Our '06 Formula Student/SAE car launch

[ArosaMike]

Well...after half the team staying up the whole night and myself till 4:30am building the thing, we launched our new car to 60 or so guests and sponsors.

Took a few shots during the build and at the launch, but before I get to bed now here's 3


5:30pm Thursday afternoon.


22hrs later it's a car...almost



For those of you interested in finding out more...here's our official website

http://ubracing.markdooley.com/

[fbc]

I love this contest - I helped out a little with the judging for the Australian contest a few years back - the cars look to be a blast to drive.

Good luck in the contest

[jayhawk]

Hey! Its the MRT5 from the online game Live For Speed!

[ArosaMike]

Originally Posted by jayhawk

Hey! Its the MRT5 from the online game Live For Speed!

In concept yes! McGill Uni in Canada built the MRT5.

fbc - yes they are quite fun to drive, although the tracks limit the kind of commitment you can make...it's certainly not as fun as gokarting Hopefully we can finish the endurance this year. We'd have been in the top 5 last year if our chain hadn't broken

[watto]

Wow, that's awesome mate. Good job!

[pdanev]

Nice car & Nice pictures!!!

Looks like mrt5 from lfs indeed.

[ryosuke]

cool cart. 8)

i wish you guys the best of luck!

[jayjaya29]

Yeah, best of luck. Must be a lot of fun to work on a project like this.

[monkeymax]

Looks cool!

A couple of friends and I tried to get my Uni to do the Formula Student thing when I was there (this was when I was doing Mechanical Engineering - before I switched to Aero). They said they'd consider it. Last year they finally started work on it - of course, this was just aftter I left...
One of my mates (masters student) did end up doing quite a bit of Aero work on it (which I helped out a little for Being unemployed and having too much time on my hands I gave them some of my CAD abilities...) and I think they're planning to have it racing next year...? Kinda lost track of it after Christmas, but knowing them it's probably now about 15 years behind schedule.

Anyway, as they're not racing, good luck to you! Wanna see more piccies of it in action though! But of course, as soon as the University of Surrey car is competing... well, you know where my loyalties will lie...

[ArosaMike]

Yeah...it's often hard to get Uni's to start up a team. It's a fairly pricey affair, and I can imagine a lot of departments are worried that a lot of money will be spent and no car will come out the other end! Birmingham were one of the first teams in the country to start because a student and our technician Carl got together a fantastic proposal and presented it to the head of our dept. He was thankfully impressed enough to accept!

The event is in July, although I expect we'll do some testing over the holidays. I'll take plenty of pictures that's for sure. Coming to the competition is free for spectators though, so you should come along if you get the time. It's really great to have a look round the cars and watch them compete

[monkeymax]

Where is the competition this year (and when exactly). I think I may be there... (depends where it is really, and how I'll get there)
Yeah, funding was the problem for us. Our department is one of the poorest in the Uni, making cutbacks each year. Essentially we ended up getting them to persuade the chancellor to create a special projects fund and allocate some money to the department for this project and another one (helping the Brooklands museum restore an old Concorde, something else I just missed getting involved in... ).

But yeah, I know what you mean as far as funding is concerned...


Edit: Nevermind re: dates and places... Google is my friend...

Edit 2: An hour and a half, a hundred miles... Hmmm. Ah, just before my birthday... I'll probably see you there...