Ambitious engineering students from Manchester University are hoping to follow in the footsteps of highly paid Formula One professionals as they launch an audacious bid to create a single-seat formula car in just five months.
The team has accepted the engineering challenge as part of the Formula Student Racing scheme which challenges university students to design, build, and compete as a team with a small single-seat racing car.
The students have been working around the clock to create the MAN06 racing machine that will compete in the Formula Student Racing Championship next month. The team hopes the car will reach 0-60 mph in four seconds when it competes for the first time at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground.
Manchester Metropolitan University is also getting involved as its film students are working with the Manchester University race team to follow the build.
The MAN05 (above), designed by the 2005 team, performed admirably in last year’s competition. The Manchester University team was participating in its first ever Formula Student Tournament and finished in the top 40 in the Class 1 division. Team members hope to better those results in the 2006 competition.
Members of the Formula Student Racing Society can pride themselves on being in possibly the most challenging and adrenaline-fuelled student society of all. Formula Student Racing is a successful and very competitive International scheme; however there are numerous British universities who are also competing. The Manchester students are using the car build as an integral part of their various engineering courses.
The team itself consists of 36 male and four female students encompassing a variety of fields of engineering including civil, aerospace and electronic. To keep things to a strict budget there are also management and accounting students involved.
The car
The MAN06 car, weighing just 220Kg, has a new 600cc Yamaha R6 engine aiming to reach 0-60mph in four seconds.
- Small and lightweight chassis
- Optimised suspension for the tough figure-of-eight circuit
- Electronic fuel injection system
- Yamaha 600cc R6 engine
- Lightweight Fibreglass bodywork
- Keizer 10-inch Californian tyres
To get the project off the ground, the Manchester University race team needed to secure sponsorship and the student mobile phone service, dot mobile stepped in to offer financial and practical support to the team. Dot's Freddie Shirley said: "dot mobile is really excited to support the hard work of the Manchester university race team. We are always looking for new innovative ways to get involved with the student community and a project like this is a great way to showcase creative and practical talents of the engineers."
The Man06 car will be unveiled at the Formula Student 2006 at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground near Leicester on 5 July -- the competition runs on 5-8 July.