As we take a short break before Formula Student Germany, it’s definitely worth for a mid-season review of RTBR’s results thus far. Finishing 16th in Silverstone after a strong showing of 5th in California is certainly disappointing, but is there any cause for concern going into Germany? Let’s do a review of all RTBR results in the individual events.

At a glance, it can be seen that RTBR’s outing at Silverstone was greatly hampered by the car not finishing in Endurance. Over 40% of the points are awarded for finishing Endurance – RTBR only mustered 16 of the available 400 – one for each of the laps completed.

One the board, RTBR performed better in almost every aspect of the competition up until Endurance. Significant improvements were shown in the dynamic Skid Pad and Sprint events – both with top 3 placings. Acceleration results suffered slightly due to the wet track conditions during Formula Student.

RTBR went into Endurance at Formula Student with 487/600 points (lying in 3rd – only 12 points behind the leaders of the day) – this is also 130 more than RTBR gathered during the California event. Never has the team gone into Endurance in such a strong position – and in fact – no other UK team has been able to keep up with the leading pack going into the Endurance event on Sunday.

Looking at the Static-Dynamic split of the team’s result, it is evident that RTBR is very strong in the Static Events – finishing 3rd and 4th at Formula Student and Formula SAE California respectively. Going into Formula Student Germany, RTBR intends to keep this form up and together with a strong Dynamic events finish – hopes to break into the top 3 Overall standings.

To date, RTBR11 has managed to win more trophies than any other predecessor teams. adding another 3 from Silverstone to the 2 won in California. Combined with RTBR12 who won the Class 2 Formula Student event, RTBR has 8 trophies to its name in the 2011 Season!

Achievements of 2011:

Formula SAE California: SAE Spirit of Excellence Award – 5th place Overall, Honda R&D Americas Engineering Design Award - 3rd place Design

Formula Student Class 1 (RTBR11): IMechE Best Class 1 Cost Analysis Award – 1st place Cost , IMechE Class 1 Design Runners-up Award – 2nd place Design, Craig Dawson Most Valuable Team Member Award – Steven Clark

Formula Student Class 2 (RTBR12): Formula Student Class 2 Overall Winner, IMechE Class 2&2A Design Event Winner, IMechE Best Business Presentation in Class 2 & 2A

Relentless Team Bath Racing would like to thank all our sponsors and supporters for all their support throughout the year. Such an achievement from the team would not have been possible without their continued support over the last 18 months. Special thanks also go out to our partners Relentless and Castrol for providing us with the support to enable us to transform into a top tier Formula Student team.

During the Formula Student 2011 event, team members from Relentless Team Bath Racing were interviewed by BBC Radio.

BBC Radio Somerset: Matt Faulkner speaks to Kenny Tan and Tom Yates <Listen>

BBC Radio Northamptonshire: Kenny Tan talks about RTBR’s ambition going into Formula Student <Listen>

Few days on from Formula Student 2011, Relentless Team Bath Racing is still recovering from a heartbreaking engine failure that crushed any and all hopes of the team’s best ever finish at Silverstone. Going into the Endurance event, RTBR was within striking distance of the coveted prize – the Class 1 Winner’s trophy that has eluded UK teams for the 14 years that the competition has been running.

Sunday started with RTBR11 only 12 points behind the overall leaders Team GFR (Oregon State University) and 11 behind Rennteam Stuttgart (University of Stuttgart). A decent finish in Endurance and with that – the Fuel Economy would have been enough to secure a podium finish – not forgetting that an outright win was still on the cards.

RTBR11 was 3rd fastest in Sprint – registering a time of 59.34s

The Endurance run order was decided on Saturday, with the slowest cars within 145% of the fastest Sprint time running first. RTBR recorded the 3rd fastest sprint time and we were due to run on the same bit of track as our main rivals – Team GFR who won the Sprint event. Endurance was plagued by short spells of showers throughout the morning causing anxiety and tension around the paddock.

On track before RTBR – Rennteam Stuttgart

The 12 fastest cars were due on track after the lunchbreak at 1.30pm. The first 6, which included Rennteam Stuttgart and UHRacing (University of Hertfordshire), was sent into a sunny dry track. Rennteam Stuttgart pounced on this and set the track ablaze with consistently good lap times – eventually lapping the fastest lap of the day of ~57 seconds – for a total Endurance time of 26m04s, 3 minutes faster than UHRacing’s time.

Upon the completion of the first 6 Endurance shootout, the clouds crept in and the heavens opened. The top 6 teams: Team GFR (Oregon State), TUFast (Munich), TUDelft (Delft), RTBR (Bath), TUGraz (Graz) and Chalmers University of Technology were resigned to running in the wet. This effectively killed of any hopes of RTBR winning the competition. However, be it dry or wet; the top 6 teams were not fazed by the rain and decided to still give it their all to put on a good show for the crowd that braved the rain to watch Formula Student.

