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FORMULA STUDENT GERMANY EVENT REPORT

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OXFORD BROOKES RACING – FSUK 2014 NEWSLETTER

OBR.BROOKES.AC.UK

Having already breezed through the

technical inspections at the FSUK event

one would imagine that getting through

scrutineering at the following competitions

would be easy, however this is not always

the case, and the FSG competition has

become reknowned for it’s reputation for

taking the rules to the absolute extremes.

In other words nothing gets past them!

Unfortunately we once again found this to

be the case, with the FSG scrutineers

making sure that the car was absolutely to

the letter ready to race. This meant even

providing proof of the bolt specifications!

However fortunately we were able to bag

7th place on the Scrutineering order before

the competition, which meant that we had

plenty of time to make the required

adjustments, and complete the

scrutineering in time for the Static and

Dynamic events to begin.

With tech eventually passed it was straight

on to fuel and the Tilt test. Normally this is

easy, and as usual we were able to pass it

first time. The noise test then followed,

normally this is a nail-biter with the Single

cylinder engines, however again we were

pleased to see the newly modified KTM

570cc engine running at under 110db, and

passing the noise test in our first attempt.

Having watched the dynamic events I

believe we were one of the quietest single-

cylinder engined cars, with the TU Graz,

GFR and Akron single-cylinder engines

competing for loudest car.

Next we had the brake test, which once

more we were able to pass first time,

meaning that we could relax with a full set

of stickers, and prepare the car for the

coming day’s events.

Unusually at FSG the artificially wet skid-

pad is run on Friday alongside the statics,

so Carly needed to be set up in race-trim,

as well as a good polish and some beauty-

sleep time that she looked her best for the

design and cost events the next day.

The most challenging inspection takes place in FSG, where no stone is left unturned

SCRUTINEERING

OXFORD BROOKES RACING – FSUK 2014 NEWSLETTER

OBR.BROOKES.AC.UK

We began the statics with an early start for

the cost presentation team, leading us into

the day’s events at 10:00am. The small

team of Sam Unsworth, Mikey Twigge, Chris

Shawe and Megan Berridge ran through

each and every component on the car with

the judges, successfully defending their

proposed methods for manufacturing 1000

cars for the Amateur Weekend Motorsport

Market at the best possible price.

Once again the cost team did a great job,

and we improved our position from 27th last

year up to 12th, scoring 78.5 points in the

process.

Next it was time for the design team to

show their skills, and try to repeat their

performance from FSUK. With the design

judging team deliberately tasked with

putting the team members out of their

comfort zone, we did a great job. Both

powertrain, Aerodynamics and Chassis

received excellent feedback, while the

suspension guys had to deal with two chief

judges.

Although the feedback was good the judges

asked about a lot of carryover components

and so developed an image of the car as if

it was just a carryover from last year.

However we fought our corner and

explained how much has changed and

been redesigned, and overall narrowly

missed out on a design finals slot, finishing

design in 9th place, with the top 8 going

through to the finals.

Finally the business presentation took

place, with George heading up to the top of

the BW Tower to make his business pitch.

After some inspired last-minute

encouragement & tweaks with the team in

the hotel room beforehand, George

delivered an excellent pitch, and was told

by the judge ‘I will remember you!’. Overall

his presentation scored us another 60

points, resulting in 14th place in Business.

After great results in FSUK the team were hoping for continued success

STATIC EVENTS

OXFORD BROOKES RACING – FSUK 2014 NEWSLETTER

OBR.BROOKES.AC.UK

With the wet-pad event running alongside

the design and cost events we were forced

to run later than we would have liked, with

the pad opening while we were still

completing our statics. However when we

did hit the track Will set our fastest time

leaving us in 21st place, a little behind

where we were hoping after a good result at

FSUK.

In Acceleration however Carly launched like

a dream, with 2 super-quick runs from

Robin to start us off, Will went even faster

with an eventual best time of 4.341s,

leaving us 2nd placed single-cylinder, less

than 0.1 behind eventual winners GFR, and

in 12th place overall.

