It’s no secret that the Student Constructors’ Bureau at South Ural State University has been for years constructing race cars which the engineers will present as projects or display them at Russian contests in the future.
Due to the innovative idea of Maksim Nazarov, who works on blueprints for the new vehicles, this year young students constructed an absolutely new race car with which they participated in the Formula Student contest.
“Formula Student is an international contest, and we construct the car per international regulations like those in Formula-1. There is only one set of international regulations, and all of the world’s technical universities construct race cars and then race among each other. At the contest, there is not just a race, but also evaluation of costs, evaluation of the construction, and evaluation of the scientific and technical project justification. All of these criteria give points which are then added up, and then placements are created. Driving well is not enough, because it’s important to know your vehicle from a technical point of view, as well,” says Mikhail Eshiganov, team engineer.
Each year within the Formula Student contest, there are new regulations for the technical aspects of the race car. The team’s new race car was totally built per the new regulations and is distinct from the previous one: it is lighter, it faster gathers speed, and it has a high quality engine from a Japanese motorcycle. And, first and foremost, it meets all the requirements for save operation.
“This year, the contest was held July 1st-5th in Tyumen, where 4 vehicles were presented: from Yekaterinburg, Magnitogorsk, Tyumen, and our, from Chelyabinsk. World-class judges, who were able to give a professional evaluation of the car so that, in the future, it would be possible to consider all the tiny details which play a big role in constructing a car, were invited. The main goal of participating was to find out if we can pass further. At this contest we only passed technical inspection, as planned. We had no concrete goal to take first place,” said the team’s main driver, Anton Soyustov.
On the question of what the students are expecting at the Formula Student contest in the coming year, the team PR manager Aleksandr Lopuhov answered that the biggest focus will be on safety.
“The regulations for 2018 have already been released, so we will now be working by those. It calls for some insignificant changes for us, but at the same time, some elements must be moved much lower. There are also some changes which deal with some particularly dangerous elements of the car from the internal combustion engine as a gas system. The changes deal with where the engine must be located so that no gas leaked. The requirements for emergency switches also changed. So, it’s important that everything is modern and comfortable, so that in case of an accident nothing is damaged. Overall, everything in the new regulations relate to safety, and the rest of it – to creativity.”
The team is planning to participate in competitions with more than the gas vehicle. The students want to create an engine system that can operate without a single drop of gas – an electric vehicle, which they can also present at international and Russian contests.
“We are planning on working on an electric vehicle, building it from scratch, and then participating in the contest Formula Student Electric. This will be a totally electric vehicle with certain solutions that even international teams do not have. So, right now, we are gathering people who will help us work not only on the gas vehicle, but on the electric one, as well,” shared the team’s head engineer, Grigoriy Salimonenko.
As a reminder, the SUSU engineering team Chelyabinsk Racing Team is seeking students in various fields: engineers, designers, economists, and PR managers. A meeting will be held October 2nd in room 215 of the heat engineering building.
You can find out more in the VKontakte group: https://vk.com/chelracingteam