Taking on the wet track

Fred (Fast Freddie) Martin-Dye set off in the RTBR11 on wet tyres and wrestled her around the track to the tune of 68 second laps – which was comfortably faster than any other car on track. This was until Team GFR appeared on track with cut slicks (intermediates). Even in the wet, Team GFR managed to achieve a 61 second lap time – one can only imagine what the lap times could’ve been had it not been for the rain.

Driver change and restart successful!

After pumping in decent laps around a wet track, RTBR11 was in to the pits for the Driver Change. This saw Jason Linden-Tahincioglu jump into the hot seat and bring RTBR11 home. The engine restart happened smoothly and Jason was on his way again. Drama ensued 3 laps into Jason’s run when wireless telemetry showed Engine Oil Temperatures soar past 140 deg C. Short-shifting and easing off the throttle did little to stop the climbing temperatures. RTBR11 limped around the track with steam billowing from the rear of the engine for a further 2 laps before Jason pulled her over to retire. RTBR11 only completed 16 of the 22 required laps – but the finish line has never seemed so close, yet so agonizingly out of reach.

Pictures say a thousand words

Elsewhere in the pits, Team GFR who came into the pits several laps after RTBR had trouble restarting the car. After a prolonged period of the driver attempting to restart the engine, Team GFR resorted to declaring a DNF due to a blown starter motor. News of both RTBR and Team GFR registering DNFs simultaneously on different sides of the track spread quickly. Two of the three leading teams have now broken down – handing the Formula Student 2011 Class 1 crown to Rennteam Stuttgart.

What went wrong?

When the points were added up, RTBR was placed 16th out of 80 teams; 4 points behind Team GFR in 15th – who also broke down in Endurance. Though this was RTBR’s worst finish in 6 years (Bath finished 18th in 2005), this has also been RTBR’s best attempt at winning Formula Student. RTBR came to Silverstone with big ambition to win Formula Student and came within a whisker of doing so.

Over the 4 days of competition, it was evident that RTBR has become one of the teams to beat in the paddock; alongside the big guns of Team GFR, Rennteam Stuttgart, TUFast and the likes. The team suffered its biggest heartbreak to date in failing to complete Endurance; however RTBR will have no time to drown their sorrows. Formula Student Germany is happening in a little over 2 weeks and RTBR will have to regroup fast before going out to Hockenheim.

Continue on following us here, on Facebook (facebook.com/TeamBathRacing) and on Twitter (twitter.com/TeamBathRacing) for all the latest news and updates. Events analysis of RTBR at California and Silverstone will also be posted alongside media features & interviews of RTBR members from BBC Radio.

Since coming back from California, the team has not sat around doing nothing. RTBR11 has had a few upgrades over the last couple of weeks. Plenty of testing has also been done to optimise the setup of the car in the various events.

As this post is published, the car is still doing laps around Colerne – in search of the ideal setup. Away from the developments on the car, we’ve also had time to regroup and work on all our presentations – including our business presentation. So come Thursday and Friday – we’ll be able to showcase a new, slick running Relentless Team Bath Racing presentation team; complete with new visual aids!

Formula Student is happening between 14-17 July 2011. Spectator days are on 15-17 July – tickets can be bought here.

RTBR will be tweeting live from Silverstone and do follow our tweets through @TeamBathRacing or on our dedicated Live Updates page.

Our latest newsletter – Racing Notes Volume 1 is now out.

Read it now!

High Quality
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RTBR completed their inaugural US event placed 5th overall amongst a field of 61 teams. The team finished with an overall points tally of 716 out of 1000 despite blowing an engine during a dynamic event.

The four-day event saw RTBR rise from strength-to-strength and tackle problems thrown their way. Static events covered the first two days, with the team being evaluated in Cost, Design and Presentation aspects. The car, RTBR11, underwent Technical Inspection, Tilt and Noise & Brake tests. Cost and Presentation results were positive, placing 8th and 5th respectively. RTBR narrowly missed a place in the Presentation finals. Technical Inspection and Tilt tests went without many major hitches; however the team required several attempts and fixes to pass the Noise test. The biggest highlight for RTBR was a first ever appearance in the Design Semi-finals, and then into the Design Finals against Formula ETS and Global Formula Racing – eventually finishing 3rd.

Day 3 and 4 saw the team enter into Dynamic Events with a largely untested car. Due to the time constraints placed on the team to ship the car out to the US, RTBR lost 10 days of testing time and ran the RTBR11 without much setup work done. That said, the RTBR11 performed very well out of the box and the drivers required more time to familiarise themselves with the car.

Acceleration and Skidpad events ended with average results – 17th and 23rd respectively. The lack of setup was evidence by the Skidpad timings showing the RTBR11 was consistently slower in one direction.

