ACKNOWLEDGING that excellent engineers cannot be solely nurtured in classrooms, Formula Student is an international competition that was founded in the USA in 1981 by SAE International as a practical education programme for students to “create objects”. Experience gained in the programme is shown to be equivalent to three years work in the engineering industry, so is clearly a valuable pursuit. And for the first time, thanks to the initiative of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa is taking part in the programme and the latest project – to build a single-seater racing car – is well under way. NMMU is the first SA university to establish such a viable programme with the aim of competing overseas, and hopes to encourage other local universities to follow suit, even to the point of establishing a Formula Student event here in SA.
Under the leadership of Trevor Stroud, a mechanical engineering lecturer at NMMU, a team of students involving seven of the universities faculties, has designed and constructed a car that meets with the competition’s aims and regulations, which encompass design, performance, financial and sales planning. The team’s task is to assume that a manufacturer has engaged it to produce a prototype vehicle that could be put into production – 1 000 cars per year – with a target market of a non-professional weekend racer. Apart from the obvious performance and dynamic criteria, the car has to be low on cost, easy to maintain and reliable. The aim is to generate a profit on the development and building of the car rather than sales of completed vehicles.
General requirements for the car are four-wheel configuration, a minimum wheelbase of 1 525 mm, a front track not less than 75 per cent of the rear, minimum chassis ground clearance of 25,4 mm and a minimum wheel diameter of 203,2 mm. The engine must be a four-stroke with a displacement not exceeding 610 cm³ with a mechanically-actuated throttle body, and a 20 mm intake system restrictor.
The primary aim of the project is for students to gain practical knowledge in their respective fields of study while developing skills that they will use in their later careers. To this end, they have been given supplementary training to give them some insight into the economic fundamentals of the motor industry because part of the challenge is to create a complete package of a viable racing car with a sales and marketing plan to suit. The seven faculties involved in the project are Arts, Business and Economics, Education, Engineering and Information Technology, Health Sciences, Law and, finally, Science.
A jury of experts from the fields of motorsport, auto manufacture and supplier industries will determine the competition’s winner when entries from 60 countries representing 30 countries will gather at the Hockenheim circuit in Germany in August 2011 for a final showdown. Static judging encompasses the Cost Analysis (10%), Design (35%), Presentation and style (7,5%). The dynamic evaluation covers Acceleration (7,5%), Autocross (15%), Endurance (10%), Fuel Economy (5%), and Skid pan (5%).
The NMMU car is a steel space-frame design with a wheelbase of 1 760 mm and front/rear tracks of 1 220 and 1 200 mm respectively and a ‘wet’ weight with driver of 330 kg. It is powered by a four-stroke Honda CBR 600 motorcycle engine driving the rear wheels via a chain-and-sprocket through a limited-slip differential. Full Ackerman rack and pinion steering is employed along with bias-adjustable brakes, fully adjustable Sachs dampers and the car runs on 13-inch BBS alloy rims shod with Continental racing slicks. Bodywork is a mix of glass-reinforced plastic, carbon fibre and Kevlar cloth over a tubular space frame. Aluminium honeycomb crush zone material has been employed.
The car has been entered in the Knysna Hillclimb that takes place over the 22-24 October weekend. Reports on its showing will appear on carmag.co.za and the December issue of CAR magazine.
We can only stand and applaud NMMU’s pioneering participation in this prestigious programme and wish the team every success. Apart from Trevor and fellow faculty advisor Howard Theunissen, other team leaders are Carl van Rooyen (technical), Peter Johnson (business and marketing), Alison Richter (mechanical), Andre Labuschagne (electrical) and Geoff Jones (body). Sponsors include VW Racing, Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality, Continental, ZF Sachs, Profile Tooling, HiTech Automotive, Esteq Engineering, F1 Outdoor Karting, Terry Moss Racing, Autograph Racing, Honda Wing PE and SKF Bearings with funding assistance from NMMU, AIDC, NRF and DAAD. CAR will follow the team’s endeavours with keen interest.
GO NMMU!