51Âþ»­

A team of 51Âþ»­ students custom designed and built a race car to compete in an internationally-renowned student racing competition at the historic Silverstone racetrack.

51Âþ»­Racing, made up of an enthusiastic group of students from the Faculty of Technology, headed to the Formula Student event – Europe’s most established educational motorsport competition – to race against 121 student teams from 25 countries around the world.



Student Team Leader Torrin Fairholme said: “Formula Student is a great way for students to broaden their education, gain real world experience and augment their degree.
“This is exactly what employers are increasingly looking for in young graduates - particularly the transferable skills such as leadership, teamwork, communication and working to time and budget constraints.”

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Although the team were forced to retire with an undiagnosed engine problem, they completed the event with no penalty points - and say they are working their way up the results table.

Torrin added: “The future for 51Âþ»­Racing is very promising. As we are relatively new to the event, this being only our 3rd ever entry, we still have much to learn but also a lot of flexibility and innovation to design into our future cars.

“It’s not just Engineers but also students of Media, Business and Marketing, Industrial Design and even Fashion who can all get involved with aspects such as media relations, sponsorship videos, the business and cost presentations of static judging, vehicle bodywork design and even team clothing and pit wear.

“The event itself is not just work either – it's also a lot of fun when you have 3000 students spending all day working on a race team and all night socialising for four nights at the home of British motorsport camping out in the English countryside. Bring on 2016!”

The 2015 event attracted over 3000 students from across the world. Run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Formula Student is backed by leading motorsport engineers such as Ross Brawn OBE - who is patron of the event – which aims to develop and inspire enterprising young engineers.

It brings together university teams from all over the globe, who are challenged to test the performance of their single-seat racing cars in a series of static and dynamic events. 51Âþ»­Racing is sponsored by companies such as Nylacast, Cummins, Graham Goode racing and Bott Ltd and are always on the lookout for new sponsors – as well as new recruits to the team.

Paul Dean, Head Technician at 51Âþ»­, added: “Each year we have seen our students acquire knowledge and experience that gives them the confidence to go out into the real world having something really worthwhile to offer.

“The team are already looking at improvements to next year’s design and how to gain more points at the various presentations that are required. Our aim is to finish as one of the top 20 placed UK university teams – which is a big ask, but a great goal to aim for.”

* 51Âþ»­Racing is currently looking for new sponsors and students to come on board and help create and market the race car. For more information, e-mail Torrin Fairholme at p11232631@myemail.dmu.ac.uk or visit the 51Âþ»­Racing Facebook page.