December 7, 2016 / Company

DUT16: a veritable ‘Flying Dutchman’

For over 35 years, students have been pitting their engineering and management wits against one another in a series of annual Formula Student competitions around the globe. As a parts sponsor, HellermannTyton has been avidly following the progress of the Delft Technical University’s DUT16 electric racing car.

Since the Formula Student electric-powered racing car category was launched in 2010, Delft Technical University teams have been demonstrating that they can take on the best of the rest.

The perfect end to the season

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It’s been an intensive summer for everyone involved with the Formula Student Team Delft 2016 racing team. Within the space of six weeks, their state-of-the-art monocoque DUT16 has been put through its paces and judged by experts from automotive engineering in three separate Formula Student competitions in Great Britain, Germany and Spain.

HellermannTyton congratulates the Formula Student Team Delft2016 team on their excellent performance and professional attitude, which culminated in them becoming the overall electric category champion of Formula Student Spain 2016!

“The Formula Student Team Delft have demonstrated unequivocally that they really are the ‘Flying Dutchmen’ on the track”, says Rik Vroege, sales and marketing manager at HellermannTyton B.V. in the Netherlands. “We are thrilled that the cable management parts we supplied the team with contributed to the reliability of DUT16’s wiring system throughout the speed and endurance tests.”

“It was our first time competing in Barcelona at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. No better way to finish the year than a neck-and-neck victory over our biggest rivals, under the Spanish sun. It was a rewarding end for our team after a yearlong effort”, says outgoing team manager Bas aan de Stegge.

All eyes on pole position

Formula Student Team Delft was founded in 2000. The highly experienced team is known for its lightweight and agile cars and is currently ranked 3rd in the world listings.

The first competition of the 2016 season was held in July at the Silverstone racetrack in the UK. An unfortunate technical disqualification in the endurance test denied the Delft team’s aspirations of a podium finish. But they were encouraged by DUT16 still setting the quickest time in the dynamic tests and scoring well in the manufacturing cost and business presentation categories.

Thanks to some sensational driving by pilot Tim de Morée, DUT16 even beat Zurich University’s infamous ‘Grimsel’ car in the sprint discipline – the car which broke the official world speed record for the fastest electric-powered car (0-100kph in 1.513 seconds) in June 2016.  You can watch a video summarising the FS UK16 event.

At the start of August, the team moved camp to the Hockenheim Ring for Formula Student Germany 2016.

 

An epic battle between five teams occurred on the final day of the dynamic disciplines in the electric power category at Hockenheim. Overall, Delft TU earned second place, beaten only by Karlsruhe KIT, but ahead of arch rivals Stuttgart U, Amberg OTH and Zürich ETH. DUT16 really triumphed here on its endurance scoring.

Showdown in Spain

At the end of August, the Delft TU team made a long journey to the Iberian Peninsula to compete in their final competition of the year – Formula Student Spain at the Circuit de Barcelona.

After months of careful preparation and minute adjustments between competition stages, everything finally came together perfectly!

DUT16 came out top on design and endurance, clocked the fastest time on the autocross stage and came second on pure acceleration. Watch the video of DUT16’s fastest lap in the autocross challenge at FS Spain16 in Barcelona to get a front row impression of what it is like to drive like a ‘Flying Dutchman’!

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“The Delft TU Formula Student Team 2016 have proven without a shadow of a doubt that they share the same driving force as HellermannTyton – simply being good is not good enough”, comments Rik Vroege. “We are proud to have played a small part in their success by sponsoring them with quality parts that the team could rely on to help them strive to be the best.”

If you would like to learn more about Formula Student and HellermannTyton Netherlands’ sponsoring of the DUT16, read our earlier blog article here: Formula Student Team Delft harnessed for success.

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