Formula Student
“We’re still on a massive high from last summer,” grins Surojit Sen, the team’s faculty advisor and former team leader during a call with the team. “We did far better than we expected and winning the Business Presentation event meant we have a trophy to show for our hard work.” They have every right to enjoy their success; having started their electric vehicle team in 2016 and completely from the ground up, the team have made significant progress in developing and building electric vehicles, both for Formula Student and also the upcoming European Solar Challenge.
As for their new car for 2022, progress has been steady but not without complications. “We originally wanted to build a more power-dense accumulator for this year, but like most businesses we’ve been massively affected by cell and chip shortages,” explains Surojit, “so after trying for months to source the components we needed, we decided just before Christmas to adapt our 2021 accumulator out of necessity.”
This change also had a significant impact on their chassis design, which did not account for their old accumulator. Head of Chassis Chris Eason explained that their newer accumulator was designed to mount to the rear of the chassis for ease of removal; reverting to the older accumulator would have meant disassembling most of the rear of the car every time they needed to organise a charge. This rear geometry redesign had further complications for the mounting points for the suspension, but fortunately Chris and the team were able to finalise the new chassis iteration in a matter of weeks.
Thankfully, the team have managed to save further time later in the chassis build process, with a new jig design using tubes with tongue and groove connectors to hold parts in place for welding. “It was an ambitious way of doing it that needed a bit more effort to set up,” explained Chris, “but in the end the setup meant that we were able to get all the welding done in a single day.”
There have been plenty of positive developments with their EV powertrain too. Their existing pair of bulky 10kg invertors that were mounted in the side pods have been swapped out for lightweight alternatives that still provide enough peak output despite being a lower spec than before. “Last year’s invertors were not ideal and despite them providing 120kW output we didn’t really need or use all of it,” admits Surojit, “using lighter invertors means we can mount them in the rear of the car and should improve our overall performance – based on our lap time simulations so far this seems to be the case.” Moving the invertors also means that the sidepods profile can be reduced to fit just the water cooling systems and radiators, and can be moved to just behind the driver seat, meaning the entry/egress should also be easier and faster.
2022 has also seen the team iterate in other areas as well, with investments in spot welding and water jet cutting equipment that will allow more to be done in-house, alongside more use of additive manufacturing for design optimisation and small parts manufacture. Work on a future carbon fibre monocoque will contribute to overall efforts to reduce weight, while the team are particularly proud of their new custom titanium brake pedal, “the prettiest part of the car people will never see,” jokes Surojit.
It’s not just in the technical area that the team have been making improvements, as the team now has a dedicated PR team headed by Shreeja Basak, whose initial tasks are on building the team’s brand to match their work. “We’ve made some good progress on websites and social media channels, and being able to get more and more regular updates from the workshops to share as parts are designed and the cars come together,” she explained. “It has also allowed us to organise more opportunities for us to take our car out to local events and show what we’ve been working on, especially as things are opening up after covid,” continued Shreeja, “We were really happy with the response we’ve had from businesses and residents at these shows and we hope we can get out to more of them to spark conversations to get more sponsors; another area that we are working on for this year.”
Meanwhile, second year student and Mechanical Project Manager, Jhotinder Mahapatra, outlined the steps they have made to better organise the students who work on their cars. “With two competitions to work on and two cars to build, there’s a lot of work to cover each year and we think that we are now well-organised to give more chances for success,” he explained. “We want our team members to have feel that they have responsibility for their area while not being overwhelmed, so we try and pair them with experienced team members to learn from,” he continued, adding that this helps for enabling knowledge transfer from year to year and allows the team to concentrate on long-term goals for the team.
As for longer-term objectives, component shortages mean that 2022 is being used as an interim year but that has not stopped them from having plenty of plans in place and by 2023 do not be surprised to see a four wheel drive UoN Racing Team car with custom designed motors and gearbox.
With the next competition only a few months away, work is continuing at a fast pace to get ready and we wish the team the best; to catch up with all their activities be sure to follow them on their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram channels, and on LinkedIn.
If you want to watch them live, don’t forget that you can join us at Silverstone on 9-10 July: book your place via the Silverstone website and enter code FS10 for 10% of a day ticket or FS10WE for 10% off both days.