Video Blog - December 2011

It's here, and just in time for Christmas... our first video blog!

Santander Branch Opening

Cardiff Racing were proud to be part of the opening of the brand new Santander branch in the Student's Union last Friday morning. We took two of our cars - CR07 and CR03b and set them up at the foot of the steps ready for the arrival of Ana Botín the CEO of Santander UK accompanied by Dr David Grant the University Vice-Chancellor and many others. The day was also significant as it marked the renewal of a three-year deal with Cardiff University to provide funding for many important projects and developments, including ourselves. We were very happy to be part of this occasion and would like to thank Santander for their continued support to our team and Cardiff University. Read the full story on the university's news page here, some photos have also been added to Flickr, expect to see more photos soon.

2010/11 Season Review

The 2010/11 Formula Student again saw a rollercoaster ride for the team members of Cardiff Racing. Having gone through the mire in recent seasons, hopes were high as the understanding of the temperamental Aprilia SXV 550 improved. This optimism was shown in the investment in two brand new engines that were to be charged with powering CR07 and in house dynamometer work was swiftly underway to ensure its performance and reliability. Elsewhere the focus was on weight saving, taking inspiration from the Colin Chapman ideology that while “adding power makes you faster on the straights… subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere.” This was achieved by simplifying designs, avoiding over engineering, whilst keep safety at the forefront.

Click here for more!

Update from Hockenheim

Just an update from the Cardiff Racing team here at the Hockenheimring in Germany. Things so far have been going really well - we passed scutineering without too much trouble, just a few things were brought up on Wednesday that we fixed overnight and were quickly passed through on Thursday. The tilt, brake and noise tests were all passed on the first time for each which was really good news for us. The wet skidpan caused us some problems and so we didn't manage to record amazing times but all four runs were put in with no issues. The acceleration runs went ok and we later developed a slight overheating issue due to a blown fuse on the radiator fan but we were quickly back up and running and ready to get our times in for the sprint event. We managed to get all of our runs in early and in quick succesion which proved to be a good choice as later on in the day there was very heavy rain and various showers after that, the times were fairly competitive and we'll update again to let you all know how we scored when we get back. Wish us luck for the endurance tomorrow!

Silverstone Success

Full Report: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=YB3K9C2X

Cardiff Racing returns from Silverstone following one of their most successful campaigns yet. Despite a number of problems and the adverse weather that was thrown at the team, the car completed every event for the first time in 5 years and came 19th out of 79 global teams and 5th in the United Kingdom.

Highlights from the event include:
• Qualifying as one of the top 10 fastest cars in the only truly dry session.
• Completion of every dynamic event; one of only 23 teams to do so.
• A cost special task presentation which achieved 29/30 points and helped contribute to a top 10 ranked cost presentation and a top 20 cost score.
• Nomination for the Airbus teamwork and Jaguar-Land Rover manufacturing awards.
• 6th best fuel economy during completion of the endurance.

The team are now preparing for Formula Student Germany and hoping to build upon the Silverstone success both at this event and in future years.

For further information on Cardiff Racing’s event please read the full report (link above) and for more information on the team, please don’t hesitate to contact the team via the website or directly in the paddock.

Regards

Cardiff Racing

Nearly there...

Only a few hours till we leave for Silverstone now and lots of things being finished off and tidyed up today along with lots of packing.

Had limited testing last few weeks but when we have they have generally been good sessions with the car showing promise in many events and reliability.

Launch is tomorrow at 11am in central car park of engineering building so pop down if people can and then we're off to Silverstone for what should hopefully be one of Cardiff Racing's best finishes.

Thanks to everyone who helped get this year's car to where it is today; hopefully we can reward some of that effort.

PS Check out flikr soon after the event for lots of photos im sure.

First Test

Yesterday CR07 ran for the first time, inside the Millennium Stadium of all places, thanks to some good communication between Dewi Griffiths and the stadium personal, who were brilliant throughout; thanks again for the opportunity if they are reading this.

