Video: Huddersfield students build their own racing car

IT has got the handling of an overgrown go-kart, the acceleration of a Ferrari and the modest development budget that befits its student origins.

Eight years of undergraduate research and development at Huddersfield University have gone in to creating a Formula-style racing car which has won admirers for its sleek design and a top award for its “fit and finish”.

On a budget of just £35,000 a handful of automotive engineering students are preparing to pit their wits against universities across the planet, including college teams reputed to have landed £1m in corporate sponsorship, for the kudos of winning the Student Formula challenge.

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Yesterday the students were at their multi-million pound automotive laboratory at the heart of the Huddersfield University engineering department.

They expect to spend a few sleep-deprived days and nights in the test facility over the next few months as they fine-tune their ultra-light and super-fast creation.

Chris Stubbs, a senior automotive technician who helps oversee the students’ work, believes the group – dubbed Team Hare – has what it takes to beat the best student teams in the world.

But time is running out to prepare the car for racetrack competitions at Silverstone and at Gyor in Hungary.

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Mr Stubbs says the latest motor engineering technology is helping the students up their game.

“Since I did my degree here, over six years ago, this lab alone has had £1m of investment; it is amazing. The lads on this team know what they are doing, they have looked at the parts and made them better. “They are doing a lot of testing and doing it earlier compared to other teams.

“Everything you see on the car, apart from the engine, has been designed by the students.

These guys will be in here, or in the main workshop, at 3am – they have sleeping bags at the ready. I will be bringing pizzas and coffee. They will be doing 24-hour sessions just to get the job done. Sometimes before an event it can get quite tense. There are always little hiccups but it will give them experience to go on to be designers in big companies like Jaguar-Land Rover, Bridgestone Formula 1, McLaren, Ford, or local firms like Cummins or David Brown.”

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The students are in a race against time after ditching their previous engine, taken from a scrapped Honda CBR 600cc motorbike. It has been replaced by a lightweight 510cc engine from a KTM endurance bike. They have also replaced some metal parts with carbon fibre replacements, reducing the racing car’s overall weight from 223kg to a lightweight 170kg.

Sponsors, including Huddersfield firm David Brown, have helped with specialist manufacturing jobs and the supply of parts such as the radiator, drivetrain and suspension.

Student Darren Midgley, who gets to race the car, said the current model was the fastest they ever had and among the quickest among UK universities.

It has been fine tuned to reach 60mph in about four seconds and has a top speed of just under 100mph. However, the perfectionists among the student engineers – and that’s pretty much everyone – are still not satisfied.

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“When we competed last year we were the 7th fastest overall and had the second fastest lap time in the UK,” says Darren.

“We hope to improve on the times we have set. There are rumours that other teams have budgets of millions of pounds but we have around £35,000 to get the whole car built. It may sound a lot of money but there is a lot to factor in.”

The team do not want to see a repeat of last year when the engine failed and burst into flames during an endurance event at the Gyor racetrack in Hungary. In the post-mortem into the engine’s demise, the students decided that it had been a mistake to buy a scrap engine from an old Honda. It seems the old engine may have been starved of oil at some point in its life.