Happy New Year!
On behalf of the DUT10 team I would like to wish everyone a prosperous 2010. I hope we can learn a lot and make it a succesfull year together!

On behalf of the DUT10 team I would like to wish everyone a prosperous 2010. I hope we can learn a lot and make it a succesfull year together!

D-Day + 1: one day after the Design Presentation, a group of 20 team members defied the cold and snow for another kart outing, this time at IKCR in Roosendaal. Due to the low temperatures it was a bit slippery, both on and off track, while some people took the opportunity to stage a snowball fight afterwards. However, good throwing skills don’t count in a racing car and luckily everybody could also drive pretty quick in a kart. In fact, most members didn’t want to stop, even after a third time!
This evening the design of the tenth car in the DUT Racing car family has been presented to a large crowd. About 150 team members, friends, family, sponsors and members of URE (Eindhoven) attended the unveiling of the DUT10 in the faculty of Aerospace Engineering. After a short movie of the tragic end of FSG last summer, we looked forward to the new year, new possibilities, and of course, getting back the FSG Trophy.
All our engineers have worked hard the past months to evolve the successful design of last year. Even though the design has some exterior similarities, almost every part has been redesigned. There are some notable improvements in the design. The monocoque moulds will be the same, however the side impact structure will be raised with the use of a new 3rd mould. This will increase the overall safety of the car, which is one of the spearheads of this year.
Furthermore the focus of this year will be on simplicity (easier to manufacture). Many parts are designed for production. Also, the steering mount will be cast out of aluminum and the Rear Engine Mounts will be laser sintered from titanium at Airbus.
The DUT10 will run on E85 and with a higher compression ratio we hope to gain some power and be more fuel efficient. The suspension will be designed on 10’’ tires and will be compatible with 13’’ tires. This year we will also focus on the aerodynamics. A new design of the sidepods and the use of diffusers will provide some extra dynamic down force.
Below you can view the unveiling video of the DUT10. Enjoy and see you coming summer.
Tomorrow it is time for the Design Presentation of the DUT10! The new design is finished and that is reason for a celebration.
You are all welcome from 19:30 at the Faculty Room of the faculty Aerospace Engineering. At 20:00 the new design will be presented at room A, whereafter there is the possibility to have a drink at the Faculty Room.
Be there!
Between the car designing and the team activities, a lot is done to increase the skills of our engineers. For example, last month we had an Abaqus FEM and Henkel glueing course.
But we don’t stick with the theoretical courses, we also look to the practical side of the process. How is this done then? It is done by giving all sorts of courses to the engineers, you can think of glueing, laminating, lathing and milling courses. With these courses we can increase the practical experience of the engineers, next to the theoretical knowledge. This experience can be used during the designing phase, because they know how the producing will go and this knowledge can be used to design in such a way that it will be producible. This has of course advantages for the production phase. Like this we can start with the production phase in an optimal way.
Wednesday, 25th of November, the day that has been in the minds of many (former) team members of DUT Racing for weeks. This day marked the very first pool tournament organized by the Action Committee (AC). A large part of the local Snooker Palace (the name is a bit of a mystery, because there are far more pooltables than snookertables) was occupied by 36 participants who signed up, old and young, good and bad, but all in a good mood.
The battle was fierce, the competition tough, the results close and the drinks many. In the end one team emerged victorious: Stef de Jong (former team manager) and Jan Taks. Second place went to Joris Aerts and Thijs Hendriks. After the short victory ceremony the group decided to go into Delft centre to score some more…. drinks. Congratulations to the winners and all participants who made this evening every bit as enjoyable. See you at the next AC® activity!
Last Wednesday DUT Racing returned to the scene of the 2008 DUTch Open, which was held in Zoetermeer, not far from the kart track where a large group of team members went for the second kart outing. This time some ex-drivers from previous years took on the challenge of competing against the new generation, resulting in some great on-track action! The lap times improved throughout the evening and in the end the top of the timesheets showed a good mix of both current, ex- and possible future drivers…
This Tuesday, a group of 40 team members visited Go-Kart-In in Dordrecht for the first of our kart outings. As part of the driver selection process, we were pleased to see that many drivers succeeded in setting a fast lap time, as well as having a great time! At the end of the evening it were last year’s drivers who remained at the top of the timesheets, closely followed by some promising new team members – ready for the challenge that lies ahead…
Sponsoring is vital to our team, without it we wouldn’t be able to build such fantastic racecars and educate our team members. In order to improve the relation with our sponsors, it is important for them to know who we are and what we do. Therefore we organize sponsordays, like yesterday, at which we show them how and where we build our cars.
Yesterday was also a good opportunity to introduce the new team and our sponsors to eachother. After a short review of last year by our former team manager Stef, it was time for Lennart – new team manager – to inform everyone on this years goals and new sponsoring possibilities and services. Of course, the new competition, Formula Student Electric was discussed as well. For now, the team will consider the possibillity.
Finally, everybody got the chance to take a look in our workshop, test their driving skills in our DUT07 simulator and of course have a close look at the DUT09.