SUFST as a team is comprised of around 20 people on the committee and a total of 100 members overall who are involved in the different areas of the car. “We started with around 270 members after Freshers Week this year, but now that people have drifted away to do other things we now have around 100 people involved in the car” said Nathan. “When periods like Easter come around, we find that a lot of team members want to go home for the holidays, so work on the car used to slow down. With so many people, we have been able to organise two heads for each area of the car so that there’s continuity during holidays - one person can continue working and checking over work while the other is away.”
So what’s new for 2018? “There’s been a lot going on since we last saw you” explained Nathan as we took a look in the team’s workshop and check out STAG IV, the entry from 2017. “We’ve published the finalised STAG V CAD designs, work has begun on manufacturing and we had a visit from the IMechE president Carolyn Griffiths and showed her the car”. The visit did help to get more buy in from the university, who continue to support the team financially, though Learn to Win was also helpful as as the chance to socialise and network with other teams and the FS judges gave the team some perspective on their relationship with the university. “We realised after Learn to Win that while they aren’t always able to provide us with the full monetary amount that we ask for, they are able to give us things in kind that we don’t have to pay for ourselves.” The team are also keen to meet with the Vice Chancellor, who is an engineer himself, to improve the relations between the team and the university. While getting a date in the diary is easier said than done, they regularly invite faculty members and local IMechE representatives to support them at Silverstone, as they have done in the past, to nurture support for and understanding of their project.
The team were also excited to share their success with grass-roots crowdfunding campaigns, with Kickstarter-like projects to get support from friends and family for donations as low as £5. “The line we said was ‘You’d buy me a drink in a pub, why not spend that fiver on supporting the team?’” laughs Nathan. “We even got in touch with companies who found the campaign online and have since become our sponsors. It’s amazing what happens when you start these campaigns and who sees them.” The funds will help the team not only finish the car but will enable them to travel to compete at different competitions this year, with FS UK and FS East timetabled for this year.
As Technical Director for the team, Alvaro Sanchez-Vella has three clear objectives for this season’s car: “Reliability, Weight Reduction and CAD for everything. Reliability is really key for us this year. We want to build a car that can run for the two days of competition with no issues. To reduce weight we’re looking at all aspects of the car to identify opportunities to optimise material choices and whether OEM parts offer better performance. So far we’re doing pretty well, though we’re targeting between a 5-10% reduction so there’s always more to do. Finally, having everything on CAD drawings means that we have a clear record of everything that we can refer to in the future and easily adapt as and when we need to.”
Testing is also a massive part of preparations for 2018. “Some of the problems we found at Silverstone last year was that we had components failing on us from the previous year and we hadn’t thought to double check all of the components for wear and tear” Al continued. Doing fatigue analyses on parts has admittedly been a learning curve for the team, though the positive from this is that they are using negative experiences as things to build on for the new season. “For 2018 we have an internal deadline coming up in early May which we have to meet to get the car completely manufactured and built for our FA to check” added Joe Coakley, Head of Chassis. “We’ve done this so that we can have two months of testing for the car so we can iron out any problems and also manufacture spares that we might need.”
“For us, the correlation between finishing the endurance and final placement is clear” Joe continued. “According to Alex (Head of Simulation for the team), he calculated that if we had been able to finish the endurance, we would be looking at a place in the top 15 teams for 2017. Now more than ever we want to finish the Endurance event and do well at it, so we’re targeting ourselves to get a top 20 place this year, providing we finish the Endurance.”
One thing in particular that worked well for the team this year was the intensive design week that the team organised in September. For a week before Fresher’s Week, the team worked on the design and planning of the car from 9 to 5 and afterwards did different social activities. “It started out being a bit awkward on Monday,” said Nathan “but by Friday we were bantering with each other as if we had known each other for years!” Getting a good balance of work and play was crucial to getting the team to work well together, and the team have also started organising out-of-hours tutorials for soft skills and Solidworks training as well. “It’s been really good for first year team members, as they get to build on their technical skills that they can use on the car and also adapt for academic coursework” continued Nathan.
The team also recommend reaching out to other teams for advice during the year and SUFST enjoys strong links with other teams they have worked with, including UH Racing, Team Bath Racing, Oxford Brookes Racing and neighbours on the coast UPRacing. They agree that the opportunity to trade support and advice is invaluable, with OBR in particular having helped SUFST with facilities to help manufacture parts so that STAG III and IV were kept in running condition throughout competitions. Having a good academic lead also helps, and they owe a lot to the enthusiasm of Andy at the University who has been very supportive of the team.
Looking longer term, the team plans to grow to support both a Class 1 and Class 2 structure, similar to teams like University of Bath, so that the team can work on the car in cycles. However, a lot of this is dependent on whether the university can dedicate more space for the team and currently the SUFST garage space is shared with a kit car replica of a Shelby Cobra that other students are converting into an electric vehicle, though this may also be helpful in the future. “The idea is that by the time the project is finished in a couple of years’ time, we’ll be able to take what that team have learned and convert it into an EV entry for a future competition” says Nathan.
Additionally, there’s also a desire to move to a Triumph engine to replace the Honda that they currently use, because their current engine has been discontinued. Taking note of other successful UK teams like Cardiff Racing who use the same block, it is hoped that the move will eventually provide more performance and make obtaining spare parts that little bit easier.
What’s clear from talking to the team is that they have a very clear vision of what they want to do and speak excitedly about setting and achieving realistic goals - plus securing one of the IMechE financial awards also helps! After five years of working on their car, there is a great sense that the committee and the wider team are in a strong position and are able to capitalise on their experience to score highly in 2018.
Check out the Black and Blue STAG up at Silverstone and FS East this Summer and in the meantime, keep up to date on their news via their team website http://www.sufst.com/ and social media channels: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.