lightest ever” produced at the University.
They have evolved last year’s successful design, which was crowned best UK team, creating a car which is 15kg lighter and as a result will have improved handling and have faster acceleration. They achieved this weight reduction through careful detail design, using higher grade steels and carbon fibre wherever feasible. A prime example of this attention to detail is the 100 gram saving on the dashboard switch gear.
“We intend to be the best UK team again,” said David Denyer, “and expect to embarrass some of the strong international competition from Canada and Australia,” added Dan Jones.
Formula Student is a project for engineering students to design and build a small, single seater racing car. The project forms part of their academic studies and culminates in a competition, where teams from all over the world come together to race and compete against each other.
The competition is run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) in partnership with The Society of Auto Engineers (SAE) and the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE).