Appearance is everything, at least in the Formula Student pit lane and Full Blue Racing is confident that their Sealub Alliance FBR09 car is guaranteed to be one of the most photographed cars at the UK and Germany racing events this summer. The launch of the Sealub Alliance FBR09, is on the 12th June, here at the Engineering Department. The team would like to thank those at Lola cars for their help in the design & construction, and all those who have contributed to the new look.
Full Blue Racing represents the University of Cambridge in the Formula Student competition. This is an international design competition, which challenges engineering students from across the globe to design, build and then race a single seated autocross style car. Students are to assume that a manufacturing firm has engaged them to produce a prototype weekend autocross car for the non-professional racer. The car must therefore display high acceleration and braking performance, in addition to exceptional handling. The firm is planning to produce 1,000 cars per year at a cost below £16,000.
After almost a solid month of hard work from all the team, the Sealub Alliance FBR09 chassis is now rolling. This marks a major milestone for the team, as delays in the chassis construction threatened to affect the tight time schedule the team has set itself this year. The team worked on parallel development of all the systems on the car through extensive use of CAD, the chassis was finished on time, the suspension components arrived as planned and the team met their deadline. This marks a key point for the Full Blue Racing team, occurring over 3 months earlier than last year and in time to allow team members to focus fully on their exams.
Full Blue Racing was delighted to secure a place at both the UK and German competitions in summer 2009. Both events were hugely oversubscribed - all 78 spots at the German event were filled within 8 seconds of applications opening. The UK event was also swamped with universities wanting to attend and has an extensive ‘reserve’ list. Teams from 5 continents enter the Formula Student events, which test both engineering design skills and business skills. Full Blue Racing has passed the first test, and successfully secured the traditional number 22 for their Sealub Alliance FBR09 car at both competitions.
The UK competition takes place from 16-19th July at Silverstone circuit and is free to the public. The German competition is from 5-9th August at Hockenheim circuit. The public get access to the dynamic events, and are free to wander round the pits and inspect all the cars or ask questions.