As for the car, Lee was the first to drive as usual and felt as if the car was one of the best he'd driven; and all of that was on one wheel drive thanks to some problems with the drive-shafts.

However, got all that fixed today and hopefully another good day of testing tomorrow with a few drivers for the events getting in the car.

Less than 2 weeks to go before Silverstone....

CR07 Coming to Life

Exams are all done, DMT finished and now everyone can focus on making this year's car the best ever.

Car has been vinyl wrapped now and lots of jobs are getting done by many different people. Hopefully, we can have it all together minus wiring, sidepods and nosecone by end of this week, start of next, with maybe a first car park run/test middle/end that week.

Also, cost report, design spec, design report and business plan were submitted last night/early this morning for FSG and thanks to everyone who helped with cost especially. Still have/need some people working on it for FSE deadline this week.

Apart from that, watch this space for more news and if you plan on coming to the event(s) with us, get down the paddock and get stuck in

Dewi Driving CR06

A video from the testing last week - Dewi driving CR06 at Llandow with a bit of sideways action. All the onboard videos are now up on our YouTube page.

...on to CR07

Went for the final test of CR06 today which turned out to be a very good day with 7 people driving the car, 5 of them for the first time, and data collected for the EDE team.

However, a successful day means that's the end of CR06 and tomorrow we'll start stripping it down, for bits to be measured up and placed in the new car, so volunteers welcome.

Only 112 days until Silverstone and a car to build...starts to get busy now

Testing?

Dyno engine is now in car with just some set up jobs and things for testing to be done before hopefully a start up monday or tuesday and a test wednesday

Also started to put new engine onto dyno so hopefully get that running soon

Little Update

Dyno tests were completed today and the engine taken off and moved over to the paddock. A few little jobs/checks done with it then ready for us to put it into car over next few days and get it started.

All goes well we'll have it running in car park and out testing for next Wednesday.


Dewi has also booked karting for next Wednesday so let him know if ur interested; not many places left.

Gav

Chassis Progress

Bit of a delay with this one, since the pictures are from last week, but here are some
pictures of the ongoing chassis build of CR07, you can see some pictures of the plans
to the right of this on the Flickr feed =)

Register for Germany

http://www.formulastudent.de/

Just a quick dew instructions as to how you go about registering yourself onto the team for FSG.

1 - Go on the above link and select "login" (Located just under the header)
2 - Select "Not a member yet? click here to register."
3 - Go through that process. You can leave bits out and come back later
4 - Once completed, click on "teams" on the left hand side of the home page.
5 - At the bottom of that section, just under the map, click "change your account type to Team Member."
6 - Find Cardiff University and complete the process for that
7 - One of team captains will accept you onto the team in due course.

An update on things

First of all, I hope all of the exams went well for everyone and that you've all made it through with your sanity intact! So a couple of updates on the Formula Student front:

We now have confirmed places at both Formula Student UK (at Silverstone) and Formula Student Germany, which takes place in Hockenheim. We're car number 31 for both events, which just happens to be the reversal of the number 13 we had last year, let's just hope that means we're going to have a reversal of fortunes too! Take a look here for all things FS Germany:

http://www.formulastudent.de/

Also, i've been doing quite a bit of work on the website lately. You might have noticed the pictures that have appeared to the right of the blog - this is a direct live feed from Flickr, so whenever we post photos up, you'll get to see them right away. Secondly, i've just updated the cars page, now all of the cars have pictures and most have a summary so make sure you take a look at some Cardiff Racing history. The other main update is the Events page is now finished - the beauty of this is that it takes events directly from our Google Calendars page and puts them on there, nice and handy, that's where all the deadlines will be posted in due time!

Hope you're all well,
Chris

Radio Interview

Formula Student team featured on BBC Radio Wales (11/1/2011)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/radiowales/sites/sciencecafe/updates/20110111.shtml