The Autocross event kicked off in the afternoon and saw RTBR11 dip its feet into yet unchartered territory – this time with a new set of tyres. Jason Linden-Tahinci blazed through the track with a lap time of 69.4 seconds (fastest at that time) despite having to yield to a red flag caused by another car spinning off. This lap was chalked off and RTBR was allowed 2 new laps to set a good time – the first of which ended with a spin and 81 second lap time. The 2nd lap turned out to be RTBR11’s last involvement of the day. An engine blow-up halfway through the lap wrecked RTBR’s chances of achieving a decent result in Autocross. RTBR scored 7.5 out of 150 in the Autocross – tied 38th.

That wasn’t the only result in jeopardy. With the Endurance event to go on Day 4, the team had a mountain to climb. RTBR had to attempt an engine swap in less than 4 hours. Having shipped a brand new Aprilia RX55 engine together with the car, work on the car began at 1600 on Day 3. The track closed at 2000 and reopened at 0800 Day 4, meaning the team had to continue work on the car the next day. By 0900 Day 4, RTBR11 was up and running again. And the team participated in the Endurance event.

Both drivers of the Endurance event posted consistent times – lapping in the 66-67 second range. The fastest lap of the day was 64.2 seconds. RTBR11 made it to the finish line and with the quick lap times, came 4th in Endurance. Fuel Economy was also good, ranking 6th and the top non-single cylinder engine team.

In short, the team had achieved their intended aims of competing in the US – to be competitive and to learn how to operate as a racing team. Design judges here at FSAE California were particularly impressed by the ‘new year – new team – new car’ approach that Bath has brought to the table, rather than the concept of evolution and teams that span several years. The spirit of new team new car is one that RTBR believes runs true to the nature of Formula SAE and Formula Student and that is to bring new and aspiring engineers to the fore and allowing them to be fully creative.

The team is now better prepped than ever for Formula Student UK. Placing 5th at FSAE California has certainly boosted the team’s morale and drive to achieve greater success. And as Team Principal Thomas Yates said; “We’re so ecstatic with how everything went for the team, coming fifth in California. We are now out for the win at the UK event in July and our rivals should watch out!”

Hello all,

Day 2 of FSAE Cali concluded with mixed results for RTBR11. Here’s a summary of what has been through the first two days at FSAE Cali.

Day 1 Summary:
Main preps – Car rebuild finished in the morning. Many thanks go out to Western Washington University (WWU FSAE) for ferrying our baby to the track. Yes – they’re our friendly neighbours here at Sheraton Ontario Airport Hotel.

Static Event – Tech inspection passed – One small lockwire issue that was fixed within 10 minutes. It actually took us longer to travel to and back from the pits!

Day 2 Summary:
Static Event – Tilt Test completed in the morning – no issues here, Noise & Brake – Noise test clocked us in at over 110dB after multiple tries. We’re banking our hopes on our last solution which we’ll test out first thing in the morning tomorrow. Brake test to follow right after noise test.

Presentations – Cost, Design & Business went well. Our biggest highlight was making Design Semi-Finals! It’s our first appearance in a Design Semi-Final at any FSAE/FS event. We were lucky enough to be one of the 7 teams called up to be judged again. The other 6 unis were – Global Formula Racing (Oregon State), Sooner Racing (Oklahoma), Wisconsin Racing (Wisconsin), FSAE ETS (Montreal ETS), UWFSAE (Washington) and Missouri S&T Racing (Missouri).


Our day 2 wouldn’t have gone well if it weren’t for our paddock neighbours Sooner Racing of Oklahoma lending us a hand at crucial times. A big thank you to Sooner Racing for lending us tools, parts and even a projector for our presentation.

Day 3 looks to be a busy busy day. It’s turning midnight here in California now. 6 hours till we’re awake and getting ready for the 2nd half of FSAE California 2011.

On a bright sunny Wednesday of June 1, Relentless Team Bath Racing ushered in their latest contender for the Formula SAE/Student series worldwide. Enter RTBR11!

The day started off with the Annual Design Exhibition hosted by the Department of Mechanical Engineering here at the University of Bath. The exhibition showcased 3rd and 4th year student engineering projects to academics, industry experts and other members of the public in attendance.

The afternoon programme began with the arrival of our title sponsor: Relentless Energy Drink and their army of trucks and bikes.

