Overview

The chassis has been completely redesigned from scratch this year, with focus placed on making a shorter, lighter spaceframe to increase performance through short, winding courses. The aluminium body panels have been designed to give better torsional stiffness performance than the previous year, whilst also providing a more ergonomic driving position.

Pedal Box

This year the team is again using an in-house pedal box design that aims to give superior driver control by simplifying the system to only two pedals. Clutch control will function through a hand clutch on the gear shift. The sliding adjustment mechanism for variable height drivers has been kept from previous years designs with modifications to fit the current spaceframe.

WFS 08 Pedal Box Design (Designed by Phillip Turner)

Crash Structure

This years crash structure has been developed with the guidance and support from top CAE and crash simulations experts Simpact Engineering. The design comprises of a light weight aluminium structure housed within the front nose cone of the car. Through rigorous a computer aided simulation process (using Altair HyperMesh and Radioss Crash software) the design has been optimised to produce a light weight crash structure that is weighs only 1.2kg and still performs to the SAE competition requirements.

 Computer Simulation of WFS Crash Structure (Design by Phillip Turner Supported by Simpact Engineering)

Driver Ergonomics

The driver will be seated on minimum thickness moulded foam to provide the required levels of support and comfort with minimum weight penalty. Drivers are restrained using a custom built 6-point harness which secures them in optimum position for viewing the dashboard instrumentation whilst having a clear view of the track in front. This year the aluminium body panels have been designed to provide a superior driver position, with a raised panel just below the drivers knees for a more traditional 'bucket seat' feel.

Uprights and Hubs

This year the main aim is to reduce weight, so the uprights have been designed from scratch to be machined in-house. All four uprights are symmetrical meaning increases in manufacturing productivity and financial savings if the car were to be mass-manufactured. The hubs this year are designed with the CV (constant velocity) joint inside the hub, rather than mounted outside, as with previous designs, as a more elegant single-piece solution with less to go wrong, meaning increased reliability.