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Herts & Essex Blog 3 | 20th Feb 12

The third instalment of the UH Racing Blog was published on the Herts & Essex Press website. This months edition features updates on the chassis construction as well as details about the scale model being made ready for aerodynamic testing.

Engine Mapping | 20th Feb 12

The Engine Team have totally refurbished their engine test cell allowing for new instrumentation for further data analysis. The team has been focusing their attention developing upon UH14’s ECU calibration. Once the calibration is finalised the team will transfer this onto UH14 & perform further development on our in house chassis dynamometer (rolling road).

The team plan to track test UH14 with the new calibration in order to validate the in house dynamometer testing.

UH Santander Support & Visit | 10th Feb 12

In December the University became part of Santander’s University network. This has led to UH Racing receiving a £3,000 donation each year for three years.

On the 8th February Nick Butler from Santander came for a tour of UH Racing’s facilities. He was pleased to meet the students who would be benefiting from the funding. He was impressed with the Cruden Simulator especially with the Santander logo on the hoardings around the track.

Nick is also looking forward to the launch event & will be bring along some of his colleagues.

UH Racing Video Blog 2 | 26th Dec 11

The second instalment of UH Racing’s video Blog is now available on UH Racings You Tube channel. This months edition includes information on how the plastic chassis was made, footage of the winter test with UH14 & the team’s sim social along with other news.

Team Social | 17th Dec 11

Wednesday the 14^th saw the UH Racing Christmas social events. The afternoon consisted of a competition based on the Cruden simulator. The team was broken down into smaller teams formed from the different areas. These where: Suspension, Sim & Testing, Engine & Electronics & Drivetrain, Brakes, Chassis & Helpers. Each student had 3 laps & the winning team was the one with the fastest average lap time.

Both the track & car used where new, in an attempt to remove the advantage regular sim users had over the rest of the team. The chosen track was a fictitious one made by Cruden that included the famous Eau Rouge corner from Spa-Francorchamps. The car used was a Porsche GT3.

Engine & Electronics won overall due to only two members being available, on the day, who both posted reasonable lap times. They were followed by Suspension. Sim & Testing surprisingly only came 3^rd with Chassis, Drivetrain, Brakes & Helpers taking the final position.

The fasted individual lap time was posted by Sim & Testing’s Sam Blood with a 1:41.1s but this was cancelled out, by the slowest lap of the team, which was a 2:12.1s by Kimberley Buckley who also held the record of the most crashes in one lap with a total of 6.

Sim & Testing also took the record for the most rolls with James Nevens having two in one crash, which can be seen on the team’s video blog.

Herts & Essex Blog 2 | 8th Dec 11

The second instalment of the UH Racing Blog was published on the Herts & Essex Press website. This months edition features the winter testing, plastic chassis & the updates to the Cruden simulator.

Partnership Pack | 2nd Dec 11

UH Racings new partnership pack is now available to be viewed on our website. UH Racing relies on the support provided by our partners & this support has enabled UH Racing to be one of the top competitors at Formula Student. Therefore the UH15 team would like to say an enormous thank you to our current partners.

Castrol Presentation | 28th Nov 11

Last Wednesday UH Racing welcomed Mr Oliver Taylor & Mr Will Pickford from UH Racing’s partner Castrol. Mr Taylor & Mr Pickford gave an interesting presentation on the employment opportunities at Castrol. Castrol run various internships & graduate schemes which could present valuable opportunities to UH Racing’s students in the future. Castrol who were a new partner to UH Racing last year will be continuing to support the team this season through products & financial help. UH Racing would like to thank Castrol for their continued support & Mr Taylor & Mr Pickford for coming in & presenting to us.

Winter Testing | 18th Nov 11

The UH racing team teamed up with Jaguar Landrover to characterise the steering behaviour of the teams UH14 FS car. The car was fitted with a calibrated steering wheel and allowed the team to measure both handwheel angle and steering torque. The team had also strain gauged track rods and other suspension members to better understand the loads acting through the suspension.

