UH Racing have begun their publication career by being published in Racecar Engineering. This current month is the first of 4 installments in the Aero Bytes section.
This is due to the generosityof Racecar Engineering in one of the awards at Formula Student UK. Which involved being given half a day’s wind tunnel testing at MIRA’s full scale wind tunnel.
Keep your eyes peeled for lots of interesting facts and information regarding UH16.
On Tuesday the 30th July, UH Racing groggily climbed into their respective cars for the long journey through Europe to the fabled Hockenheimring in Baden-Württemberg in the south of Germany. The team left for Dover to catch an early morning ferry. The team eventually arrived at the Ring around late afternoon, early evening. The first order of business after arriving was to sort out the team’s pit garage.
The team worked hard to get this set up despite their weariness from the long day of travelling.
Wednesday was a case of getting into scrutineering and through it quickly. As we were ninth in the queue for scrutineering we were able to get through the entire process quickly. There are numerous different tests to pass before being allowed to compete as it was with the UK event. The process began with Technical Scrutineering. This involved checking that all of the regulations had been adhered to such as the widest track width and wheelbase length as well as the gap between the top of the drivers head and the roll hoops. Driver egress was also part of technical scrutineering which involves the driver being buckled in and getting out of the car in less than 5 seconds.
Up next was safety. This is to check that all of the safety devices in the car function as required and will protect the driver in the event of an accident. Chassis inspection was the 3rd part of scrutineering. Chassis inspection involved the tubes for the main components of the Chassis complying with the rules and regulations set out. The car was also weighed and came in at 210.5kg.
To complete the scrutineering the team was left with the tilt test, the noise test and a brake test. The car was fuelled and ready to go for these final tests. The first one the team completed was the tilt test; this is to check whether or not the car leaks fluid at 45° and if anything falls of at 60°. The car passed this test with flying colours.
Although the driver was not too keen on being in the car during the test. The penultimate test was the brake test. This is to check that the driver can apply the appropriate amount of brake pressure when required in order to stop fully. This is check by the driver accelerating and then hitting the brakes and locking all 4 wheels at the same time.
Finally it was time for the noise test. This is to ensure that the car’s silencer does not exceed 110dB. Once again there were no issues with passing this test. Once all of these tests were completed, the entire scrutineering process was complete. The team were the third car to complete the entire process and had been able to do so in a single day. This is was a massive boost to team morale as the German scrutineers are far more rigorous and ruthless. This enabled the team to give the drivers added seat and testing time. As well as allowing the rest of the team to prepare for the following day and the various static events that were planned.
Thursday was our day for static events. First up was design. The team handled themselves very well when being asked about reasoning behind the decisions made during the design as well as what the significance of it all was. The team were also asked about how they justified their designs and how they came up with those justifications.
Pat Clarke one of the Chief Design judges also commented on how our car was the Best car any UK team had ever created. With the design qualifiers over it was time for the cost event. In which the team were asked to justify the reasons behind the design from a cost and budget point of view. The team handled themselves extremely well and the requisite judges were all very impressed with the team. With the judges even commenting on how the team’s cost presentation was the best they had seen that day. The final static event for the day was the business event. In which Keval Morarjee and Bavly Obaid acquitted themselves very well.
The team came 14th in the Cost Event, 17th in the Design Event and unfortunately 35th in the Business event. Unfortunately in the Design event the team had incurred a 10 point penalty which would have seen us as high as 8th without it.
Friday afternoon saw the start of the Dynamic Events. It began with the Skid Pad event. With Will Farrar and Ramon Pineiro competing for the team. At Formula Student Germany the Skid pan is a wet track that is constantly sprinkled. With Ramon Pineiro taking to the track first. Ramon set a time of 6.085s. From which Will Farrar then took over the controls and set an even better time of 5.988. This placed us 13th for Skid pad and allowed us to get ready for the following day’s events of Acceleration and Sprint.
Acceleration came first and was held along the Start Finish straight of the Hockenheimring. With Will Farrar taking the opening two of four heats. He set a fantastic time of 4.340s in the combustion class. Richard Mitchell was next to climb into the driver’s seat and take a shot at gaining the top spot in acceleration. A very valiant effort indeed was put forward by Rich, who managed to set an incredible time of 4.080s, giving the team 3rd in Acceleration.
The afternoon involved preparing for and taking part in the sprint event, with Matt Grant and Tony Carrozza taking charge of UH16 for this event. Both drivers did incredibly well and placed the car 11th, with Matt Grant unfortunately clipping a cone on each run this gave him a best time of 84.039s and Tony Carrozza managed even better setting a blistering time of 81.673s for the sprint event. Both drivers set a first safe lap which would be used to keep the team in contention in case the more aggressive lap incurred too many penalties.
Once again the final event in the Competition was the Endurance.
22km time trial in essence. At the halfway point the driver will swap for his team mate. As Matt Grant and Tony Carrozza had already driven the track in the sprint event it was felt to be the best option to use them again as the drivers for endurance. Matt Grant took the first 11km and drove exceptionally well, Tony Carrozza took over the helm and continued with some incredible lap times, and unfortunately the car had suffered some damage under Matt Grant which worsened as Tony was driving. The car was pulled in for an inspection. The car was deemed safe to continue and was therefore allowed out of the pits to continue.
