FORMULA STUDENT
One of the few teams to fully exploit the potential benefits of aerodynamics, GFR turned up with an elaborate front and rear wing set up
example, whose team leader argued that ‘we think at our speed aerodynamics are useless, so we didn’t do any studies into downforce generation.’ Instead, the team chose to focus on electronics: ‘We have a complete self-made electronic control unit, which we programmed by ourselves. It’s been hard work but the results are very interesting because we can change everything.’ With so many varied methods,
Convinced by CFD and lap time simulation work of its benefits, the GFR entry also had this downforce-generating underbody
attitudes and design philosophies on show, there seems to be no one technique to achieving the fastest car. However, experience is essential, and one man who has plenty is Formula Student
CAR FOCUS - CTU CARTECH FS.03
CTU CarTech from the Czech Technical University
in Prague entered the competition for the third year in 2011, running its brand new car, FS.03.
‘On the previous car we had some problems with understeer, oversteer and suspension geometry, so this year we aimed to have a better suspension. We also wanted stiff parts, so we re-designed the uprights. On the rear suspension we lowered the weight with the integration of the rear driveshafts into the wheel hubs, which are made from chromium steel and have about 50 Rockwell hardness. We also bought better dampers, which weigh 700g including springs. This is a big difference
to our previous car, where the dampers weighed about 1.7kg. So by changing just one part, we saved 4kg.’ The car’s interesting design was based around things found in nature and developed using Autodesk software, while the engine is a 2009 Yamaha YZF-R6, to which the team added a new air box, cooling system and exhaust. ‘From our experience in Germany, where the track was quite technical, we tried to have maximum torque and power in lower engine revolutions, about 9,000 or 10,000rpm. Therefore, we have longer pipes on the air box and exhaust, which gives us better acceleration through corners.’ The car body weighs about 8kg and is made from carbon fibre.
patron, Ross Brawn. He believes that to make a
successful Formula Student car ‘you need to understand the regulations thoroughly. You need to know what it is you’re trying to achieve, and then understand the resources you have available in terms of setting the engineering tasks. It’s no good designing a fantastically complex engineering solution if you don’t have the resources… in terms of performance, getting weight down is one of the strongest factors you can apply to the performance of the vehicle, but obviously doing that without compromise is the key.
Most of the development work in the CTU FS.03 went into improving the suspension, using Autodesk software to draw up the new designs
At the start of the event, the team admitted it was nervous about the forecasted wet weather: ‘We tested only one week and raced about 170km in dry conditions, so the wet
will be a little tricky.’ A little tricky it may have been, but the hard work paid off and the team achieved an incredible top 10 finish, which was a vast improvement on last year’s 35th.
September 2011 •
www.racecar-engineering.com 61
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