Perfect Set-Up with Virtual Test Driving
New season, new racecar - obviously, that does not leave a lot of time to relax. The last season has just ended for Munich's College Formula Student Team and yet they are already working hard on their new vehicle. Their professionalism is impressive. Just like their idols in Formula 1, the students trust in sophisticated technologies and latest development tools.
The Munich College Formula-Racing-Team was founded in the summer of 2005 and consists of about 60 college members. They have built their first racecar with tireless commitment in less than seven months. Their racecar named "PW 06" started its first race at the Formula Student event in August 2006 in Hockenheim. Even as a newcomer, it was not necessary for the orange-black racer to hide from the competitors. Hockenheim's jury agreed, that they had only seldom seen such a newcomer-vehicle: well-functioning and solidly constructed. Their results in the different disciplines also looked good: the students' racing stable finished the fuel economy competition in third place and the acceleration competition in second.
This year, Munich's college students will try to maintain the success of their newcomer performance. Their race calendar includes contests in Germany, Italy and Australia, where they will endeavour to keep on enhancing their performance. Needless to say that the preparations for the upcoming season are already running at full speed. At the moment, the FHM-Racing-Team is in the final stage of package-designing and works for the 2007 new racecars' digital mock-up. Among the vehicle's technical highlights are a differential beam, wishbones made from carbon fiber composite material and full variable controlled intake manifolds. Furthermore, a CAN bus system will be integrated in the vehicle, which can be used to record all important telemetry-data during the races and test drives.
The students - enthusiastic for racing - count on IPG-KINEMATICS and CarMaker for the chassis geometry's construction, full vehicle simulation and lap time optimization. The FHM-Racing-Team is one of 32 registered Formula CarMaker-Teams who use IPG's simulation programs for vehicle dynamics development. Rosi Jahn, chassis developer at the FHM-Racing-Team, especially admires the easy introduction of IPG-KINEMATICS and CarMaker: "The software is very user-friendly." In particular the animation and analysis tools help the prospective engineers achieve an optimal racecar construction. Rosi Jahn highlights: "The animation, with its shaded reference vehicle points, rapidly shows up the difference in the driving behavior of two vehicles with different set-ups."
IPG maintains its great enthusiasm for the Formula Student Teams. In the scope of the Formula CarMaker program, the specialist in driving dynamics company not only supports the students with free licenses, but also with the know how of IPG's "motorsport enthusiast" employees. "The training at IPG was very helpful and the IPG-Teams' support is always a great help and very dedicated", states Rosi Jahn.
We, at IPG, are very pleased about the compliment and wish the FHM-Racing-Team a lot of success for the racing season in 2007!