Next came the Autocross event, which

started just as rain began to fall over the

Hockenheim circuit.

We decided to hang on and allow the

weather to settle, since the course would

be open for the whole afternoon, and

hopefully the conditions would improve

throughout the day.

Eventually the sun came out, and the circuit

quickly dried up. While this was happening

we were waiting at the front of the line,

ready to head to the hot-area as late as

possible to allow as much temperature to

come back into the circuit as possible.

Ben headed out first on his laps, avoided

the cones and looked very quick indeed, as

he crossed the line he put us in the

provisional pole position too! But there

were plenty more cars to run yet.

After about 15 minutes George hit the track

to capitalise on the sunny weather, hoping

for rain to catch out the other teams later

on. He improved our time again, this time

running in provisional 2nd place behind

Chalmers.

As the session drew on we slowly dropped

down the order, ending up 15th overall and

beating world #1 Rennteam Stuttgart.

Changeable weather made strategy a key concern during the Auto-X session

DYNAMIC EVENTS

OXFORD BROOKES RACING – FSUK 2014 NEWSLETTER

OBR.BROOKES.AC.UK

At this point we were looking good for our

target of an overall top 10 performance,

however the Endurance event always

leaves the competition wide open, with the

cruel 22km distance causing many teams

to lose out on their share of the 350 points

available.

This year was particularly harsh on the top

teams, with TU Graz, KA Racing, HAWKS,

Monash and more retiring on the last lap of

the endurance.

For us however the Endurance event never

really got started, with Ben taking to the

circuit and setting a respectable first lap

time, as he came around to complete the

2nd the solderless nipple on the end of the

throttle cable came loose and fell from the

car. This left the throttle pedal going

straight to the floor, with no connection

between it and the throttle actuator on the

engine intake.

Ben rolled off to the side of the circuit and

immediately jumped out of the car, sadly in

the knowledge that there would be nothing

he could do to keep the car going and

complete the rest of the endurance

distance.

So after just 2 laps we were out, and with

that we were unable to gain any points for

either the endurance or efficiency events,

leaving us with just 431 points, and down

in a disappointing 32nd place overall.

Even more disappointing is that if we

factored in a representative endurance and

efficiency score we could have been figting

for a podium position overall, but then

again so could the rest of the teams that

suffered the same fate!

Overall we were satisfied with the

performance car & team at the

competition. A significant improvement on

2013, & some impressive results again in

Acceleration, Cost & Design to be proud of.

With good results under our belt by Sunday, a top 10 finish rested on the endurance

ENDURANCE

OXFORD BROOKES RACING – FSUK 2014 NEWSLETTER

OBR.BROOKES.AC.UK

We then look forward to the FSCz

competition, starting just 3 days later in the

Czech Republic. We go to the competition

hoping for a top 3 result, and to improve on

the 5th position overall that we gained in

2013 despite not completing the

endurance event. Keep an eye on your

inbox for the next edition of the OBR

Newsletter, with a complete competition

report so that you can see how we got on.

Finally, once again thank you to all of our

sponsors, staff, Alumni & supporters who

helped us along the way!

Watch highlights from the FSG event here! Click the image below:

Oxford Brookes Racing – Formula Student Germany 2014

OXFORD BROOKES RACING – FSUK 2014 NEWSLETTER

OBR.BROOKES.AC.UK

FSG - GALLERY

FINAL BUILD

Mike pushing hard on the wet skid-pad

Cost real-case judging in progress

Robin finishes an Accel run

The race team were kept busy!

Group photo in progress George running AutoX in the dry

OXFORD BROOKES RACING – FSUK 2014 NEWSLETTER

OBR.BROOKES.AC.UK

GOLD

SILVER

BRONZE

OXFORD BROOKES RACING – FSUK 2014 NEWSLETTER

OBR.BROOKES.AC.UK

OXFORD BROOKES RACING

OXFORD BROOKES UNIVERSITY

WHEATLEY CAMPUS

WHEATLEY

OXFORD

OX33 1HX