Please introduce your university and team!
Our team count this year is our largest yet, comprising of 46 members from all years and engineering courses. We have been a consistent competitor at the Formula Student UK event since 2001 with entries for both EV and IC being made during this time. For 2018 we will be entering a Class 1, internal combustion vehicle. However, for the past 3 years, we have an EV powertrain development team looking to enter their first full Formula Student entry in 2020.
What’s the structure of your team?
Our group is structuring into design groups, each responsible for a certain component group on the car. Also, each group has its own group leader and staff supervisor to aid progression throughout the year. The team also has a technical team principal, social media, costing and sponsorship alongside a staff team director. Meetings are scheduled for the whole group, the group leaders, weekly workshop sessions and bi-weekly working sessions.
What are your objectives for this year’s competition?
We are looking to place in the top 10 UK teams and top 20 overall – ideally in the top 3 universities in the West Midlands. We hope not only to be able to compete but to be highly competitive in all static and dynamic events, with the excellent support given to us this year by new sponsors such as Bosch UK, Life Racing, Zircotec, Loctite, HS Marston and HRX Race Wear.
How close are you to finishing your car?
The vehicle is set for completion by the 1st May 2018, with a rigorous 2 months testing schedule planned. The 2017 vehicle has been benchmarked and tested thoroughly with key performance indicators identified and improved for 2018. For the 2018 vehicle, we have a gruelling 2 month testing programme at Bruntingthorpe Proving Grounds, during which a private Test Day at MIRA thanks to our new sponsors Bosch UK will be conducted.
We are currently completing the engine loom and finalising some machined components, after which the car will be on the ground and firing. We will be running a Life Racing F88 ECU system straight off an LMP1 vehicle alongside full Bosch Motorsport Electrical connectors and components thanks to our fantastic support from these established companies. Thanks to support from Easy Composites, we will be utilising a new carbon weave for this year’s vehicle with a new wing profile foam compound to reduce mass and increase stiffness properties
How does your team organise your workload?
Formula Student is an integral module to the Motorsport Engineering Courses here at Coventry University. The team principle is responsible for creating numerous build and project plans to be completed by team members to help organise workloads and plan manufacturing processes to meet tight deadlines. All tasks given are set to SMART format with a new SMART process board updated weekly in our fabrication bay.
What is new and exciting for your team in 2018?
The team here at Coventry University has never been stronger and with the highest member count in our history, we have been able to split out key projects for closer analysis and development for 2018. Also, new for 2018 are our open workshop sessions, where any engineering and computing student is welcome to come and lend a hand with our Formula Student Projects. This has opened the team up and we have gained a further 5 members since its inception in October. We feel the earlier we start to get students excited about Formula Student, the better experienced they are for when the project plays a vital role in their degrees.
We have taken delivery of a new Cruden 6 Degree of Freedom F1 Simulator that we have been using to build and test accurate simulation models of both the Formula Student Vehicle and Bruntingthorpe Proving Grounds facility. We hope to fully utilise this new asset to better simulate vehicle setup and essentially test potential innovations prior to manufacture.
Through hard work, determination and noticeably improving competition results, we have been lucky enough to welcome some fantastic new partners for the 2018 season. Most noticeably, industry leader Bosch UK has offered fantastic overall and catalogue parts support and has been an invaluable partner developing our 2018 car. Also we have welcome RS Components and Loctite, both of whom offer Catalogue and product support alongside Zircotec and HRX who will be providing Ceramic Coating and Race Wear Equipment accordingly. We are also honoured to be continuing our fantastic partnership with Life Racing, HS Marston and Custom Cages into the 2018 season. Life are providing their industry-leading F88 ECU this season which we look forward to improving our tried and tested CBR600RR powertrain platform. HS Marston will be providing a bespoke radiator and Custom Cages have provided Laser profiling for our chassis tubing sections.
The 2018 vehicle has a target wet mass of 200kg, a target which we are well on the way to beating with our chassis frame, bulkhead and floor weighing 17kg less comparatively. Our scheduled 2 month testing programme also noticeably eclipses that from last year and we hope to achieve Coventry’s best ever Formula Student finish this year.
