Dynamics UPC Manresa was brought to life in 2015 as an association of the Manresa’s Superior engineering Polytechnic School as a voluntary student’s project.
With a common petrolhead passion the Dynamics UPC Manresa was created: an student self-managed racing team willing to not only build its own racing car, but also to build dreams and new passions. That way, year after year we design from scratch and build up our single-seater racing car to take part in the Formula Student, a student-level engineering competition where we will represent our University with our car.
As to we we are now, the team has taken part in four consecutive seasons of this tournament. This year however we are returning stronger than ever, to face up a season that awaits big, great changes.
The Formula Student is the biggest student-level automotive competition in the world. In it, universities’ teams from all over the world consisting entirely of students design and build a Formula 1 inspired racing car so they can compete against each other in diverse tests, both dynamic and static ones, where not only it is important how the car runs, but also how it was designed and the building process behind it in order to create a “fake” business plan to bring the car into production.
Aside from having a huge influence across the globe, each year new locations, new countries show up to the tournament. As to right now we could highlight some of them such of Montmeló (Spain), Hockenheim (Germany) or even A1 Ring (Austria). That way, students from different locations from all over the world get together for a week to share new experiences and build friendship, but most importantly, to share the passion that gets all of them moving.
For us, this competition is seen as an opportunity for us students to put into practice the knowledge we are obtaining during our degree all on our own, designing, building and setting up an astonishing racing car. To put it all in a nutshell, it is an opportunity to form ourself for our future, facing up typical situations of a big engineering project.
The Formula Student tournament takes part each year across the world in its different dates independently. This means that it does not work as a point-score tournament. In fact, there are countries that have its own competition; in Europe for example it would mention Spain, Germany, the UK or Austria apart from others.
That way, in Spain the event is set up in the Catalunya Circuit in Montmelo, where in fact, the Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix.
Every single there is in the tournament is ruled by the competition’s regulation book, based on the Formula SAE to guarantee safety and equality across all participants. Each one of the teams has to follow without exceptions that rule book, being disqualified if any of the parameters are violated.
But how really is the competition?
Well, it is mainly divided into two separated blocks, the dynamic tests, and the static ones.
The dynamics events are those ones where the racing car’s capabilities on circuit are tested.
Acceleration: Ready, Set, GO!. The car must accelerate as fast as possible across a distance of 75m from a stand still. The fastest one wins.
Skidpad: In a 8-shaped circuit, the car will show how much lateral grip has by doing a run as fast as possible.
Autocross: In a 1km circuit, and in turns, the teams will keep on trying to make the fastest lap. This test will not only award points in the general overall score, but it will also determine the position in which the teams will start the next event.
Endurance: As the name states it is an endurance race. 22 laps in a 1 km circuit with a change of driver in the middle point. The one car that completes the race the fastest wins.
On the other hand, the static events do not require the car to be running, and they consist on several speeches and presentations where the team will have to explain and hand over its fabrication method and process in front of the judges, and argument the reason of their decisions.
Nowadays, Dynamics UPC Manresa consists of a shy over 50 engineering students of UPC Manresa University who all share the same passion: We are all petrolheads, and we have a mission in our heads, to build the best single-seater racing car.
As we all know, it is key to have a great internal planning in order to keep the straws inside the camel’s back. This is why we organise our team into different specialized departments, which focus their work on an specified aspect of the vehicle. The fact of joining students from different engineering degrees allows to each one of the teams members to focus its work regarding of its possibilities, amplifying that way the concepts learned during the degree.
So, digging deeper, each one of us takes part in both a technical department and a management department, defining as technical the ones related directly with the design and building process of the vehicle, and management the ones whose work is essential to bring into reality the project, requiring that way more social and economical capabilities rather than mechanical ones. As for today we have five technical departments: chassis and ergonomy, drivetrain, dynamic, aerodynamics and electronics, plus five other management departments that lay under the names of marketing & sponsorship, business plan, logistics, design report and finally cost report.
Working hard since the very first moment is a must, that is why since the very beginning of the school year in September, the team gets moving analysing the new season’s objectives, revising what mistakes were made in the last one and finding weak points to improve. The admission process of new members starts as well in September so that way they can get in touch with what we do as soon as possible so they can adapt to how the team works.
