3 Oct 2018
Formula Student 18 Racing Car on Display at the Royal Automobile Club
Loughborough University’s Formula Student Team 2018 racing car is being exhibited at the Royal Automobile Club in London until Monday 8th October next week.
The car, built by students at Loughborough University, is used in the international Formula Student Competition, organised by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, where teams of students are required to design, build and race a vehicle at renowned circuits around the world.
This is an incredible honour, as it is the first Formula Student racing car to be exhibited at the Royal Automobile Club, (shown below right with with Vice Chancellor Professor Robert Allison, Monty Jeacock-Fewtrell (Team Leader), Dominic Sutcliffe (Team Member) and Scot Layton), but this is testament to the Team’s hard work over this year.
Each year, between 20 and 30 undergraduate students from the University work on the car, which is created in their spare time on campus over the academic year with support from academic lead Scot Layton.
They then travel across Europe to race the car as part of the competition which takes place each summer.
The Team achieved tenth position overall this year out of over eighty teams from across the world after competing in the UK, Hungary and Czech Republic. This was due in no small part to the tremendous effort put in by the Team to the design of the cars’ engine, which resulted in increased speed from previous cars built.
Added to this achievement, Team Leader Monty Jeacock-Fewtrell was awarded with the ‘Top Individual Driver’ of the year. (Photo below)
Monty stated:
"Designing, manufacturing and racing a single seat racing car alongside our degrees is extremely challenging. Having our car on display at the prestigious Royal Automobile Club is an incredible way to end a very successful season and has meant we have been able to gain a lot of additional exposure."
By exhibiting at the Royal Automobile Club, the car joins some of the most iconic vehicles in the world; from winning Formula 1 cars such as the McLaren M23 driven by James Hunt, to famous vintage cars including the Lagonda M35R.
As part of the celebrations, Professor Robert Allison, Vice-Chancellor of the University, hosted a reception on the opening night (Monday 1st October) where the car was unveiled in the Rotunda at Pall Mall.
The Vice-Chancellor welcomed guests alongside Sir Peter Bonfield CBE, who is the University’s Chair of Council.
Guests invited to speak on the night included Rob Smedley, Head of Performance Engineering at Williams Grand Prix Engineering, as well as Monty Jeacock-Fewtrell, Team Leader of the LU Motorsport Team.
On the evening itself, the Team were supported not only by Professor Allison and Scot Layton from Loughborough University, but also by the Pro Vice Chancellor for Teaching, Professor Rachel Thomson, Professor Chris Rielly, Dean of the School of Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering (AACME), Head of the Department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering, Professor Martin Passmore, as well as a range of other senior staff from the School of AACME.
The academic lead for the Team, Scot Layton, commented: “The Loughborough Formula Student Team have worked extremely hard over the last year building this car and had an incredible summer racing it on three circuits across Europe.
I’m beyond proud to see their efforts being paid off, even more so now the car is going to be exhibited at such a renowned venue. We’re really excited to see it showcased amongst so many other famous cars at the Royal Automobile Club.”
The racing car will be exhibited from 1st October – 8th October. We have it on good authority that the car is drawing a lot of attention and so if you would like to view the car, you are welcome to ask at the door of the Royal Automobile Club if you can visit the Rotunda. For more information about the Royal Automobile Club visit their website.
The School of Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering would like to offer their congratulations to the Team upon being invited to exhibit their car at such a prestigious venue and we look forward to seeing future cars from our Formula Student Team.
