November’s NewsletterLet testing commence!

On the 29th of October Cardiff Racing took CR10 out for some testing at Llandow. The car had more sensors on it than ever before with steering angle, strain gauges, linear potentiometers, a cRIO, Arduino, various cameras and phones.

The day was wet but spirits were high and despite a slow start with a fuel pump problem, we now have lots of data for the design of CR11. November will bring another test for yet more data and driver training.

Rolls Royce VisitAs an established and long running formula student team, we are very fortunate to have built up a broad alumni network filled with successful Cardiff graduates. Many of our graduates have gone on to work at the cutting edge of engineering technologies in their respective fields. Our alumni now are now applying the knowledge and skills they obtained at Cardiff at Rolls-Royce and invited our current team members to visit the aero engine plant at Derby to encourage them to seek year-in-industry placements at this historic, world leading aerospace company. Our second year students were immensely fortunate to experience the grand scale of the Rolls-Royce aero-engine operation first hand. The visit included a tour of the Rolls-Royce heritage trust exhibition where the entire history of the company and aero-engine technologies was displayed in full detail from the early ‘piston pounders’ to the modern day Trent 1000 which is now powering the Airbus A350, the most advance civilian airliner in the world.

The trip gave our students a great educational experience while also allowing them to carry out professional engineering networking with our alumni. Many of our students are now seeking careers at the forefront of the aerospace industry thanks to the supportive nature of our alumni network.

Altair Student ConferenceThe Altair Student Motorsport conference clearly demonstrated what Hyperworks is capable of, which will allow Cardiff Racing to improve weight reduction using techniques such as Topology Optimization. The Altair staff were committed to providing tutorial for Cardiff Racing members. We hope to attend next years conference to keep up to date with Hyperworksadvancements and look forward to Altair visiting to us next month!

A trip round the Gaydon motor museum also proved a fun day out for some of the team! Always learning.

Albany Primary SchoolThe 20th of October saw Cardiff Racing return to Albany Primary School as part of our engagement activities in the local community.

The team taught STEM subjects and engineering to Year 3 children with a presentation, and hands on talks about basic areas on CR03 that we showed them. A colouring competition for a set of Lego also didn’t go down badly! Ideas for how we could interact with your company are always welcome.

McLaren Automotive Lecture at Cardiff

Steve Harry then gave an

interesting talk on the use of

Altair Hyperworks program. He

focused on using the program to

optimise designs, specifically in

terms of weight saving. He

demonstrated, via screenshots,

how he has used the software

during his work at McLaren to

optimise an upright design so

that it will still be within

allowable stresses.

Look out for more lectures that

you can attend on our social

media. Nigel Rees will be talking

about Tyre choices next month.

Ciaran Reed, a colleague of alumni Steve Harry, spoke about the significance

of organisation of our Formula Student team and how we should be

allocating our resources based around the Formula Student points system.

For example he emphasized the importance of the business plan. As a former

judge he found there was always a varied quality in the reports, where some

teams were losing out on easy points. Another key point was his emphasis on

SMART targets that are based on a review of previous year’s achievements

and how the team wants to perform this year.

Learn to WinThis month the team travelled down to London to participate in the IMechE Learn to Win event. The event consists of a full day of presentations given by industry leaders and ex-Formula Student team members and also gives teams the chance to speak one to one with Judges and Scrutineers alike to have questions answered.

The team made the most of the day by not only sending members down to London but by also joining on the live webinar. With this year having seen a large number of rules changes, the team were keen to speak with several judges during the afternoon Q&A session. Plenty of knowledge was gained and the team will be sure to feed all the new information into the CR11 build.

Meanwhile construction continuesBack at Cardiff Racing HQ, construction has, as always, continued along. We now have a new shed fully complete outside and a finished front monocoque inside; the first UK team with one finished this year!

Please also help support our team in our upcoming charity fundraisers, quizzes and ‘Movember’ on our Facebook page.