On Friday evening, the Eindhoven student team URE presented its new car at the 18 September square. The URE13, as the car is called, has an electric drivetrain that was developed by the team itself at the university. The URE13 weighs 193kg and has 180hp. In just 2.3 seconds, the car accelerates from 0 to 100km/h. With the URE13 the team will once again take part in student races all over Europe in the Formula Student.
According to CFO Alex Pap, this year the student team has chosen a different strategy: “We have focused on a strategy that allows us to test as much as possible so that the car becomes reliable”. The parts of the car have also changed a lot this year: “We have paid attention to three main points: better cooling of the battery and of the engines, so you can have more power and drive more efficiently. We also paid a lot of attention to the weight of the car, which is why we made the aerodynamics package as light as possible, made less use of aluminium components and used less glue. We also conducted research into how tyres develop while driving. We now know which setting causes the tyre temperature to rise rapidly. That’s why we also know what kind of tyres we’re going to use next year or even later this year.”
In addition to developing the URE13, University Racing Eindhoven has another project in progress: developing an autonomous racing car. During the racing week in Germany, the Formula Student Driverless has been organized since last year. The Eindhoven student team wants to take part in this in two years’ time and is busy converting the car from two years ago. “Our goal is to drive an autonomous demo at the end of August or the beginning of September here in Eindhoven. We are now in the testing phase. The mechanical and electrical part of the car is finished. We are now going to test to see if the car will really be autonomous going forward. It’s difficult because we’ve never done it before, it really is trial and error.”
Before an Eindhoven car can drive autonomously on a circuit, there is still much to be done, but the team’s ambition is clear: “Ultimately, we want to win. We are going for the highest podium.”
Photo: Tom Salemink
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