Summer 2012 Newsletter
Team Bath Racing take 4th place at Formula Student Austria! Welcome to the August 2012 edition of the Team Bath Racing newsletter. The newsletter includes an update on the performance of the 3rd and 4th year teams at the recent Formula Student competitions in Silverstone and Austria, and also looks ahead as the 3rd year team begin to plan the build of the TBR13 vehicle.
Team Bath Racing would like to extend a huge thank you to all the sponsors of the project for their continued support of the team, as without them none of this would be possible. If you would like to keep up to date with the progress of TBR13 on a more frequent basis, please find us on Twitter, Facebook or our website. Details of these can be found at the end of this newsletter.
Class 2 Competition
Class 1 Competition - Silverstone
The 3rd year division of Team Bath Racing presented their vehicle design to a number of esteemed judges at the Class 2 Competition at the Silverstone Formula Student event. This event features a number of unbuilt, partially built and unfinished cars, and acts as a proving ground for vehicle design before the Class 1 event the following year. With Team Bath Racing designing and building a brand new car every year, they were always going to be on the back foot against other Universities who showed up with components such as fully built carbon monocoques, however the team managed to secure 3rd place overall following the Design, Business, Cost and Sustainability aspects of competition, with the help of an excellent 2nd place in the Business presentation.
Following a successful launch day for the TBR12 vehicle at the end of May, the 4th year team worked around the clock to ensure that the car was ready for both the Silverstone and Austria Formula Student competitions. The pressure of preparation was also added to by the timing of these events this year, with the team needing to drive straight to the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg following the awards ceremony at Silverstone. This is the first year that electric vehicles have competed directly against their combustion engine counterparts, and so it was certain that the competition for 2012 would be an interesting one.
Although the team were disappointed to have not come away with the win, the competition proved to be an excellent training exercise in which feedback from the judges will allow for further development of the vehicle design before the build of the TBR13 vehicle commences.
TBR12 In Action
A CAD Render of TBR13
The Silverstone event followed its usual format, with Static events and Scrutineering over the first two days, and the spectacle of the Dynamic events finishing off the competition over the weekend. Support from alumni, family and sponsors helped the drive of the team enormously over the 4 days, which lead to a good start to the competition in the Static events. Once again, the Cost and Sustainability event was won, and although
performance in Design and Business were slightly less strong (9th and 15th respectively), the team was in a good position to do well going into the Dynamic events. During Scrutineering, logical thinking and ingenuity by the team ensured that a few small technical issues and difficulty in locking the brakes during the Brake Test were overcome. A very wet Saturday morning at Silverstone saw the Acceleration and Skid Pad events completed without major incident, and a good result in the Sprint event (8th) meant that the team was 7th overall going into the final day. With just 30 points between Team Bath Racing and the leaders, it was clear that the 400 points up for grabs from the Endurance (and Economy) event would decide the fate of the team.
TBR’s drivers proved to be amongst the fastest A frustrating start to Sunday morning saw an oil cooler failure during a test session prior to the Endurance event. Innovation again prevailed to find a solution and the vehicle was ready for its ultimate test. The Endurance event is split into two sections, with a compulsory driver change half way through. The first driver started out and it was clear that the Bath car was one of the fastest out there; overtaking rivals Hertfordshire and the electric powered Delft vehicle (a fastest lap of 56.1 seconds ended up to be the 5th quickest overall). The team waited with baited breath as the vehicle came in for the driver change, and heartbreak struck as the vehicle was rolled away to the pits. The vehicle had been disqualified for a failed brake light, afterwards diagnosed as a fatigued wire in the pressure sensor within the hydraulic system. Failure to complete the Endurance event means that no substantial points can be won from it, leaving Team Bath Racing in a thoroughly disappointing 19th place overall (out of 102 entries) – a result well below the potential of the car. Calculations based on average pace later revealed a top 5 position would have been certain, proving that no matter how much checking, testing or validation completed, sometimes it is just luck on the day that can be the difference between success and failure.
Class 1 Competition - Austria As previously mentioned, the team had no time to reflect on the disappointment of the Silverstone event as it was time to pack up the van and quickly proceed on the long drive to the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg – the home of Formula Student Austria. 42 teams gathered from around the world to compete in the stunning setting of the Austrian mountains. With a similar event layout to Silverstone, the team began by completing the Static events and required Scrutineering. Although having just passed the Silverstone Scrutineering, the Austrian officials provided a list of required changes, which the team quickly set about resolving. Noise and Tilt tests were passed without issue and all was looking good, until a major setback in the Brake Test when an insert failed on one of the carbon wishbones; this lead to the collapse of the front left suspension. Fortunately, the damage was less significant than expected and spare steel wishbones were used to get the vehicle back running again. Top performances in the Static events (Design 5th, Business 3rd and Cost 6th) gave the team a much needed boost ready for the Dynamic events to follow. The issues during brake test had cost a lot of valuable time for the team and consequently only half of the allowed attempts were completed for the Acceleration and Skidpad events, leading to results below the capability of the vehicle. The team arrived at the more important Sprint event and some excellent driving lead to a strong first attempt before the heavens opened, marking the arrival of an unbelievable storm that rendered any further attempts pointless. Arrival back at the campsite showed the true intensity of the storm as the team marquee was found in the next field over 100 metres away!
The team celebrate their Austria success
The team were given no opportunity to relax the following morning prior to the Endurance event, as during the final vehicle shakedown the rear wing mounting strut failed – again leading to some urgent repairs and quick engineering thinking. 4th place in the Sprint event had again setup a situation where the Endurance was going to be the deciding factor. The team held their breath with the heartbreak of Silverstone still fresh in their minds as Fred MartinDye entered the track. Blistering pace over the first session of Endurance saw Bath climb to the top of the lap leaderboard, and the team cheered as the Austrian officials gave the go ahead for the vehicle to continue after driver change. Dave Turton, in his first proper drive of the car, showed continued pace and took the car home to finish the Endurance event. The team had ended up 2nd in the Endurance, scoring the points they needed to give an excellent overall 4th place result. Given the budget of the teams in the top three positions, it is clear that this is a result that the
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TBR12 team deserves and can be proud of, especially when considering that a new car is built every year at Team Bath Racing.
TBR13 Build Following the recent Class 2 entry for the 3rd Year Team (See ‘Class 2 Competition’), the plans for the development and build of the TBR13 vehicle are now well underway. The aim to build the car as soon as possible to maximise the testing time available are being realised already through the early build of the front section of the chassis (carbon fibre monocoque) over the summer period. Tooling block for the pattern-work has now been machined, and the team hopes to begin lay up for the moulds within the next few weeks. Verification and development of all other component systems is also on-going, in the hope to begin part manufacture at the start of next semester.
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