The university deployed Loctite products, including Loctite and Teroson adhesives, sealants and retaining compounds supplied by sponsor Henkel - in various areas of its build programme, ensuring the car could withstand demanding acceleration, sprint, skid-pad and endurance disciplines which form part of the overall Dynamic Event.
Known as the testing ground for the next generation of cutting-edge engineers, Formula Student invites student teams to design, build, test and race a small-scale formula-style racing car. Due to the pandemic, this year’s event featured a reduced field and took place behind closed doors, but these restrictions made it no less demanding for the nine-strong team of second-year students from UCLAN.
“Fortunately, the IMechE allowed teams to enter a previous car for a second time, which is what we did as our updated car wasn’t going to be ready in time due to the impact of Covid,” explains project head Dr Graham Calderbank, senior lecturer at UCLAN’s school of engineering. “In June we therefore decided to rebuild our previous car, although that only gave us a few weeks to get prepared.”
UCLAN has been entering Formula Student since 2004, but without major success. This year, however, things turned out differently.
“Although it was our previous car, we made a few improvements and they worked out in our favour as we achieved our best-ever performance,” says Calderbank. “We came second in the acceleration event, second in the endurance event, eighth in the skid-pad event and tenth in the sprint event. We therefore scored the most points across the dynamic events, picking up a prize at the awards ceremony. The team also won a prize for ‘most entertaining driver’ and the fastest hot lap in a bonus event.”
