UniBo Motorsport is the Formula SAE
team of the University of Bologna.
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What is the formula SAE?
The Formula SAE Championship is an international competition, organized by The Society of Automotive Engineers
that involves over 500 universities worldwide. Teams of students design and
build from scratch a Formula style prototype that must follow precise rules.
The competition is based on a series of tests that evaluate the car for its
design quality and performance, as well as the efficiency of the project from
both an economic and an engineering point of view.
Who are we?
Unibo Motorsport was founded in 2009
by a group of enthusiasts’ mechanical engineering students that wanted to
create a connection between the academicals reality and the industrial one, with
a particular focus on the Automotive world. Today the team is formed by about
50 students operating in five different divisions: Vehicle, Aerodynamics,
Powertrain, Electronics, Marketing.
The construction of the car starts
with an accurate design phase followed by the manufacturing and assembling
phases. All of them require teamwork skills, crucial for a good result.
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Our achievements
Our continuous commitment through
years and our technical skills led us to achieve the victory in the Formula SAE
Brazil in October 2014. Thanks to this award, Unibo Motorsport became the first
Italian team to win a race in the competition since its birth. UniBo Motorsport
is now working on the new car, the 4th built by the team, which will bring
great improvements in several aspects.
Car improvements for 2015
·
The vehicle division is realizing one of
the most important car development since the birth of the team: for the first
time, there will be a carbon monocoque chassis, which replace the
previous steel tube trellis frame solution. There will be an important review
of the suspension system geometries, due to the introduction of
aerodynamics and the reduction of the rims diameter from 13 ‘’ to 10’’. All
these features result in many advantages; of course, the most relevant will be
a significant weight reduction,which is always a very important goal in a
motorsport competition.
·
Taking into
account the crucial role that aerodynamics
has in the car's performance, this year we decided to develop a complete
aerodynamic package, with front and rear wings specifically engineered to
provide the possibility to change the incidence of each profile. In this way,
it is possible to modify the vehicle attitude and meet the driver’s demands.
·
The team
produces all its electronic systems;
this feature makes UniBo Motorsport a unique team in its kind. Thanks to the
proven reliability and the efficiency of electronic systems developed during
2014 season, the activities of the Electronics division will be mainly focused
on refinements. In particular, our already powerful telemetry and data-logging
systems will be enhanced by the integration of an entirely new Inertial
Measurement Unit, which, combined with the use of a GPS receiver, will
allow us to track the car position on
the circuit and to associate a location in space to the data collected.
·
After an
accurate design, the engine will
finally be equipped with a new gearbox. The gearshift, properly spaced,
will have four gears and will allow, with a well-defined final transmission
ratio, the use of the engine in the maximum torque and power RPMs for most of
the track. Thanks to studies focused on the optimization of existing models,
the use of CFD simulations made possible the complete re- design of the intake
and exhaust systems, mutually “tuned”, in order to improve the already
excellent performance of the engine.
·
The marketing division supports the work of
the technical divisions with initiatives that give visibility to the
project in order to obtain the necessary support. Many companies understand the
benefits of our project and have invested in the development of our work.
Our challenge: Brazil 2015
UniBo Motorsport has a great
potential, proved by results, but Motorsport is economically demanding: to
build such performing cars is an engineering challenge. Moreover, taking part
in competitions all around the world is onerous and it is very difficult to
find the needed resources. The Brazilian competition was a very special race to
us and we are doing our best to come back with a very a competitive car to defend the winners title. We need your
help to meet the costs for the travel and the car shipment to South America.
This is your chance to be a part of our project: YOUR SUPPORT COULD MAKE THE
DIFFERENCE!”
Use the funds
The funds raised with the campaign will be used in the
building phase, in the track tests, in the competition. In particular, the
funds will help us in:
·
Car
shipment for the Brazilian competition (more than $10.000)
·
Track
tests’ costs before the competition ($8.000)
·
Materials
and components’ costs for the manufacturing
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