Auckland Takes On World’s Best Engineering Unis

Auckland takes on world’s best engineering universities in car race

A team of students from The University of Auckland will take on some of the world’s top engineering universities in a car race in Melbourne this week.

The university’s Faculty of Engineering Formula SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) team are competing in the Australasian Formula SAE where they design, construct and race a prototype race car, that has a pre-set cost limit of $50,000 Australian dollars.

The team, New Zealand’s only entry in the competition, finished sixth and picked up the best endeavour award for rookie of the year in last year’s competition. This year they want to finish on top of the podium.

“Finishing sixth was an outstanding result that no one ever expected from a first year team. This year we think we can do even better, we want to win it,” says Chief Engineer Matt Houston.

“Last year we built a reliable car without really pushing the boundaries. This year, with what we have learnt and the experience that we have gained, we have put a lot more time into the innovation and design side of the car.

“We started from scratch and built a whole new car this year using cutting edge technology, as well as developing new technology of our own to make it go faster.”

The team have replaced the steel frame and constructed a carbon fibre monocoque chassis making the car a lot lighter and stiffer.

They are also one of only a handful of motorsport teams outside of Formula 1 to have access to a rolling floor wind tunnel.

This testing has allowed the team to improve the down force of the car, making it take corners at a faster speed.

Over the four day event the team will be awarded points for a presentation of their design and cost report and their car’s performance in four dynamic events, including an acceleration test, skid pad test, autocross event, and a fuel economy and endurance test.

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