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Welsh students accelerate into record books
publication date: Jul 22, 2010
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Swansea Metropolitan University’s Formula Student Team
has again proved to be one of the best motorsport teams in the world.
Confirmed
as best in Wales, one of the top three in the UK and impressively
within top twelve in the world after the 2010 Formula Student
competition at Silverstone.
Formula Student, the biggest student
motorsport competition in the world, promotes careers and excellence in
engineering, by challenging students to design, build, develop, market
and compete as a team with a small single seater racing car. It blends
academic work and learning with the development of practical engineering
skills.
This year’s international competition saw approximately
one hundred university teams from across the world converge onto the
famous home of British motorsport, Silverstone. Each competition car was
rigorously tested in areas such as endurance, speed and business
viability.
Motorsport engineering and design student, Gareth Wyn
Jones, from Llanfyllin, Powys, said, “We are really pleased with the
result. It’s fantastic that we, as undergraduates from Swansea Met with a
relatively small budget and small team, can compete with large budget,
big teams from across the world. The dedicated team members, who put in
huge hours of work, can be proud of this respectable position.
The
event is the biggest of its kind in the world and is sponsored by big
names in the automotive field such as Shell, National Instruments and
the IET.
The speed of a Formula Student car is parallel to that
of a super car, with a 0-60 speed of 3.5 seconds, and is produced at a
cost of £15,000. The production of this car was partly achieved with
kind sponsorship from a number of national and international companies.
Faculty
Advisor, Malcolm McDonald said, “Of the frontrunners in this
competition, Swansea Met is probably the only all undergraduate team,
with many other institutions including postgraduate and research
students.”
Swansea Met Vice-Chancellor, Professor David Warner,
added, “Swansea Metropolitan University is very proud of the design,
mechanical and management skills of its motorsport students. Some of the
money used by the team is for widening participation and many of our
students have come through the foundation degree and HND routes before
undertaking their degrees.” | | |
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