Engineering news
The 2,400-square-metre Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub is being developed by aerodynamics specialist TotalSim, and will feature two wind tunnels – one for cycling and other sports such as wheelchair athletics, speed-skating, skeleton and running, and another for testing fabrics.
The facility, close to the home of the British Grand Prix, will also contain offices, design studios and workshops for production, prototyping and testing. The hub is due to be completed early next year, and is projected to provide 64 new jobs and 10 apprenticeships, and to support 45 enterprises.
“Tapping into the world-class high-tech skills pool around Silverstone enables us to create a unique innovation incubator for companies in sports engineering and services which we predict will have global appeal,” said Rob Lewis, managing director of TotalSim, which has already worked with Great Britain’s cycling team and other Olympic sports.
Lewis added: “If we can pool the right things together then we believe that organisations will come from around the world to take advantage of the facility – thereby helping to put the UK at the forefront of the development of aerodynamic technologies.
“In fact this could be the start of a whole series of ventures around Silverstone to do with sports science, engineering and education.”
The centre benefited from a £2m grant from the Buckinghamshire Thames Valley Local Enterprise Partnership. It forms part of the Silverstone Park Enterprise Zone, which offers relief on business rates to high-tech companies. Other firms located nearby include AMG-Mercedes F1 and DS Virgin Racing.
“The Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub represents a new innovation centre with specialist facilities to support companies involved in aerodynamics and sports engineering,” said Roz Bird, commercial director at Silverstone.
“It also provides opportunities for companies in the area to apply their motorsport and/or advanced engineering capabilities to the sports science sector, including cycling, winter Olympic sports and Paralympic sports which are all growing in popularity. This could make a real difference to the success of athletes."