What have been your biggest challenges this year and how have you overcome these?
Managing a team of 46 people has been quite a challenge for this year but thanks to a fantastic management team and a more regular team meetings, strategy has been put in place to create a team with a good dynamic and drive to meet our targets.
Working with other departments in the university like the machine shop to organise the parts to be machined by our deadlines with the understanding there is other work for them to be completed. This was overcome with regular meetings with the machine shop to create efficient designs which are easily manufactured but still meet our weight saving targets. This allows less time in machining therefore allows the Formula Student team to fit with the machine shops other deadlines.
Integration of all of the design groups and ensuring all parts of the car are accounted for is a challenge as there are many interfacing parts. This was overcome with interface meetings and detailed CAD investigations with all the sub-teams to identify who would take ownership of crossover parts and minimise the likelihood of parts not being accounted for.
We’re celebrating our 20th anniversary this year, what are you celebrating in 2018?
Following our highest place finish in 7 years in 2017, the team have a great car to benchmark from and have a highly motivated team to make 2018 the best year yet. We are new partnerships such as industry-leader, Bosch who have become our lead sponsor for the 2018 season. We are also celebrating getting new technology assets such as our Cruden simulator which will be pivotal in developing and simulating the 2018 and future Formula Student Vehicles.
What made you join Formula Student?
Formula student is a fantastic opportunity to design and build a race car from scratch pushing the engineering knowledge and capability our future engineering talent. Working through the entire process from design to production means that as students, we get the best understanding of the versatility of a Mechanical Engineering degree whilst highlighting the importance of every stage of the process. Working with our peers in such a large team, with tight deadlines teaches us management and organisation skills which would not be gained in other university projects. All of these skills are hugely important when graduating and frankly creates improved and more employable engineers, as well as being such an amazing and exciting application of our newly developed skills from university.
What’s your proudest moment at Formula Student?
Last year, the sense of achievement as the car finished the endurance event was incredible. The whole team ran to join the drivers and live pit crew and just embraced for about 5 minutes. We are a relatively new team, returning back to Class 1 IC in 2016 yet our achievements and improvements year on year have raised a few eyebrows. We are very proud of this achievement, climbing 60 places overall in competition next year and feel this is a true representation of the investment put in by our university and our technical partners. With their continued support, we look forward to further successes together as we continue to improve into the future.
What advice would you give for fellow teams?
Team work is key, last year was our best finish in 7 years and this is largely due to the positive teamwork attributes of our team; with solutions to every problem found efficiently as development progressed. Modern formula student teams are typically quite large groups therefore ensuring good and frequent communication between parties, particularly those that interface with components, is key. Planning is another key aspect to keeping the cogs of your team turning; a good structure to development, manufacturing and testing is key to achieving your goals within set timeframes.
Always aim to finish your car early as a thorough testing programme is vital to highlighting any performance or reliability issues. An untested car will never achieve good competition results. Finally, make sure your team has a sound knowledge of the rules and regulations. Scrutineering at the event is gruelling and there’s nothing worse than putting in hours, days and months of work into a vehicle that is illegal and subsequently cannot compete.
What do Phoenix Racing bring to the competition?
- A “built not bought” approach. A belief that students are capable and should be involved with the manufacture on as much of a formula student vehicle as possible.
- A professional approach to Scrutineering. A keen ear to hear from our peers to potential infringements and create innovative solutions to correct them.
- Excitement. Our university climbed 60 positions in the rankings last year, without paperwork issues we would have been in the top 10. There is a buzz around our University and we plan on keeping the momentum going for many, many years to come.
- Fantastic Dynamic performance. We achieved great results last year despite comparatively small financial backing compared to the top teams. With our new partners backing us this year, we plan on taking some names and making a serious impact on the competition.
How can we keep up to date with you?
We have regular posts to all of our social media accounts listed below:
Make sure to follow us on all social media to be kept up to date with the progress of the PR87-18 as well as some fantastic opportunities that we will be announcing in the near future!
(Photos taken from the Phoenix Racing Facebook page)
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