University of Auckland Formula SAE Team (FSAE47)

Launch Night was one week ago and we are still thinking about it... 👀 2024 marks the team’s 20th year of building cars. The team has been led by a passion for endurance, innovation, and discovery - and the M024 is no exception. Our Launch Night not only allowed us to share the culmination of months of hard work with our university, sponsors, alumni, family and friends, but it allowed us to recognise their support and thank everyone that is involved in FSAE47. We were also very lucky to have over 200 people tune in from around the world via livestream. The evening kicked off with inspiring words from Dr. Richard Clarke, our Dean of Engineering, followed by Dr. Simon Bickerton, Head of the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering. Following this, Dr. Tom Allen, our Faculty Advisor, and Thaïs (T) Wright, our Chief Executive Officer, shared the team’s journey this year and introduced the M024. To unveil the car, Stephen Donnell and Emma Murray did the honours of pulling the cover off of the M024 and unveiling it to everyone. Whilst this milestone is a testament to our supporters, it is also possible due to our members across all years in the past two decades. To commemorate them, our members are given team awards to recognise this indomitable spirit. The evening also celebrated current members for their effort with team awards,  - The Gordon Mallinson Award, for the team member who has shown fierce commitment to the team, was awarded to Daniel Hall. - The Trevor White Award, for a team member who has shown excellent engineering ability in design and manufacture, was awarded to Jaundre Pienaar. - The Roger Halkyard Award, for the new member that has shown the greatest level of improvement since joining the team, was awarded to Stuart Wong. - The Daniel De Mel Award, for a team member that stands out for their contribution to the growth of the team through impactful projects and/or upskilling, was awarded to Alex McGivern. This 20Y milestone has been made possible through the continued support of The University of Auckland, the Engineering at the University of Auckland Faculty, The Bruce McLaren Trust, and our industry sponsors—many of whom we’ve had the privilege of working with for over a decade. The M024 is now ready to head to the FSAE-A Competition (Society of Automotive Engineers - Australasia) in less than two months! Here’s to 20 years of racing—and many more to come! 🏎️ #Motorsport #Engineering #Racing #NZ #M024 #FSAE47 #FormulaSAE #FormulaStudent #UniversityofAuckland #UoA

After a long 5 days at the Formula Society of Automotive Engineers - Australasia Competition... 🏎 We are proud to announce that the team placed 2nd Overall! 🥈 This incredible result is a testament to the team’s dedication to building a fast and reliable car. Travelling to Australia to compete against many great teams from various countries made this achievement even more rewarding. The first day of dynamic events saw us completing Skidpad and the Acceleration event. Despite unreliable weather during Skidpad in the morning, the afternoon brought clear skies, allowing us to put our best foot forward for the Acceleration event... Where we set a record-breaking Acceleration time of 3.551 seconds over 0–75 metres! 🏁 To round off the 2024 Competition, we took on Autocross, Endurance, and Efficiency. Successfully completing Endurance this year was a remarkable achievement for the team and a fantastic way to close out the event. 🏆Here is the breakdown of our results… Engineering Design - 2nd Cost Event - 16th  Business Presentation - 2nd Skid Pad - 4th  Acceleration - 1st Autocross - 2nd Endurance - 4th  Efficiency - 10th We feel very fortunate to be able to participate in a competition that helps us grow as young engineers. The challenges we faced have pushed us to learn, adapt, and improve, and we’re ready to take those lessons forward. Congratulations to Monash Motorsport, the overall winner of this year’s Competition and Curtin Motorsport Team, who shared the podium alongside us in 3rd place. A massive round of applause to all the other teams who competed. 👏 We would also like to thank The University of Auckland, the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Auckland, and all of our sponsors, friends, and family for their ongoing support and belief in the team. And to our final year members, thank you for all your hard work and dedication to FSAE47, and we wish you all the best for the future. As we now move into the M025 Campaign, we are focused on raising the bar even higher and pushing ourselves to be the best we can be. Here's to the next chapter! 🧡 #Competition #Motorsport #Race #Racing #Cars #Engineering #NZ #FSAE47 #M024 #FormulaSAE #FSAE #FormulaStudent #UniversityofAuckland #UoA

