Late in 2012, a group of University students, mostly from the Faculty of Engineering and the Faculty of Economics, Management and Accountancy, teamed up to design, built and race an open-wheel formula style race car from scratch.

This was a daunting challenge which has kept the team busy ever since. Work on the design and construction of the car took up most of the students’ free time, in between lectures, in the evenings and at weekends.

Their efforts culminated last July when all the various parts and components were assembled together to form the finished car.

The UoM Racing team is very pleased to announce that the car has been successfully completed and everything is set for the Formula ATA 2014 competition which will be held from August 29th to September 1st at the Riccardo Paletti Circuit in Varano de Melegari (Parma, Italy).

Around 80 universities from all over the world participate in Formula ATA each year. This is the second time that a team from the University of Malta will participate in this competition, with the first team having participated in the 2007 edition. See: www.uomracing.com

Having sorted out countless logistical challenges along the way, the team is now busy practising for the various events that make up the competition and making fine adjustments where necessary. The competition is made up of dynamic and static events.

The team is preparing safely for the various dynamic events by setting up a replica of the track at the large car park at the University of Malta Campus and simulating the actual competition as far as reasonably possible. Static events consist of design and business presentations, focusing on key technical and engineering aspects of the car and presenting a business proposal to the panel of judges who would be acting as potential investors.

The whole idea behind the business presentation is to build a car at a sensible cost that allows for profits to be made if the car is produced and sold commercially.

Through this exciting project, UoM Racing hopes to encourage more students to come forward, improve upon this year’s car and build new cars to participate in Formula ATA and similar competitions in future years.

This project also stimulates research in the automotive field at the University of Malta. To this end the project is supported and assisted by the University’s Research, Innovation and Development Trust (RIDT), along with the Faculty of Engineering and the University of Malta itself.

The team thanked Dr Ing. Maurizio Fenech who as faculty adviser guided the team through all aspects of the project. They also gave special thanks to Dr Mario Farrugia, Ing. Noel Balzan and the technical staff at the Faculty of Engineering who were vital to the team in achieving its goal and successfully completing the project.

The UoM Racing team also gave thanks to its sponsors, who have made this project possible through their support, both financial and technical.

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