February2015

Cardiff racing

February Another busy month at Cardiff Racing. Key developments have

been in electrical systems manufacture and anti roll bar design

as well as production of some of the aerodynamics components

— despite some set backs…

The new Cardiff Racing simulator was taken on its first school

trip this month as the team attended the Whitchurch high

school GCSE options day.

Chassis A lot of manufacturing has taken place this month for the chassis

team. The space frame tubes were laser cut then welded together.

Laser cutting allowed for much greater production efficiency of the

space frame halving the total manufacturing time.

Each day more inserts are being installed on the car body. The

team has also been liaising with the aerodynamics team in aid of

the completion of the impact attenuator data report which was

submitted to the Formula Student authorities this month.

Tests were done for the mounting of the front roll hoop on the chas-

sis (Pictured below). The materials and structures used within the

car design must be proved sufficiently strong and stiff to be allowed

to enter the competition’s dynamic events.

Powertrain This month has seen good progress made on the electrical systems

of the car. The front and rear looms have been started and the elec-

trical box is now finished. The looms are made from spec 55 wire

and the main trunks are twisted to improve flexibility and reduce

the looms cross section. The branches of these main looms will be

created in the coming weeks.

The fuel and oil tanks are now in the process of being mounted to

the monocoque as the spaceframe has now been completed. This

has allowed the team to start designing the hose routings for the oil

and water system. The back plate and differential assembly have al-

so been mounted to the spaceframe. The next step is to drill the

suspension hard points in the back plate.

Aerodynamics

Work has begun manufacturing the aerodynamic package for the

car. Thanks to Cross Waterjet Services we now have our swan neck

mounts and wing internals ready to be bonded in.

The team was hard at work laying up carbon fibre to make the end-

plates for the wings when disaster struck. As the team released

pressure from the part the backing glass shattered leaving it stuck

with only one way to remove it… chisel and hammer. The team

watched on anxiously hoping no damage would be done to the part.

Thankfully it came out unscathed, new manufacturing techniques

makes for new lessons learnt and here at Cardiff Racing we never

stop learning. Even with the damaged backing plate the team man-

aged to achieve a superior finish on the part.

Suspension

In the past month the Suspension and Unsprung Mass team have

been working relentlessly to complete the final pieces of their design

puzzle. The rear Anti roll bar (ARB) system has now been designed,

seeing much tidier packaging than last year by running the ARB be-

low the engine within the space frame, this has also seen the rear

rockers packaged and integrated in to the complete suspension sys-

tem. Looking forward to CR13, work has already begun to eliminate

the heavy steel liners currently in use in the rear hubs, investiga-

tions into the suitability of anodized tripod pockets will be complet-

ed in the next couple of months. In addition to this, thorough re-

search is being carried out on the Fox RC dampers in order to test,

tune and maximise their performance. In terms of manufacturing

CR12, the steering rack has now been installed to the chassis

(Pictured below) and all are looking forward to the cars suspension

arm manufacture and un-sprung assemblies.

What better way to celebrate the end of exams than to take the new

Cardiff Racing simulator out for a spin. Fitted around a carbon fi-

bre monocoque, the simulator debuted at the Whitchurch high

school GCSE options open day event within the technology work-

shop. Plenty of prospective students and parents took the oppor-

tunity to talk to many of our volunteers about engineering as career

and the increasing popularity of STEM subjects (Science; Engineer-

ing; Technology; Maths) as a further education choice. Of course

pupils had a go at trying to get their best laps around the track to

beat our Cardiff Racing Stigs.

Engagement