In a departure from previous car launches, RTBR decided to supersize the launch formalities this year. With the presence of Relentless augmenting the buildup to the Official Car Launch, a crowd of over 300 people gathered to view the grand unveiling of RTBR11

After a short round of speeches by Professor Gary Hawley (Dean of Engineering), Dr Geraint Owen (RTBR Supervisor), Mr Oliver Taylor (Castrol) and Dr David Moore (Perkins), the main event of the day commenced. Team Principal Thomas Yates stepped up to introduce RTBR11 and the philosophy behind the car: “Design it simple, Design it light, Build it early”

This philosophy stayed true throughout the whole design and build process and this resulted in Relentless Team Bath Racing 2011′s take on how to build a highly competitive FS car – RTBR11:

RTBR11 Specifications:

Vehicle Type: Single Seat Weekend Autocross / Sprint Racer

Chassis: 4130 Chromoly Steel Spaceframe

Dry Weight: 155kg

Engine: Aprilia RX55, 2-cyl, V-twin – Max Power: 65bhp @ 9000rpm, Max Torque: 55Nm @ 8000rpm

Wheelbase: 1535mm

Track (Front/Rear): 1170mm/1120mm

Suspension: Double unequal length A-arm. Push rod actuated spring, damper & anti-roll bars

Wheels: 10″ dia x 6″ wide 3pc rim. Aluminium outer, Carbon inner

Drive Config: Rear Wheel Drive

Here are some pictures from the day itself. You can find these photos and more through our Media > Photo Album link.

Apologies for the little hiatus in posting. We’ve been working flat out to get our car out the way we want it.

Come by the University of Bath campus at 3 pm tomorrow to check it out!!

(Links to Facebook)

Hot off the press by Enigma Shirts are the TBR11 team gear! Relentless Team Bath Racing will be attending FS events in these official team gear in 2011. Look out for them!

A huge thank you to Enigma Shirts for providing the embroidery for all the logos.

Brand New Ohlins/Cane Creek TTX25 MkII Dampers arrived today courtesy of Aurok Suspension Ltd. based in the UK. These dampers will be going on the test rig very soon to collect data for suspension optimisation and eventually on the rolling chassis.

Poeton Industries Ltd. is a surface coating company operating since 1898 offering services to a wide range of industries. Their Apticote Ceramic 2000 cylinder liner product has been found in many high performance engine applications from NASCAR through to Formula 1 and is recognised as a championship winning formulation.

For 2011, Poeton kindly agreed to provide their Apticote Ceramic 2000 coating free of charge to the Aprilia RXV550 cylinder liners, found at the heart of the TBR 11 car. It is hoped that this will provide superior performance over the standard stock set-up and provide us with a competitive edge.

Our thanks go to Poeton for providing us with this valuable support.

Newly CNC’d uprights for all four corners designed by Kenny Tan arrived last week from AJM Engineering. One major step towards having a rolling chassis.

TBR11 has obtained a new set of potentiometers from Race Technology for damper data during a test run. The potentiometers along with the software supplied has helped us better understand the car’s performance.

Many thanks to our team partners Castrol who sent us our another batch of oils and lubricants.

As with any other form of motorsport, engine performance relies heavily on proper cooling and lubrication for maximum performance. Using high performance oils & lubricants from Castrol, TBR11 is able to push its engine to the limit time and again.

Brand new machined wheel centres designed by our very own Alessandro Zazzarelli arrived last week courtesy of AJM Engineering.

Check them out next to the new Kaiser rims!

Last week, a special visitor came by TBR HQ. President of the IMechE, John Wood dropped by to see our progress as part of his visit to the University of Bath.

What good is it to have all these nice bits of engine and chassis if we haven’t got any tools to put them all together with? Step up Prime Tools!

One of our many continuing sponsors has sent us this goodie pack of tools in the mail. We’ll be putting them to good use (we promise!)

Here’s a quick update from our guys in powertrain:

Many thanks to Zircotec Heat Management for providing free coating of the TBR09 display car’s exhaust manifold. This exhaust system coating delivers the ultimate in thermal barrier performance. It is the mainstay of Zircotec’s offering to motorsport, but is also used in a broad range of other applications. The TBR09 car is currently undergoing rebuild ready for display in the University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering Foyer.

Also just in are some silicone hoses from SFS Performance. They supply TBR with high quality silicone hoses for use on the engine dyno setup.

This weekend TBR11 went for a driver training session at Colerne Airfield with the old TBR10 car. The team runs driver training sessions on a weekly basis to track progress and select its drivers for the upcoming formula student events.Many thanks to Colerne for use of their grounds.

View the video below to see the action!

We have just received our latest batch of sponsored parts and tooling! Thank you to the following sponsors for their continued support.

ATI Stellram renewed their sponsorship with Team Bath Racing and continues to supply us with the required tooling to for our CNC machined parts.

The following companies joined Team Bath Racing as new sponsors for 2011. We are proud to be sponsored by The Barden Corporation and INA FAG – both subsidiaries of Schaeffler (UK) Ltd. We look forward to using these high quality bearings in competition.

Thanks to our Sponsors LaFranconi Silenziatori in Lecco, Italy, TBR11 has now received the exhaust & silencers that will be used in conjunction with our Aprilia RXV 550 Engine on the TBR11 race car.

About Lafranconi:

Lafranconi is a name known all over the world thanks to its almost secular story and to its 75 years long experience in designing and manufacturing exhaust systems. The company was established in 1928 and started its activity with the production of Moto Guzzi’s GT 500 silencers at Mandello del Lario.