How we organise ourselves in between departments to make our work match each others is also very studied. Each weekend, the whole team meets up at university for a meeting where each department shows what progress it has made during the week, so that way new solutions to the problems they have encountered pop up. Every other week, once the meeting has finished, the team goes to the workshop to work on some aspects of the car that can already be worked on so that way when the design and simulations phase has finished in December we can get our hands dirty right away so the car can start to become real as efficient as possible.
As a racing team, each year we are looking for improve ourselves. Make our car a little faster, a little lighter, a touch lighter, in essence, make it better. This is the reason why this new season and after looking back to where what we have reached with the DYN-04 we decided to throw it all through the windows. This season would hold big changes that would draw a line between the before and after in Dynamics’ team.
A new heart. After looking back, we decided that if we wanted to really address major changes, we should start with the engine. It was time to say the last goodbye to the 4 cylinder block that gave breath to our beast since then in order to welcome our new engine, now with one single cylinder, from KTM.
Stronger. When facing this new season we have promised ourselves to boost the driving feeling and the car’s behaviour. In order to to that we decided to improve the torsional strength and deep focus on dynamic part of the vehicle, having in mind to reach an optimal set-up to help the car feel better composed, more planted.
More organized. Electronics are essential in a vehicle. This is why it should be easy to understand and to manipulate. Looking forward to this year, we have promised ourselves to unify every electronic system under a single mother base that manages everything.
A new face. A car’s bodywork is like its face, its image, and in the competition’s world that face not only should look stunning, it must also work. Following those lines, for the DYN-05 we have set out to redesign a new aerodynamic package more efficient, no only so the car can look better, but also feel better.
A bulletproof feather. At the end of the day however he most important thing in a car is that it works. From Dynamics we have focused this new year on turning up a notch on increasing the reliability of our racing car even more having in mind a key aspect, the weight and how to keep it down. This, and the fact of having now a much lighter engine makes us believe in a quite important weight reduction that will help us being even more a strong rival at Formula Student’s tournament.
Even so, we can not leave aside our studies, in which we will also improve as engineers when forming ourselves inside different aspects of the engineering world, carrying on a project and working as a team, just like if we were inside a big company.
While it is true that in order to grow, the most important thing to know is to sum and to multiply, it is equally important to know your roots in order to understand what has failed, where to improve. For Dynamics, the DYN’s history is really important. Since its born, our racing single-seater has evolved year after year to finally become the winner that awaits this season.
It all started with the DYN-01. With it, Dynamic’s history started up. In our very first year in the competition, we managed to finish a car an bring it to the competition; a huge statement, since seeing a first-year team accomplish to complete a car is quite rare. While it is true that we started standing out from the crowd, the car did not pass inspection so it could not compete, returning home with a promise of returning the following year.
And that is how the DYN-02 arrived. With this new project not only we passed the technical inspection and the dynamic tests, but also the car competed in all races, with the one and only flaw of not being able to finish the endurance race. But if there is something to stand out is that with only two years of experience, that season Dynamics managed to be the best combustion spanish team in Business Plan, and the second best in Cost Report.
We started to gain speed, so we could not stop now. And we certainly did not. With de DYN-03 we came back, stronger than ever, creating our best car to that date, and picking up what we accomplished after a great season at Formula Student Netherlands we came back home with a second place in the efficiency run, as well as the third best position in the endurance race and in Business Plan. All together meant that we left Netherlands as the second best team in the whole event. Once at home, we claimed ourselves as the best catalan team at FSS, as well as the third best national team and the best combustion team amongst the ones from the UPC. But surely, we did not stop there, we aimed higher, and we hit the right spot.
This last year, as incredible as it may seem, we have not been less. With the car on a diet, the DYN-04 arrived to be nothing but a champion, shaving 60 kg from the overall weight in the process, and managing that way, to once more, come back home with another title, this time, as the third best catalan team in the competition.
Dynamic’s history is no long-lived, but surely it is lofty. It is passion and ilusion towards what we do what has made us be where we are today; and being shore this trip has only just begun, we would love that all of you that feel that same passion would come along with us on this journey.