Despite this minor setback of having to sit in the pits and loose time Tony and Matt drove spectacularly to gain 10th place in endurance.
After the completion of endurance the car was then post-race scrutineered and had its fuel efficiency checked and calculated. The team managed a very respectable 23rd. This result combined with all of the other results throughout the competition allowed the team to become 10th overall in the competition. This gives us the Mantel of again being the Best UK Team at Formula Student Germany.
On Wednesday the 3rd July, UH Racing embarked on the relatively short distance to Silverstone International Circuit, based in Northamptonshire. The first order of business was to sort out the team’s pit garage. With fantastic help and support from the team, Grand Design Systems were able to get the pit garage set up.
Thursday was a case of getting into scrutineering and through it quickly. As we were first in the queue for scrutineering we were able to get through the entire process quickly. There are numerous different tests to pass before being allowed to compete. The process began with Technical Scrutineering. This involved checking that all of the regulations had been adhered to such as the widest track width and wheelbase length as well as the gap between the top of the drivers head and the roll hoops. Driver egress was also part of technical scrutineering which involves the driver being buckled in and getting out of the car in less than 5 seconds.
Up next was safety. This is to check that all of the safety devices in the car function as required and will protect the driver in the event of an accident. Chassis inspection was the 3rd part of scrutineering. Chassis inspection involved the tubes for the main components of the Chassis complying with the rules and regulations set out. The car was also weighed and came in at 210.5kg.
To complete the scrutineering the team was left with the tilt test, the noise test and a brake test. The car was fuelled and ready to go for these final tests. The first one the team completed was the tilt test; this is to check whether or not the car leaks fluid at 45° and if anything falls of at 60°. The car passed this test with flying colours. Although the driver was not too keen on being in the car during the test. The penultimate test was the brake test. This is to check that the driver can apply the appropriate amount of brake pressure when required in order to stop fully. This is check by the driver accelerating and then hitting the brakes and locking all 4 wheels at the same time.
Finally it was time for the noise test. This is to ensure that the car’s silencer does not exceed 110dB. Once again there were no issues with passing this test. Once all of these tests were completed, the entire scrutineering process was complete. The team were the second car to complete the entire process and had been able to do so in a single day. This enabled the team to give the drivers added seat and testing time. As well as allowing the rest of the team to prepare for the following day and the various static events that were planned.
Friday was our day for static events. First up was design. The team handled themselves very well when being asked about reasoning behind the decisions made during the design as well as what the significance of it all was. The team were also asked about how they justified their designs and how they came up with those justifications. With the design qualifiers over it was time for the cost event. In which the team were asked to justify the reasons behind the design from a cost and budget point of view. The team handled themselves extremely well and the requisite judges were all very impressed with the team. The final static event for the day was the business event. In which Keval Morarjee and Nicky Pisano acquitted themselves very well.
The team came 3rd in the Cost Event qualifiers, 10th in the Design Event and unfortunately 42nd in the Business event. Placing 3rd in the qualifiers for Cost enabled us to take part in the Cost event Final. In which the team once again acquitted themselves very well and were unfortunate to place any higher than 3rd.
Saturday saw the start of the Dynamic Events. It began with the team deciding to run the acceleration and skid pan events in order for both drivers. It began with Will Farrar running the acceleration first and getting a fantastic time of 4.174s with a second time just a little slower. Next up for Will was Skidpan. He set another incredible time of 4.970s. This was a great effort and stood us in good stead for the rest of the dynamic events to follow. Rich Mitchell was the second driver for the same events after limited seat time in the car he did incredibly well with a fastest time of 4.183s on his second run placing the team 15th. With a Skidpan time of 5.190s this put us in 5th place for skidpan.
The rest of the day involved setting the car up for the Sprint event and then competing in it. Our first driver for the event was Matt Grant, BUKC Champion, who put in a safe fast lap of 56.5s and then a faster more aggressive second lap which was a lap time of 54.3s although he hit a cone which unfortunately incurs a 2s penalty per cone hit. This resulted in a lap time of 56.3s. The second driver was Tony Carozza, also a BUKC Champion. He played it safe for a first lap as well setting a time of 56.781s and the second was again more aggressive setting a 54.142 although it incurred a 4s penalty due to hitting 2 cones. The team placed 15th in the Sprint Event.
Sunday saw the main event of the Competition take place, The Endurance event. A 22km race against the clock including a driver change after 11km. Matt Grant took on the responsibility of the opening 11km. The opening 11km was a display in fine car control and speed. Setting a blistering pace, catching on the University of Stuttgart Car ahead on track. At the driver change all went well, with Tony Carozza taking control of the car for the remaining 11km. Unfortunately 3 laps into the remaining 11 an electrical issue reared its head and caused the car to stop functioning resulting in a very disappointing DNF.
The following 3 weeks will now be used to gain more knowledge and a better understanding of the car and to sort out the issues that have arisen and then come back to compete in Germany with a better understanding and with all of the issues worked out.