The team conducted a number of tests including; Track replay, skid pad tests, pseudo kinematic and compliance tests and a series of on centre steering tests. The data will be used to characterise the vehicle response to steering input and the data will be used to highlight areas where steering feel can be improved. We also had drivers feedback from one of JLR’s vehicle dynamics engineers, Dr Blake Siegler. The feedback was gratefully received and will be used to help improve future UH Formula Student cars.

Our thanks to Dr Blake Siegler at JLR for the kind use of the calibrated steering wheel and for giving up his time to help support the Universities Formula Student team.

SKF & Matchtech Presentations | 17th Nov 11

Mr Ian Peverill from SKF & Mr Ben Jay a University of Hertfordshire placement student gave an interesting talk into the SKF company. SKF has been involved with the university for seven years, taking on many placement students and providing the bearings for UH Racing’s cars. During the talk the students got to see some of the different bearings used within an F1 car. Mr Peverill & Mr Jay where then taken to see UH14 in the Lab.

UH Racing then had a presentation by Ms Annabel Williams from Matchtech. Matchtech is one of the UK’s largest recruitment agencies. It specialises in recruiting people for jobs within the technical sector & has found many previous UH Racing team members employment. After the presentation Ms Williams was then taking to have a go on the University’s Simulator.

UH Racing would like to thank both SKF & Matchtech for continuing to support us & Mr Peverill, Mr Jay & Ms Williams for coming to present to us.

Formula Student Racing Blog | 8th Nov 11

UH Racing is now featuring in a regular Blog on the Hert & Essex Newspaper website in their educational section. The Blog will follow the teams progress through the year & will be in conjunction with the new monthly video Blog released on You Tube.

Loctite Presentation | 5th Nov 11

On Wednesday UH Racing were lucky to be visited by representatives from long term partners Loctite. Mr Colin Chapman & Mr Bob Orme gave an interesting presentation into the Loctite company, as well as the various products it has on offer. Mr Chapman & Mr Orme were then taken to have a tour of last year’s car UH14 which featured applications of a number of the products supplied by Loctite.

UH Racing would like to thank Mr Chapman and Mr Orme for taking the time to visit us as well as Loctite for their continuing support with the team. As with all our partners their help is what makes UH Racing a top level competitor at the Formula Student events. Thank You.

UH Racing’s First Ever Video Blog | 5th Nov 11

UH Racing launched it’s first ever video Blog on Wednesday. The Blog will be released monthly on UH Racings You Tube channel & chart the teams progress as they design & build UH15. It is hoped the Blog will provide an interesting insight into the work that goes on behind the scenes to create a Formula student car, as well as keeping UH Racing’s valued partners & the public up to date with the car’s progress.

Hot off the Press UH Racing in the News | 2nd Nov 11

UH Racing featured in an article in the Cornish Guardian on the 26th October. The article focused on Head of PR Kimberley Buckley who is from the county & Team Leader Russell Paddon who is from neighbouring Devon. The hope is that the article will promote engineering as a career to students from the south west as well as encouraging more girls to take up the profession.

UH Racing will also be featuring in a monthly Blog, beginning soon, charting the teams progress in the education section on the Herts & Essex Newspaper website.

FSG Results: 7th Place & Top UK Team | 7th Aug 11

For the first time in history UH Racing has placed within the top ten at both FSUK and FSG. Formula Student Germany is a very tough competition seeing very strong teams from around the world. Some say that it is far more challenging than the UK competition. This year UH Racing have nailed the statics coming 4th in Design, 2nd in Business and 2nd in Cost. If there was an award for overall Statics we would have won it!

The dynamic events were also strong across acceleration and the skidpad. It is a real shame that we were caught out by bad weather for the autocross event. This was the downfall for only achieving 4.5 points and having a poor position for the endurance race on Sunday. Never the less the strength of UH14 proved that the car could last yet another endurance race and post extremely quick times ensuring an overall 7th place finish.

UH14 @ FSG 2011

Formula Student Germany 2011

FSUK Results: 3rd Place & Top UK Team | 17th July 11

For the second consecutive year, UH Racing placed as the top UK team at the Formula Student UK event staged at Silverstone; this time however, an overall 3rd place was achieved! This is the highest ever placing for a UK university at the UK event.

