6 September 2009
"Spirit of Auld Charlie" to tour Dundee
Photo opps: Times and places where the DRIVE team will be touring “Spirit of Auld Charlie” follow this release.
A racing car, designed and built by students at the University of Dundee, will go on a city-wide tour next week to thank sponsors who have thrown their weight behind the project.
The DRIVE (Dundee University Race Innovation and Vehicle Engineering) team will be taking the car, named "Spirit of Auld Charlie" in honour of Charlie Fraser, one of their lecturers who died earlier this year, round the various local companies who have helped make the car possible through their support for the initiative.
The team have built the car to take part in the International Formula Student competition, which challenges university students from across the UK to compete as a team to design, build, develop and market a small single-seater racing car.
Dr Alan Slade, of the University’s Mechanical Engineering department and DRIVE’s Academic Co-ordinator, praised the work of the students and thanked the sponsors, who they will be visiting with the “Spirit of Auld Charlie” on Tuesday 8th, Wednesday 9th, and Thursday 10th Sptember.
“It is only through the generosity of local companies that the team were able to build the car,” he said.
“Along with the real challenge of building the car, a part of the competition is to raise the necessary money to build the car and to be able to travel to Silverstone to actually race the car.”
“The bulk of the support has come from local companies. They have been with us for the past three years while we built the car and this is our way our saying 'Thank You' to them. They can see the car and sit in it, but they will not be able to drive it because of insurance restrictions".
He also paid tribute to his former colleague, saying that having the car named after him was a fitting gesture.
“It was a big shock to all of us when Charlie died unexpectedly earlier this year. He had a special way of relating to the students and they responded very well to this. It is a mark of how much they did appreciate him by them naming the car after him.”
Formula Student promotes careers and excellence in engineering by providing the students with a real-life exercise in design and manufacture and the business elements of automotive engineering.
It gives practical experience of working as a team, under pressure and to tight timescales. It demands total commitment, lots of late nights, and many frustrations and challenges along the way, but the net result is the development of highly talented young engineers.
DRIVE has been set up to further the reputation of the University, and to provide its students with a unique opportunity to experience a "real world" challenge and develop the skills learnt in the lecture theatre.
The project is run by students who dedicate time outside their courses to design, build, test and finally race the Formula-style car. The ultimate aim of DRIVE is to prepare students for the challenges and problems that the real world may throw at them and to produce better educated and well rounded engineering graduates.
In their first competition at Silverstone in July, the DRIVE team came 40th out of 82 teams with “Spirit of Auld Charlie”. The real test of the cars performance was in the endurance event which, over 25 laps with a compulsory driver change, saw the Dundee team come 14th overall.
Notes:
The team will be visiting their various sponsors at the following times:
Tuesday, September 8th
2.30-3.30pm – Matalan, Dock Street. 4-5pm – West Park Centre, Perth Road
Wednesday, September 9th
9-10am – Tayshirt, Meadow Mill, West Hendersons Wynd. 10-11am - Agra Engineering, Ure Street. 11.30am-12.30pm – Botanic Gardens, Perth Road. 2.30-3.30pm – Andersons Fabrications; Strathmore Avenue. 4-5pm – DDMS, Coldside Industrial Estate.
Thursday, September 10th
10-11am – Xm Training, Baldovie Road. 11.30am-12.30am – Browne & Tawse, West Pitcerro Industrial Estate, 1-2pm – Baluniefield Road (Road Policing Headquarters), 2.30-3.30pm – Autosave, Clepington Road. 4-5pm – JTC, Harrison Road.
For media enquiries contact:
Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
TEL: 01382 384768
E-MAIL: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk
MOBILE: 07854 953277
|
