Car students have designs on success
STUDENTS in Swansea have helped shape a new aerodynamic design for race cars.
The body was designed by students at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David’ sswansea campus, in collaboration with sports racing car manufacturers MCR Race Cars Ltd and put through its paces at Donington Park racing circuit in the East Midlands.
It was the result of a partnership between the university, MCR Race Cars, and motor racing aerodynamicist John Iley, who was formerly the technical director for the Caterham F1 team.
He now heads Iley Design Ltd and is professor of practice at UWTSD.
As part of the motorsport engineering course at UWTSD, students conducted wind tunnel and track testing before developing a computational model of the original sports 2000 MCR bodywork package so that its performance could be assessed.
Students were able to identify areas for improvement and developed a new concept for a bodywork package, which was
then manufactured by the project partners.
The resulting design is visually very different from the original package and the project will continue to develop the bodywork and chassis platform over the next year to extract and optimise its performance on circuit.
UWTSD motorsport engineering student John Hughes said: “Seeing the car in the flesh for the first
time was an amazing feeling after all the hours of design work we put in.
“I was still nervous, though, as moving from a virtual model to a physical creation may display inaccuracies within the data we had collected over the past years, but thankfully the car performed faultlessly, and the performance feedback was incredibly promising.
“I feel humbled and proud to be part of such an achievement and so thankful that I got to collaborate with some amazing engineers during the journey of this project.”
Tim Tudor, senior lecturer at UWTSD and project lead, said: “It’s absolutely fantastic to see the bodywork package designed by our very own students at UWTSD hit the track for the first time.
“It’s the culmination of the students’ hard work and analysis which has been supported by our partners at MCR Race Cars and Iley Design.
“The next phase of the students’ work to assess their design and extract its full performance potential can now begin.”
Clive Hayes of MCR Race Cars was also happy to see the development debut. He said: “For the first time out for a new set of bodywork, the test went exceptionally well with no issues encountered. We are really pleased with the performance of the prototype and look forward to developing it further.”
John Iley supported the project from its conception and was present at the debut.
He said: “It has become a personal mission for me to see this ambitious UWTSD multi-student project reach fruition.
“Extensive development work from first concepts, iterated through process and tools to a final real solution, competing on track in such a highlevel competitive series provides a fine testimony for both them and the university.
“I look forward to being trackside during the races ahead to help the UWTSD team develop and realise its full potential.”