The team scored highly in each of static events on Friday, followed by a difficult first dynamic’s day on Saturday when the weather played its part. However, the team bounced back to place second overall in the endurance with 23 consistent laps from our two drivers. The team’s consistency throughout each of the events, coupled with excellent reliability, resulted in the podium position.

UH Racing’s aesthetic appeal and success attracted much attention during the event from judges, competitors and spectators, as well as featuring on national TV and national newspaper coverage.

The team believe that there is a great deal more potential in UH14, and will be optimising all features of the car in the coming testing weeks in order to win the Formula Student Germany competition.

UH14 Competes

UH Racing Seduces UK’s Media | 28th Jun 11

UH14’s launch was attended by over 200 spectators, including both local and national media as well as local government officials and representatives of some of the UK’s leading automotive engineering companies.

The launch went down a storm, with the first official play of the team’s new promotional video preceding the unveiling of UH14; UH Racing’s most beautiful, technically advanced Formula Student competitor to date. The team is now focusing on various forms of performance and validation testing to achieve the potential of UH14, winning outright.

Post launch, UH14 has continued to cause excitement in various media streams with articles published in both Racecar Engineering and Fame Online. Additional recognition of UH Racing’s status as the top UK university comes with the publishing of the 2011 Formula Student UK Event Programme, with UH13 emblazoning the front cover.

UH14 Launched! | 15th Jun 11

UH14 Launch

Launch of UH14

Cruden Racing Simulator Arrives | 3rd Jun 11

UH Racing has taken delivery of the latest in vehicle and driver development tools; a 6-degree-of-freedom simulator produced by Cruden. The first stage will be to develop a complete simulation model of UH14, which can then be used to analyse different vehicle setups before the car even hits the test track, thus saving the team time and money as well as reducing wear on the new vehicle. The team will also be using the simulator in order to allow the drivers to perfect their style and improve their performance at the Formula Student events. Visit the videos section to watch UH14 driver John Corrigan on a hot lap around Zandvoort.

Team Karting Round 2 | 19th May 11

Rye House Kart Raceway hosted the second UH14 team karting event, with glorious sunshine greeting the 21 team members upon arrival. A ten minute qualifying session was used to determine the grid, with John Corrigan, winner from the last event, ending up on pole position. Steven Baldock lined up alongside on the front row, with Tom Mutlow and Pietro Pagano right behind. From the start John led the way, with Tom and Pietro moving ahead of Steve. With the leader getting away at the front a fantastic battle ensued behind, with Pietro eventually moving through to second and starting to close down John. With three laps to go, Steve was pressuring Tom for third place, and managed to find a way through whilst in amongst the lapped traffic. Contact with Rowan Read (Plusnet Racing Team) on the penultimate lap left Rowan with only post-watershed comments, but gave Steve a one second gap over Tom, allowing him to hold third until the finish.

The final result was:

1st John Corrigan

2nd Pietro Pagano +02.63secs

3rd Steven Baldock +08.95secs

4th Tom Mutlow +10.98secs

5th Geoff Ayton +19.78secs

6th Chirag Malhotra +26.98secs

7th Jason English +29.12secs

8th Dean Smart +32.45secs

9th Craig Brant +40.22secs

10th James Taylor +1lap

Fastest lap went to Pietro Pagano – 40.84 seconds.

New Website Launch | 19th May 11

After a major overhaul, UH Racing is proud to announce the launch of its new website. The new design has been planned for a while and with the ease of the new Word Press software it has become a doddle to edit and update. A big thanks goes out to Chris Oates for all his technical help in the setup and re-design, and electrical expert Jason English who has prepared the new content.