Tbr11 is pleased to announce that the refurbishment of the foyer display area has now been completed. Custom made display boards proudly display our sponsors alongside information about the international events and the history of TBR. The centrepiece remains our complete 2007 car, which placed 6th overall and was the top UK team at FS Silverstone.

Seen by over 8 000 students, academics and visitors to the department each year, the foyer display area is the team’s best point of contact on campus, and represents a great opportunity to increase brand awareness for our sponsors and publicise the competitions and our highly successful team. We are also pleased to have added several new awards to our trophy cabinet, includ- ing the prestigious design award won by the current team at Silverstone 2010 for the best class 2 entry, and look forward to adding to our trophy display cabinet this summer with more awards from California, Silverstone, Germany and Austria.

Having previously recognised the use of a lightweight lithium ion battery as an effective means of weight reduction, we are pleased to announce that Tbr11 has invested in a super light Brille m17s, the lightest available starter battery, weighing in at 0.9Kg.

The investment, made possible by the generous donations of our sponsors, has allowed us to achieve a 70% reduction in weight over our previous 3.2Kg battery despite an 80% increase in capacity, and is our consistent with lightweight, compact design philosophy.

Tbr11 is finalising the in house dynamometer set up for engine testing and development work. Having purchased a complete engine with ancillaries in September, the engine has been installed and is being modified for testing with the required instrumentation.

The dyno facilities will be used for validation and development of optimisation work previously carried out using 1-D engine modelling software, and to test different power train concepts and modifications. Development work will include optimisation of cam timing and intake geometry, and will help us to deliver a reliable and thoroughly tested powertrain package for the summer events.

Team Bath Racing is pleased to announce that the 2011 chassis build was completed on schedule (1st October 2010) and before the start of term, and over 3 months in advance of any previous Formula Student Team from the University of Bath. The chassis is currently in the build shop awaiting painting and the application of a structural honeycomb skin designed to increase stiffness by 40%. A big thank you goes to our sponsor Andy Robinson Race Cars for their invaluable help throughout the build.

The final weight of the chassis, excluding the back-plate, is 21.3kg compared to a target weight of 22kg, representing a 5kg reduction in weight from the previous year’s team, achieved through a significantly more compact design. The target weight including paint, skins and brackets is 28kg.

TBR11 has also acquired a dash in accordance to their Sponsorship with Cosworth Pectel and Pi Research.

Team Bath Racing 2011 has been working hard to increased it’s funding and has formed many new partnerships for the 2010-2011 Racing Season.

Team Bath Racing 2011 would like to thank all our sponsors for their generous donations and support; without your contributions, the exciting formula student project would not be possible, and we look forward to and developing our partnerships as we work towards the season’s goals as a team and improve on previous successes.

New Sponsors for the 2011 Racing Season Include:

Relentless is an energy drink created in February 2006 by The Coca-Cola Company. The Relentless brand has joined Team Bath Racing in 2010 as a title sponsor, renaming the team “Relentless Team Bath Racing” where the 2011 car and team will be displayed in the Relentless anatomical colours and scheme.

One of the main partners of TBR11, Vhernier is an Italian Jewellery maker producing haute couture jewellery of the highest standard that is hand made in Milan.

Confectionary giant Cadbury is a new sponsor for the 2011 competition, providing financial assistance to the team to ensure its success this season.

A prestigious Swiss based luxury watchmaker that develops precise pocket watches and chronometers based upon innovative ideas. Chopard has many partnerships in classic motorsports such as the Mille Miglia Italian car Rally and are also sponsoring TBR for the 2011 season.

LaFranconi Silenziatori have joined Team Bath Racing as a new sponsor for 2010-2011. They are an Italian Exhaust manufacturing company based in Lecco and supply Team Bath Racing with their new Exhaust System.

ITCM is a world leader in custom machinery and product solutions for packaging and processing. ITCM helps customers develop and launch new products to mar- ket through the design and build of special purpose machines. They are a new sponsor to TBR11 and we look forward to collaborating with them in the future.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 28th, 2010 at 7:50 pm and is filed under News. .

Tbr11 is the new team representing Team Bath Racing at English and international Formula Student events in the coming season. Tbr11 members are excited to be back at the university and working towards achieving our ambitious goals in our most challenging event program to date. After a hard working summer, during which many team members worked in motorsport (including several in Formula 1), Tbr11 has completed a summer review and redesign program to ensure the best start to the academic year, and the best preparation for an early build and comprehensive pre-event testing program.

The team is proud to announce that, competing as a class 2 entry this summer at the Silverstone event with an all new car design and business presentation, we achieved 2nd place overall, winning the design event and gaining valuable feedback and experience for the coming year. With a redesigned and more focused car, Tbr11 looks forward to our best season yet, and anticipates a tough but rewarding experience as we compete in the U.K, in Europe and, for the first time, in the U.S. at the FSAE California event.

