Climate-KIC supported ‘green’ racing team wins prize at Silverstone

Imperial Racing Green, a low-emission racing team supported by Climate-KIC, has won a first prize at the Formula Student 2013 event at the UK’s Silverstone racing circuit this month.

Imperial Racing Green competed in the Formula Student Class 2 competition with its recently developed battery electric vehicle, dubbed as EV2. This car is an open wheel and cockpit rear-wheel drive electric car.

The team received the overall winner trophy for the the Class 2 competition, as well as the best design entry in that category. In addition, it came second in the business presentation and fourth in the Class 2 cost and sustainability category. This marks the best result for Imperial Racing Green in Formula Student to date.

“The student team at Imperial Racing Green continue their enviable record of truly world-class innovation in high-performance electric vehicles and I am particularly pleased that we have been able to help,” said Richard Templer, Director of Climate-KIC UK.

Christoph Mazur, vehicle project manager and Climate-KIC PhD student, said: “We had a strong team of engineering students, with excellent support from the business school and Climate-KIC this year.”

Mazur hopes that the team can build upon this year’s results to build a car that can race against the top teams in the Class 1 event, next year.

“I hope that Christoph and his colleagues will be inspired to go on to create their own businesses bringing electric vehicles to the market,” said Templer. The first generation of Racing Green alumni founded Vantage Power, this year’s winners of the Shell Springboard competition.

Imperial Racing Green

The Racing Green team is based at Climate-KIC partner university Imperial College London, and brings together students from multiple engineering disciplines to design, build and race low-emission vehicles.

“The competition level was very high and the edge over competitors can only be attained by solid engineering-design of the vehicle and a great team,” said Santhosh Sankaranarayanan, EV2 Chief Engineer, “I truly believe that the new car from Imperial Racing Green, EV2, showcases the best of Imperial engineers.”

The EV2 car is powered by a bespoke battery pack, which is made in-house at Imperial College. The design philosophy focuses on simplicity and reliability, while maintaining competitive performance: 68 kW at 230 kilogram of car mass.

Around 100 students work in teams and are responsible for all aspects of design, manufacturing and testing of the vehicles. The project is managed by students and supported by experts. “This experience is the best I have had over all four years of my degree. It teaches me of teamwork as well as new, emerging technologies,” Sankaranarayanan said.

“To get this far, the whole team worked really hard. I am proud and very happy that we were able to achieve such a good result, which no one of us had expected,” concludes Mazur.

Previous editions

In 2011, Imperial Racing Green’s Battery Electric Vehicle IRG04 competed at Silverstone and came fifth in Class 1A with an impressive performance in the endurance event, with the second lowest emissions. The team was runner up in the business presentation.

Energy is one of Imperial College’s key research themes and Imperial Racing Green is supported by research activities in the Grantham Institute for Climate Change, the Centre for Environmental Policy and the Energy Futures Lab.

Imperial Racing Green is always looking for enthusiastic students who would like to get involved in tasks in the fields of engineering, business or sustainability. Interested students are invited to contact the team on Facebook or get in touch with Chris Mazur directly.

Formula Student

Formula Student (FS) is an educational motorsport competition that attracts teams from all over Europe and beyond. Universities are challenged to design and build a single-seat racing car in order to compete in static and dynamic events, which demonstrate their understanding and test the performance of the vehicle.

Formula Student is run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, a professional engineering organisation in the UK. Backed by industry and high-profile engineers, the competition aims to inspire and develop enterprising and innovative young engineers.

In the past, Imperial Racing Green has also competed in Formula Zero, a Championship for Hydrogen Fuel Cell – Supercapacitor Hybrid go-karts. IRG02 was the most reliable go-cart in the 2008 season coming third in the inaugural race in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and again coming third in the 2009 European Series.