We hope you enjoy the new site

Promotional Video Shoot | 20th Apr 11

Today a few members of the team took UH13 to Rye House go karting track in order to film a professional promotional video for the team. The talented Olga and Sergey were in charge of the day ensuring that every capture was filmed to absolute perfection. The car was filmed multiple times on the track as well as it being followed by a Transit van and a Vauxhall Omega in order to capture the perfect motion shots. If this wasn’t enough the electronics team also managed to sneak in a few tests whilst the car was on track in order to verify the new GSM live data transmitter. We thought that the existing wireless telemetry system was good enough, obviously not. We can now login and monitor live data from the car anywhere in the world! Our thanks go to Ryan and the team at Rye House Kart Raceway for the kind use of their first class facilities.

UH13 Spring Testing | 31st Mar 11

This would be the last time UH13 would see a track for any means of testing for UH14. The purpose of todays last test was to finalise and validate the rolling road calibrations at the track and boy did it work. Diver feedback from the paddle shifter was immense, flat shift works with 100% reliability, we even managed to get the car clutchless downshifting while dramatically reducing shift times! The adjustable cooling system was also thoroughly tested by our engine team to ensure that optimum cooling design for UH14 can be achieve with the newly designed radiator and fan. Towards the end of the day the drivers also managed to throw in a few sneaky launches and adjust the launch control strategy.

UH Rolling Road | 25th Mar 11

This time UH13 was put through its paces on our in house rolling road. The purpose of the test was to tune the new paddle shifter to respond to clutch-less upshifts before testing at the track. Live data from all of the cars sensors as well the RR’s ability to adjust transient conditions proved extremely successul as we were able to make changes on the fly and get instant driver feedback. All in all the day has put a great deal of confidence into the new shifter system with positive feedback from both drivers and calibration engineers.

Team Karting Event | 10th Feb 11

The racing was close and extremely exciting, even though they were racing electric vehicle! The lap times were very competitive, and the quality of driving was high all round. The much anticipated UH Racing karting event was few weeks ago at Teamworks karting Letchworth. The annual social event was a resounding success, with an excellent turnout from most of the UH14 racing team. The event also proved a good chance for the perspective drivers to stake their claim to a drive this summer. Special mention must go to John Corrigan, with a storming qualifying lap landing him on pole, and 1st place overall in the race; second place was taken Pietro Pagano and Lee Stretch took third place to finish of the podium.

DC Electronics Workshop | 27th Jan 11

UH Racing were invited to a half-day DC Electronics wiring loom workshop designed to give the electronics team the opportunity to get the full potential in design of the electrical system. The workshop demonstrated how to design and build a bespoke and winning wiring harness with technical advise on connectors and wiring practices. The day was a great experience for our three electrical teams members David, Jason & Karam. DC Electronics has over 10 years experience in the design and build of high quality, professional and reliable electrical systems for the motorsport and high performance road car industries. Their products can be found in rally, world touring cars, GT, superbikes, F1 and even power boats. The world-class projects the company has worked on include the Bloodhound project which aims to beat the 1000mph land speed record, the new Noble M600 and the McRae Enduro.

UH13 Winter Testing | 22nd Jan 11

As this was the first day of testing for UH14 it provided an excellent opportunity for the team to work together and build a base for future test days. The day went exactly to plan without any problems, the inclusion of wireless data logging insured there was no need for the electronics team to intrude on the vehicle during, inspection, driver changes and refuelling. This also allowed ‘live’ data to be viewed whilst UH13 was driven around the track, insuring that UH13 was well monitored and allowed instant feedback to be provided for the drivers. Another important milestone was reached for UH Racing when they had a full day of testing on UH13 at Bruntingthorpe proving ground, the testing provided the opportunity to test their fantastic new data logging equipment and various sensors. UH13 is currently being used as their R&D vehicle in order to test the newly acquired PI data logger, wheel speed sensors, linear potentiometers and brake temperature sensors. Overall the day was a resounding success; the team worked very well together considering their relative inexperience working together. Furthermore the vast amount of data collected will help the time maximise the performance UH14.

Autosport International Show | 13th-16th Jan 11

With a strong portfolio of Degree courses on offer, UH offer an outstanding experience, blending the right mix of theoretical and practical work as endorsed at the show by many of our former graduates who came to say hello. The University of Hertfordshire returned once again to the Autosport International show with their 2 latest FS cars, UH13 and UH13A in early January. The annual show attracts thousands of motorsport enthusiasts and UH were there exhibiting in the Careers in Motorsport section. The event is an eye opener for many young people thinking of a career in the Automotive and Motorsport industry.

