About 40 students from the Dresden University of Technology engineered, designed and manufactured the Arundo RS, which derives from the latin word for arrow. In combination with the Arcus, our last year’s car, it creates a perfect symbiosis not only looking at the names but also at the way we approached both projects. Bow and Arrow and in our words speed and agility. Facing this year’s competition at the Formula Student we want to attack with our Arundo RS.
The Arundo RS has improved in many ways compared to the Arcus. First of all it weighs 20kg less and secondly is a lot faster. The weight of Arundo at this very stage is approximately 238kg, but that is not the final weight of the car, which should drop bellow 220kg. At this point we want to thank all Formula Student Teams for their support at the FS event in Silverstone where we still had some difficulties.
We constructed a one-piece Monocoque made of carbon fiber reinforced plastic. Other innovations which we at ELBFLORACE decided to go for were for instance the rims, the uprights, the seat, the intake system and other parts as they were all made out of carbon fiber.
We are even the first formula student team to come up with our own uprights out of carbon fiber. The weight of one carbon fiber rim is ca. 1,5kg in which even Ross Brawn showed a big interest in Silverstone.
In 2009 we use an anti-lock braking system, which we developed ourselves. Also we use dampers developed by ZF, which are ZF RD36-2 and a Drexler differential especially produced for the Formula Student. The heart of the Arundo is a Honda CBR 600RR PC37 engine. Our carbon fiber rims are reared with Continental tyres 205/510 R13 which are also constructed for the Formula Student. In the cause of the problems with our ECU we replaced it with our last year’s Trijekt ECU. Furthermore we improved the gear changing process as we applied an electric ME F1 shifter which is normally used in Go Karts rather than using a pneumatic solution again.
During the assembly of our car in spring 2009 we had difficulties with our time management because of the aim to produce that many components out of carbon fiber.
The next FS event where we will participate will be the event in Italy. Unfortunately a registration for the FSG in Hockenheim was not possible because of the great number of teams that applied. Never the less we thank the ZF Friedrichshafen AG to expose our current car at the event.
But in 2010 we are definitely ready to race and prove our potential to all sponsors and partners of our team: ELBFLORACE
We would like to thank you for your help and support with our FS racecar. Without you, this would not have been possible. THANK YOU!
