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Students reach top gear
South Belfast News 9th of July 2008
A group of Queen’s University students are on track to drive their way to success in a major international racing competition.
The Queen’s Formula Racing team has designed and built a single-seat racer from scratch and will race the car this weekend at Silverstone, the current home of the British Formula 1 Grand Prix, as part of ‘Formula Student’.
The competition, which is part of a final-year project by the students, will see the teams take charge of every process involved in the car, from its manufacture to its marketing as a business venture.
They will pit their completed car against others constructed by university teams from around Europe.
Team member Carla McManus, a third year Mechanical Engineering student at the university, said the Queen’s group were confident of having more success than previous entrants from the university.
“We have been told by our lecturers that the car is looking the best it ever has compared to previous efforts. We are a lot more prepared than other teams have been.
“This time last year for example, the team was just putting the car together at this stage, whereas we have been able to get more testing done, which is obviously important.”
The testing involved the team taking the car to Nutt’s Corner track last week in order to run a series of checks.
“We stripped the whole car down, as we didn’t want to paint it before we did the testing.
“We tested different set-ups and it went very well. One of the main aspects of the competition is an endurance race, so we needed to see how long our engine would last.
“Last year’s team had a problem with the engine, as it couldn’t handle the required number of laps, but we think we’ve fixed the problem now.”
According to Carla, part of the appeal of the competition was to put theories from the classroom into action.
“It is a lot more interesting than just sitting learning things out of a book. Actual engineering, rather than just taking an exam, helps you understand things a lot better.”
She added that outside of the academic requirement of the competition, the team enjoyed everything involved in the building and racing of the car.
“It is quite a competitive thing to be involved in, but we all like that aspect of it.
“The only downside is that it takes up a lot of your free time, especially with graduations happening.
“Most people are putting in full days here, so although a lot of students have finished university, we are still in working on the car all the time.”
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