Podium finish for sponsored student team

The Oxford Brookes Formula Student Automotive Engineering team has defended its UK champions title, finishing 3rd in the UK and 15th overall out of 69 competitors

The Oxford Brookes Formula Student Automotive Engineering team has defended its UK champions title, finishing 3rd in the UK and 15th overall out of 69 competitors from the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, Korea and Europe.

Held at the Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground, Leicestershire in July, the series of races took place over four days and the team won 2nd prise in the Honda sponsored "Most Desirable Product".

The Oxfordshire team also performed extremely well in the endurance event, being 20 seconds up on the leader until a brake calliper failure resulted in them being unable to complete the event.

The team celebrated a 13th place finish in the annual event held at the Pontiac Silverdome, USA in May this year.

This is the largest formula car event held in the USA, with 140 teams from across the world competing against each other.

Furthermore, the team is intending to compete in the Australasia Formula Student event this coming December, in the hope of beating the Australians on their home ground.

Formula Student is an international competition run by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers that challenges students from more than 70 universities from around the world to design, analyse and build a single-seater high performance racing car as part of their automotive engineering degree courses.

After rigorous testing, they take part in racing events in the UK and USA, where the concept is, essentially, to win.

3T RPD specialises in the manufacture of rapid prototypes using selective laser sintering (SLS) technology and, working closely with students from the Oxford Brookes team, has supplied parts for both the 2004 and 2005 cars.

The strength, durability and functionality of 3T's SLS components enabled them to be used in anger in true working environments, and as fully operational parts for the duration of both race seasons.

Ian Cooke, Designer of the 2005 rapid prototyped intake and throttle system said: "The benefits of this technique have allowed us to produce a very intricate inlet system, capable of giving us the engine characteristics we need".

"The components are also lightweight and offer plenty of dimensional stability".

"It has really opened the box for us in terms of design".

"We can do things with rapid prototyping that would not otherwise be possible on our tight timescale".

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