NEWS
Electric racers: a formidable team
Students from across RMIT have brought their skills together to achieve an outstanding result in the Formula SAE Australasia racing competition.
RMIT’s Electric Racing team came first in the Overall Electrical Vehicle category, first in Efficiency (Combustion and Electric) and placed seventh overall in the annual FSAE-A held late last year at Calder Park Raceway.
The group’s vehicle, the R14E, was also named Top EV (electrical vehicle) for Autocross and Endurance, bringing their overall total to a record score and placing for Electric Vehicles in Australasia.
The Electric Racing team is a collaborative effort encompassing more than 50 students and staff from various programs including mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, business, marketing and the arts, and from all levels of study, including vocational and postgraduate.
Over the past decade, the group has been committed to sustainable engineering and has set out to prove they could produce a simple, fully-electric counterpart for the combustion vehicle competition.
RMIT graduate and 2014 team leader, Michael Butler, said he was incredibly proud of the team’s achievements.
“Everyone worked incredibly hard and it’s not often that you find so many students willing to work and learn beyond the classroom,” he said.
“It is the encouragement, engagement, support and mentoring of countless technical, academic and administrative staff at RMIT that has driven students to get more out of their time at university.”
Looking to the future, Mr Butler said the 2014 car still had even greater potential.
“We plan to build on the current vehicle design and will strive to get significantly more performance out of the 2014 power train,” he said.
“It’s our goal to continually show the combustion teams that EV's are competitive and in 2015 we aim to be one of the top three teams in the country.
“The challenge ahead is to grow the team and pass on the skills and knowledge to new members as existing members graduate and move on from RMIT.
“I have no doubt that with the continuing success, growing alumni community and enthusiastic new supporters that the team will grow stronger as an organisation.”
Since its inception, the Formula SAE competition has seen rapid growth in the number and competitiveness of electric vehicles, with entrants from all over Australia, New Zealand and China.