At cutting edge engineering firm, Flybrid Systems, formed by former UH graduates Doug Cross and Jon Hilton, Dan Jones was recently promoted to Chief Designer. Dan was our UH Racing Formula Student team captain as recently as 2006, many congratulations Dan! It’s clear our graduates are very highly regarded for their skills, work ethic and engineering ability with just the right balance of practical and theoretical abilities. If you’re looking for an undergraduate course to get you in to the Automotive or Motorsport sector, then look no further.

Here’s a couple of links to profiles and interviews with some of our recent graduates;

Tom McCulloch (Race Engineer AT & T Williams F1)

Barney Stephenson (Engineering Manager @ Noble Cars)

Williams F1 Factory Tour | 26th Nov 10

UH Racing visited the Williams F1 factory as part of the prize for winning the IMechE Luton Automobile branch FS lecture evening. Nine lucky team members were given a guided tour around the Williams facility. The tour started in the onsite museum, which housed all the Williams F1 cars dating back to the early 80′s, followed by the wind tunnel model lab and the machining facilities, the rapid prototyping capabilities provided an insight into the fast paced world of Formula 1. A Great day was had by the team but sadly no sneaky peek at next year’s Williams F1 car.

Kinematics and Compliance Test Honda R&D | 19th Nov 10

19th November 2010 is yet another important day for UH racing to mark another great milestone achieved in the on-going development of UH14. We were able to quantify the vehicle ride and handling characteristics of UH12, our 2009 racer, using a Kinematic & Compliance test rig at Honda R & D Europe. The test rig used was an Anthony Best Dynamics single axle Suspension Parameter Measuring Machine which is controlled by multi-axis controller. The controller is interfaced to a computer which in turn controls the overall operation of the machine and provides the user interface. The system uses combination workstations, one of which is the Input/output to test rig, and another workstation is used to collect the data from network for real time analysis of the simulation. The system uses Electro mechanical actuators to lift and lower the vehicle, encoder stands were mounted on wheels and six encoder strings were connected on each wheel, this allowed the wheel positions to be measured during each simulation. It took approximately two hours to get the car set on the rig, including the mounting of the chassis to the centre table to prevent the influence of body stiffness on results. The machine measures the quasi-static suspension characteristics that are important to ride and handling, which include the Kinematics of the vehicle as defined by the movement of the wheel relative to chassis that results from spring level and the Compliance which is the result of the additional forces in the contact area of tires, along with the lateral and longitudinal acceleration and the deformation of suspension components that could possibly lead to additional chamber toe angles causing a influence on vehicle handling. On behalf of UH racing we would like to give a special thanks to Dr Blake Siegler and Honda R&D Europe who were kind enough to give us this exceptional opportunity to work with their facilities and provide us with their expertise.

IMechE Luton Automobile branch FS lecture | 3rd Nov 10

On 3rd November UH Racing attended the IMechE Luton Automobile branch FS lecture. The team gave a presentation on UH13 to GCSE and A level students who are considering engineering as a career. The team where judged by a panel of F1 team members on their presentation skills and the technical quality of the presentation, also present where teams from Bath University and Oxford Brooks. The team were victorious winning a cash prize and a tour of the Williams F1 factory. With the first prize of the year won let’s hope there are many more to follow.

7 Post Rig Test at Lola | 2nd Nov 10

Just 4 weeks into the FS project the team had prepared last year’s 2010 racer (UH13) for a comprehensive 7 post rig test at Lola, supplier of sports cars and prototype Le Mans racing cars. Here the chassis were mounted to a computer controlled rig, which is capable of simulating the loads and road inputs encountered when racing around a formula student style circuit – all without even firing up the engine! The team gathered an enormous amount of data relating to damper setup and dynamic vehicle performance that will help us maximise the performance of our 2011 challenger (UH14). A huge thank you goes out to the staff at Lola for this rare opportunity to use their state of the art facilities.

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