Welsh students accelerate into record books

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.”