One of our key aims this year is to further improve our relationships with all partners and sponsors to ensure that both of our needs are met, and that you are repaid with maximum publicity and success. We have been working on our strategy for achieving maximum exposure for our sponsors on campus, in the media and at international events, and will work over the coming year to ensure that we provide you with value for money in exchange for your generous contributions. Tbr11 will also be releasing bi-monthly newsletters to keep you informed and updated with all the news and progress of the team

Following a strong performance at Silverstone, TBR10 was excited to make the university’s European competition debut at Formula Student Austria. The team put in a good performance against many of the world’s best teams, and was unfortunate not to obtain a well deserved top 6 result due to a silencing baffle coming loose in the closing stages of the endurance event.

TBR10 performed well in all static events, placing in the top 10 for each discipline (cost, design and business presentation) with the highlight being 6th place in the cost event. The team made a great start to the dynamic events, placing 9th in the autocross and skidpad events, and 11th in the acceleration test before disaster struck in the final laps of an otherwise successful endurance event. With one lap to go a silencing baffle, forced on the team during a tense scrutineering process, came loose, resulting in a devastating disqualification which prevented the team from achieving a likely 5th or 6th place overall.

The final result of 16th place certainly did not reflect either the quality of the car or the performance of the team following consistently good performances throughout the competition, although the event was otherwise a great success. The team thoroughly enjoyed the challenges of the competition and the atmosphere of the event, as the team once again demonstrated TBR’s consistent ability to compete with the most experienced and most highly funded teams in Europe.

In the main event the 4th year team (TBR10), with the car launched at the Design Exhibition, had a lot to live up to, with Bath having been the best UK team for the past 3 years (and 6th, 4th, 4th overall).

In the static events we had a similar strong performance to last year. We scored an impressive 4th overall in the Business Presentation section, and surpassed this by coming second in the Cost and Manufacturing element. 22nd place in the design event was a slight disappointment. The static events took place in parallel to getting the car scrutinized for safety, compliance with the rules, noise testing, brake tests etc on Thursday and Friday. This was remarkably trouble free, the car even passed the noise test – despite being remarkably loud!

The 3rd Year Students (TBR11) presented their design for the 2011 car in “Class 2″. Previously there had been a number of classes for paper based, part built, or unfinished cars. This year they were all merged into a new larger class of around 25 teams. Team Bath Racing is pleased to say that the 2011 Bath team won the Design Prize in this class. They did well in the other two elements but not quite enough to win outright, finally coming a very close second overall.

To give an idea of the time involved at the events. Most days involve work on the car starting at 7:30am, and still being hard at it when you are thrown out of the pits at 9pm, to go and have a pint and a bite to eat in the camp site before hitting the tent.

The acceleration event, skid pad and sprint events were all completed without incident. Time pressures meant the team really had to be on the ball. It is worth noting that of the 80 or so teams, only 50 managed to complete all three events on the Saturday.

So with only Sunday’s Endurance left, we were around 10th overall, only 3 points (in 400) behind the leading UK team of Hertfordshire. The two top cars failed to finish the Endurance. Bath however managed a strong run, despite some overheating problems at the driver change. There was much tension in the pits waiting for the times to come out. We had used less fuel than Hertfordshire, but were they quicker?

When the score finally came, Hertfordshire were. And whilst we gained some points for using less fuel it wasn’t quite enough to make the difference. So we have lost our crown of best UK team. Eventually we finished 8th overall, and second best UK team (a long way ahead of third place UK team Swansea).

We should all be proud of what the students have achieved for the University. This was again a very strong performance. Bath is held in high esteem for what we achieve, and so it should.

And once again we have done this with a budget at a fraction of that of our European and UK opposition. The continued support of our sponsors is vital, and success like this can only help!

Roll on the Austrian event in August

Team Bath Racing has been in the news recently having featured in the Bath Chronicle after being involved in activies with local schools and we are also featured on the Formula Student website in an article about our photoshoot with the IMechE. You can read the Formula Student article here. Also, look out of us in this weeks Professional Engineer magazine.

TBR10, our entry into Formula Student 2010, went out on its first test run yesterday and the team are delighted with how it performed. The video above shows its maiden voyage around our test circuit at Colerne. More videos can be found at our youtube channel here

TBR10 was officially launched today as part of the Department of Mechanical Engineering Design Exhibition in front of a good crowd of students and professionals. We are very proud of what we have designed and built and we look forward to start our testing program at the start of next week. The majority of the work is now completed with just a few components to be developed and small modifications to be made.

This year’s car represents major developments in design compared with previous TBR cars, the main design drivers being minimising weight on a proven concept while improving the handling characteristics. One of biggest changes has been the move from 10 to 13 inch tyres. In addition to this, lightness has been added by the extensive use of carbon composites in key areas of the car.

