The students of Riga Technical University (RTU) have designed and built a car - student formula with their own hands, with which they will participate in international competitions in Hungary from July 27 to August 3, and later in August - also in Poland. Such a student-built car is the first in Latvia, and the RTU student team is the first to participate in the "Formula Student 2024" competition organized by the Organization of Mechanical Engineers.
The students built the car for about two years. Most of the machine's parts are designed, drawn and manufactured by ourselves - milled and printed with a 3D printer. They made the car suspension and running gear themselves, designed and created the pedals and steering gear, made and equipped the formula with electronics, programmed the control unit themselves. They have only bought the engine originally produced for the Honda RR 600 motorcycle.
The "Formula Student 2024" competition in Hungary will start with the technical presentation of the cars made by the teams. Students will have to tell and explain to F1 engineers from the leading world teams the principles of building their car - what technical solutions they chose and why. In this way, it is checked whether the students have built the car themselves, because one of the conditions of the competition is that professionals may not participate in the creation of the car.
On the second day of the competition, a technical inspection of the car is expected, testing whether it is safe to operate the car and move with it. After that, there will be three days in which the driving ability of the car will be tested - the car's run-in and the development of the highest speed. The students estimate that the car could reach 90 km/h, but there will be no tracks in Hungary where such a speed could be developed, so it is likely to be limited to 70 km/h. During the car inspection, the brakes will also be tested, the pilot will have to drive the figure eight to check the accuracy of the construction, he will have to drive 21 kilometers on the track, thus testing the durability of the car.
"This is a competition for engineering students, in which the formulas do not compete in speed stages, but the jury checks how accurately the machines are built from the point of view of engineering and what the students' knowledge is," says the executive director of the student team, RTU medical engineering student Emīls Erciņš.
The teams will also have to present their business and product development plans that could be offered on the automotive market. "All costs must be listed - what was produced, what was bought ready-made, how much the work itself cost. It is challenging," says E. Erciņš.
28 students from various RTU study programs and faculties participated in the car making, but the team is led by RTU industrial design student Elīza Ripa. Colleagues of the team, most of whom are boys, unanimously elected Eliza as captain.
"This project has been operating in the world for 70 years, Latvia has never participated in it, so we decided - we can build a car, we can bring the name of RTU and Latvia to the world and show that Latvian students can also build a formula," says E. Ripa.
The desire of young people is that the construction of student cars in Latvia is not limited to this car. They plan to build the next car that will work in hybrid mode - both as an electric car and with an internal combustion engine.
Photo: Riga Technical University