Brunel Racing is pleased to announce a new partnership with Trelleborg, a leading global manufacturer and supplier of advanced polymer technologies, with expertise across a wide range of industries including aerospace, automotive, infrastructure and construction. 

As an expert in advanced materials engineering, Trelleborg offers a vast range of tooling block materials, including TB650, EP700 and EP678, which are extensively used in composite manufacturing  across the world, particularly in the UK, for applications in the aerospace, automotive and motorsport industries. 

Brunel Racing will be using Trelleborg’s EP678 tooling block material in the construction of the bodywork for its 2013 entrant to Formula Student (Silverstone) and Formula Student Germany (Hockenheim); BR-14. 

The proven stability of Trelleborg’s products for use in oven and autoclave curing processes will enable the team to produce high quality panels for its car, through the use of accurately machined tooling block moulds; ensuring a surface of limited porosity for moulding on and good fitment of final parts with the systems around them.

Kerry Lyons, Sales Manager at Trelleborg, commented: “We have a long history of supplying high performance tooling board to professional race teams, including Formula 1, and so when we were given the opportunity to help the racing students by donating our material and educating them on its uses, we jumped at the chance to get involved.”

“It’s important that organizations, such as Trelleborg, invest in the engineers of the future and begin to build strong relationships early on in their careers.”

Trelleborg material is already being machined into the front bodywork moulds for BR-14; news of which will follow in the coming weeks. 

For more information on Trelleborg visit its website: www.trelleborg.com

Brunel Racing is proud to announce Chem-Trend as its latest official partner for the 2013 season.

Chem-Trend is a leading global manufacturer of process chemical specialities with a main focus on high-performance mould release agents.

Chem-Trend will be supplying the team with its Chemlease branded products for mould release agents, cleaners and sealers.

Through the use of trusted products widely used in the aerospace, automotive and motorsport industries their support will be enable us to press ahead with producing high quality carbon fibre bodywork for BR14; the team’s 2013 entry into the Formula Student competitions.

Michael Woodcock, European Business Director RCT (Rubber, Composites, Tire) said “Chem-Trend is happy to be able to support Brunel Racing and wishes them good luck for their next race at Silverstone: Keep racing!”

The construction of BR14 is progressing well and the team will put Chem-Trend products to good use in the coming weeks, as we start the manufacture of BR14’s composite components.

For information on our latest partner, please visit www.chemtrend.com

The new year started for Brunel Racing just over a month ago now, and as the dust settles from yet another drastic change in team composition, work has been starting on our car for the 2013 season.

Numerous new recruits are quickly becoming familiar with the rules and regulations, the team ambiance, and what their roles will be for the next 10 months. Meanwhile the more experienced team members have been getting used to their new responsibilities and plotting away in the office; making plans for our upcoming creation, BR-14.

After our time on Saturday, we started in the early group for endurance. Whilst on track, BR-13 was the quickest car by a long margin, setting consistent mid 80-second laps. However with one and a half laps to go, the car stopped suddenly on track. Unfortunately that ended our endurance run. Not sure exactly what caused our car to stop, however we think it was a powertrain issue. 

It is a sad end to BR-13’s competitive time, especially considering the promise it shows in some dynamic events. Final results for FSG will be posted soon, as soon as they are announced.

Thank you for your support towards BR-13 and many thanks to all of the team members who have created a quick, yet unfortunately fragile car.

Saturday was a frustrating day at FSG for Brunel Racing, as we found a technical issue whilst queuing for a practise run before acceleration. As a result we only just made it out to get a time for acceleration, and as we were having shifting and clutch issues, we couldn’t maximise the potential of our car. Congratulations have to go to TU Delft, for setting a stunning 3.45 second acceleration!

In the afternoon, we got another of our drivers (Pete) into the car to do some practise and also complete his sprint run. As he was still learning the car, he set a reasonable lap time around the fantastic sprint course! Adam was back in the car for sprint, however after waiting for two hours to get back in the queue for 2nd driver runs the battery on the car had given up and the car stopped shortly after leaving the pits.

Again, all of the drivers report back that they really like the set-up and driving characteristics on BR-13, so fingers crossed we can do well tomorrow!

First thing on Friday, we had our design judging and cost judging sessions, answering loads of questions about BR-13’s design. In the afternoon, Adam delivered our business presentation to the judges, which they seemed to like! Below you can see our team photo!

Friday also saw us get through dynamic events. In the morning, we got through scrutineering in the morning and after some time carried out our two planned skid pad runs, setting an awesome 6.01 in the second run. We finished 9th in skid pan as a result, which shows how much potential there is in BR-13!

We are going to go through scrutineering today at FSG, whilst also getting ourselves ready for the FSC static events tomorrow. To keep up to date with our scrutineering, keep checking back and looking at the image below to see our technical inspection sticker status!

We have set-up our pit area and we are doing final checks and jobs to get the car ready for scruitineering. Not much time for enjoying the lovely weather here at Hockenheim!

After finishing off our to-do list, the team is on the way to FSG2012! First stop…Dover, hopefully the convoy wont get lost!

Our first crack at the brake test.