The University of Edinburgh's current Formula Student team, (Edinburgh University Formula Student) was founded in September 2014 by a group of ambitious engineering students to compete against 100 teams from around the world, at the iMechE's long-established Formula Student UK event on the GP Silverstone circuit. A daring task considering that the team, starting from square one, would be up against teams with years of experience and even holding world records in terms of acceleration.

For more information about the competition: http://formulastudent.imeche.org/formula-student/.

For the 2016 season, the team was ready to enter Class One in their second year following the success of their Class Two design-only participation in 2015. With limited resources and experience, the team had under a year to design and manufacture a Formula style racecar from scratch; an incredible challenge, and an insightful learning experience for the new team. It was a close call, but the car was fully functional at the eve of departure for the competition.

This year was the first time a team representing The University of Edinburgh took part in the annual competition with a complete car; their primary goal was to pass scrutineering and to receive as much feedback as possible for the future. Scrutineering is a hurdle that often means the end of even long-established teams, it assesses the car under six different categories: an overall technical inspection for rules compliance, a safety check, a chassis test, a tilt test to check for leaks and the car's centre of gravity, a noise test and finally a braking test before the car is allowed to take part in a number of dynamic events.

While some team members rehearsed and delivered business, cost and design presentations, others continued to work on the car, making modifications in anticipation for the various scrutineering stages. Long hours were on the daily agenda, with the team being in the pits as soon as they opened each morning and not leaving before being kicked out; at one point, even rewiring the whole engine with the help from the Aberdeen team, who kindly lent out a spare engine control unit after an electrical fault neutralized the one on Edinburgh car. Unfortunately, despite their unending efforts, the team couldn't pass scrutineering on the final day due to a number of technical difficulties that prevented the car from entering the brake test stage. However, EUFS came home victorious, trophy in hand as Race Tech Magazine honoured the team’s undivided efforts with the first ever Spirit of Formula Student award.

Link to award ceremony video: https://www.facebook.com/eufs.co/videos/701897833281243/.

Now back in Edinburgh, the team is looking to get in the best starting position for next year's competition. With feedback from the judges, the car's design is going to be completely revamped, reaching for more ambitious targets during the coming year. The young team is looking forward to an even more successful season in 2016-2017, and would like to thank those leaving after graduation.

EUFS would also like to thank their sponsors.

Further Information

Interested? EUFS is looking to grow it’s partner network. Get in touch at info@eufs.co.

Want to get involved? EUFS is looking for talented, ambitious and hard-working individuals to join the team. Stay tuned for updates on the EUFS facebook page and come find the EUFS stand at the Societies fair in September.