Considerable work has been carried out on the engine internals for the first time along with the introduction of a more advanced ECU. Particular attention has been paid to progress the electronic systems within the car in order to improve performance.

Finally, a conscious effort has been made to improve the aesthetics of the car in comparison to previous years with the aim of making it a more desirable proposition for the weekend autocross racer.

This of course would not be possible without the support of staff at the University of Bath. The team would like to thank Andy Green who has assisted with the CNC machining and Roddy Allan who has helped significantly with composites. Special thanks need to go to Andy Church who has helped with the machining of components and he has generously given up his free time recently to help us out. Finally, thanks need to go to Geraint Owen and Kevin Robinson who supervise the project and give advice and support to the team.

Team Bath Racing is delighted to be part of a photoshoot organised by the IMechE in order to promote Formula Student and great young British engineers. Alongside TBR will be Ross Brawn and Mercedes-Benz GP who have strong links with Formula Student and offer engineering graduate oppotunities to promising students.

The shoot will take place on the 3rd of June and the photos will be released on the Formula Student website prior to the event in July. We are very excited to be part of this event.

The official launch of TBR10 will be on the 2nd June. It will be part of the Department of Mechanical Engineering Design Exhibition which is running throughout the day which displays the work carried out by the third and fourth year engineering students at the University. The exhibition will open with a talk by key notes speaker Judith Hackitt CBE at 10am and then the exhibition will be open from 11am until 4pm.

The car is scheduled to be unveiled at 2pm on the Parade outside of the engineering department. We invite everyone who is interested in what we do to come and have a look. Team Bath Racing has had a lot of success in recent years but we have failed to break in to the top 3. We believe our car this year will have the potential to do that.

As we are sure you already know, we have entered our first Formula Student competition outside of the UK, FS Austria. In order to be able to attend and bring a full team we need to raise £10,000.

We are currently trying to raise funds through various sources and our already very generous sponsors. If you would like to contribute to our cause then please contact us or visit our become a sponsor page

Team Bath Racing is delighted to announce that it is one of the 30 teams accepted into FS Austria 2010. It takes place at the Wachauring in Melk from 11th to 14th August. We will be joined by many teams with a high reputation in formula student including TU Graz, Joanneum Racing Graz, TU Vienna, Munich and Esslingen. We are also joined by two other UK teams, Brunel and Loughborough, and so there will be a second competition for best UK team!

This is the first foreign competition tbr has been to and we are very excited at the prospect. Please visit the official website if you want to find out more, www.fsaustria.at

Team Bath Racing are delighted to annouce a new partnership with Cosworth and Pectel. They will provide the team with a new ECU as well as software and technical assistance. Cosworth are a name synonymous with high performance and motorsport. Over the years they have developed in-depth knowledge of engines, engine components and engine management systems. Their engine management systems are powered by Pectel and are widely used in high performance motorsport.

Team Bath Racing are delighted to announce a new partnership with Santander. They have joined us in a support capacity and will provide financial support to the team. Santander are one of the worlds largest banks and are committed to society in all its operational countries and as such have formed a ‘Santander Universities’ network which contained 36 universities at the end of 2009.

Team Bath Racing are delighted to announce three new partnerships with ATI Stellram, Britool and Prime Tools.

ATI Stellram are an American company with headquarters in Nashvile, Tenneysee. They are a a leading manufacturer and distributor of world class cutting tools in turning, milling, drilling, threading, and grooving for metalworking industries. As part of the partnership we will receive free CNC tooling and advice.

Britool are a British tooling company which first started production in 1908. Britool remains one of the worlds most widely respected hand tool brands and remains the engineers’ number one choice where quality and performance are essential. As part of the partnership we will receive free hand tools for our workshop.

Prime Tools are a local company based in Bath and supply virtually everything used in the Engineering or Automotive Workshop. As part of the partnership we will receive some free and some discounted tools for our workshop.

The TBR10 chassis is now finished! The final tubes were tacked together over the weekend and now Andy Robinson will weld it together to a higher standard before we collect it next week. We are the first TBR team to have a finished chassis before christmas and hope to continue this record and get a completed car early

Team Bath Racing is delighted to have been chosen to display one of our previous cars at the IMechE HQ at Birdcage Walk in London. As part of a refurbishment, the IMechE are looking to display how they support young engineers and show how impressive the results are. Formula Student is a prime example of this and as a tribute to their work a TBR car is to be suspended in spectacular fashion above the staircase in entrace to the premises.

The car that has been chosen to be displayed is TBR08, our 2008 entry to Formula Student. This is a fitting tribute to a team that finished 4th overall and as the top UK team. In order to bring the car back to its former glory, TBR11, with the help of a number of 1st and 2nd year students, are currently carrying out a complete rebuild.

This homage for Formula Student in the UK will be opened around mid December this year. Please drop in to Birdcage Walk to view a part of the University of Bath’s exciting history!

