UH Racing will contest the 2016 Formula Student UK and Germany competitions with Honda power.

Throughout UH Racing’s history the team  have used a variety of Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) to try and find perfect balance between performance and weight; from the four cylinder Yamaha R6 in UH14, to the single cylinder KTM 450 engine used  in UH17 and UH18. This year, the team are changing their ICE to the two cylinder Honda CBR500R.

The Powertrain department leader Girts Bricis explained, “I’m really looking forward to working with the Honda engine this year.

“It’s more balanced than our previous engine, thanks to being a twin cylinder as opposed to the single cylinder which vibrated a lot.”

The engine is heavier than its predecessor, however it is more technologically advanced with fuel injection, meaning UH19 will have the most efficient ICE in the Formula Student team’s history.

“The CBR500R comes as stock with fuel injection which will be a lot of fun to work with and upgrade.” Said Bricis.

“It’s a Honda engine, it’s Japanese engineering, and has been built with reliability in mind meaning it has a lot of potential!

“The most exciting aspect of this for me is mapping the engine, to see how far we can push it and prove we can achieve a significantly higher power output compared to standard.”

The entire fuel system is to be redesigned in house to satisfy the performance requirements of UH19, this also includes the air-box and the exhaust.

“Right now in the Powertrain department we’re manufacturing and engine cradle and output shaft to use and test engine on the dyno”

The team are to begin initial testing on the engine dyno and up to now the CBR500R is looking quite promising as the Powertrain department embarks on fine tuning the Japanese engine.