The 2010 TBR car build is now officially underway! The team went to Andy Robinson Racecars to begin the chassis build and made a lot of progress in the first two days. The day began with some training on how to properly use the equipment. We then commenced the build and the first task was the cut and bend the tubes to the correct size and shape. We also managed to get a good start on the initial welding together of the chassis.

This year we are delighted to announce three new partnerships with Team Bath Racing. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics Rencol Ltd, Charge Point and Johnson Matthey have joined us for the 2010 competition. SGPP Rencol Ltd is a specialist in tolerance rings and are a Silver level sponsor, giving us financial support. Johnson Matthey is a speciality chemicals company and will be also be giving us financial support. Charge Point manufactures precision valves and has offered us their services in precision manufacturing.

We would also like to thank Castrol and Cummins for their continued support as lead sponsors. We also want to thank all our sponsors, from those who give us financial support to discounted parts, without whom this would not be possible.

Team Bath Racing was kindly invited to the Autumn Classic at Prescott Speed Hill Climb by The Bugatti Trust. The event was the final event of the Prescott Hill Climb season and featured 5 decades of classic and vintage cars from 1920 to 1970.

TBR was invited along with teams from 6 other UK universities to demonstrate their Formula Student cars during the lunch break. The teams would accelerate off the line and then coast around the course as if it was a parade lap. Unfortunately for TBR, the right front wheel bearing broke saturday morning and so we were not able to show off the car that day. After a lot of team effort and many hours of hard work we fixed the car with minutes to spare for Sundays event. Driving up the Prescott Hill was a real thrill and the hard work it took to get us there made it even more special.

We would like to thank the Bugatti Trust for inviting us to this event and all the help they gave us in fixing the car. We also need to thank F.H Greening & Sons at Alderton Garage for their help in fixing our car.

TBR09 came an excellent 4th place overall in the 2009 Formula Student competition at Silverstone. This result means that Team Bath Racing has now been crowned best UK team for the last 3 years and has now estabilished itself as one of the top Universities in the world in this competition.

After an average performance in the acceleration and skid pan events, TBR09 caught up on their rivals by getting 2nd place in the presentation event and winning the cost event and showed the cars true ability with a good performance in the sprint. This meant it all came down to the endurance event which took place under horrible conditions as rain was combined with oil when a competitor blew and leaked. The team excelled under these conditions and were leading the endurance (with all the big names having completed the event) and having set the fastest lap (in the oily conditions) for most of the day. Inevitiably the track cleaned up and dried up. The team agonisingly watched as their name tumbled down the timeheets. Despite this, and thanks to a strong showing in the fuel economy event the team finished a remarkable 4th overall, as in 2008. One can only wonder what could have been had it stayed dry…

TBR10 also competed at the competition in Class 3 and came a respectable 5th place. TBR10 were also placed as the top UK team in its class, however, the team felt they could have achieved greater things at this years competition and are now more determined than ever to win the class 1 event in 2010.

TBR was visited by Ross Brawn at the event as he wanted to cast his eye over the UK’s number one team. From this TBR got some BBC1 TV coverage which can be viewed on the Videos Section

More information can be found at www.formulastudent.com/events.

After close to two years of hard work, the team attended the 2009 Formula Student event at Silverstone and came away as the UK’s best team. This equals the successes of the 2007 and 2008 teams but with even more teams competing this year (10 more than in 2008), the achievement is arguably greater. Whilst the competition started slowly with the team underperforming in the skidpan and acceleration events, moral was bolstered as the team recorded a 2nd place in the presentation event, bettered shortly afterwards with a win in the cost event. The overall performance of the car was demonstrated in the Sprint event, but with more to come.

The all important endurance took place under horrible conditions as rain was combined with oil when a competitor blew and leaked. The team excelled under these conditions and were leading the endurance (with all the big names having completed the event) and having set the fastest lap (in the oily conditions) for most of the day. Inevitiably the track cleaned up and dried up. The team agonisingly watched as their name tumbled down the timeheets. Despite this, and thanks to a strong showing in the fuel economy event the team finished a remarkable 4th overall, as in 2008. One can only wonder what could have been had it stayed dry…

The team would like to offer wholehearted thanks to all sponsors – particularly Castrol Racing and Cummins, the guys and gals at Colerne Air Traffic Control, the technicians operating the machine shop and autoclave at the university – particularly, “Magic” Andy Church, Andy Robinson and of course supervisors Kevin Robinson and Speed Owen. We couldn’t have done it without you.

The 2009 Team Bath Racing car was launched on University of Bath’s parade, displaying the culmination of a lot of hard work from the team. The car promises to be an improvement on the already quick TBR08 car and is anticipated to hit the test track in June. The team would like to thank the all sponsors externally, and interally Andy Green, Andy Church and Guy Brace for the technical and manufacturing support. Thanks are of course necessary for supervisors Kevin Robinson and Speed Owen also.