It has been an incredible start to the Formula Society of Automotive Engineers - Australasia Competition, with our team making fantastic progress over the past two days. 🏎️ Here’s what we’ve achieved so far: We are happy to announce that our new car, the M024, has passed all of the Scrutineering tests. Our Chief Technical Officer Isabella Stevens led our team through all tests. This steered us into a position well ready for the Dynamic Events of Skidpad and Acceleration happening soon today. On our first day, we successfully completed Accumulator, Mechanical, and EV-Static scrutineering. Our Cost Team, directed by Thomas Cranefield, confidently presented their reports and cases at the Cost Event. Despite battling the heat, the team stayed focused and prepped for the challenges ahead through the team administration from our Chief Operating Officer Andy Woo and Deputy CEO Frank Lin. We started the next day by passing Tilt Test right off the bat. We delivered a solid performance in the Engineering Design Event, showcasing our hard work and technical expertise from all of our Design and Manufacture Leaders. Then, our Business Presentation Team Thaïs (T) Wright, Nikesh Nama, and Mushfiqur Khan, all The University of Auckland Commerce students, pitched their case very well, bringing months of preparation to life. Finally, we ended the day by smoothly passing through the EV-Functional, Rain Test, and Brake Test. Now, it's time for us to hit the track and go racing! A huge shoutout to all of sponsors, supporters, friends, family, and our members on and off the track for their dedication and perseverance going into this campaign. Let’s keep the momentum going and finish strong! 🧡 #Competition #Motorsport #Race #Racing #Cars #Engineering #NZ #FSAE47 #M024 #FormulaSAE #FSAE #FormulaStudent #UniversityofAuckland #UoA

G'day from Melbourne, Australia! 🪃 After touching down yesterday morning and picking up the M024 and equipment, the team has been hard at work! We are happy to announce that we have already got the M024's wheels spinning! 🙂 FSAE47 would like to send a massive thanks to our hosts Monash Motorsport, Monash Makerspace, and Monash University! It has been really cool to catch up with all the other guests WESMO, UCM - University of Canterbury Motorsport, and Griffith Racing Team as well. But this is only just the beginning of our pre-Comp preparations. We will provide updates our team's progress at each step of the way. ✍ #Go47 #Competition #Motorsport #Race #Racing #Cars #Engineering #NZ #FSAE47 #M024 #FormulaSAE #FSAE #FormulaStudent #UniversityofAuckland #UoA

What's most desirable in motorsport: tough, precise, or lightweight?   The real question is... why not all? 🙂 Our team's gearbox brackets are made of titanium, allowing for unmatched strength, precision and weight thanks to Zenith Tecnica's electron beam melting (EBM) 3D printing technology.   The design volumes for these parts were first created by FSAE:47’s Vehicle Dynamics Engineer Leon Gorter in Autodesk Fusion 360. Then Senior Structural Designer Brendan Cooper optimised the design volumes for light weight using nTop. Nylon SLS 3D printed prototypes were then test-fitted on the car, and the finalised design was approved for manufacture. 🛠️ Only someone with the skills and expertise of Zenith Tecnica could achieve such exceptional manufacturing quality of these lightweight optimised designs. Instead of re-machining new custom gearbox housings at every iteration, we can assemble multiple custom components knowing we’re supported by such world-class craftsmanship. This saves not only cost but also time. Year after year, the FSAE47 vision can be brought to life with a car that we know can handle the stress and strain of racing. 🏎️ "Zenith Tecnica has manufactured high-quality suspension components for the team for more than 5 years. The additive EBM manufacturing process combined with Ti6Al4V allows us to produce lightweight, stiff and strong designs that would not be possible using other manufacturing techniques." - Michael Adolph, FSAE47 Vehicle Dynamics Leader An industry leader in additive metal manufacturing, Zenith Tecnica has some of the largest EBM capacities in the southern hemisphere. Their work enhances professionals of the likes of Formula 1, the America's Cup, aerospace, medical fields, and much more. 🚀 Big thanks to the Zenith Tecnica team for believing our project at FSAE47, and providing components that push our car—and our engineering—to the next level. 🤝 #3DPrinting #Additive #Manufacturing #Metal #F1 #AmericasCup #Aerospace #Motorsport #Race #Racing #Cars #Engineering #NZ #FSAE47 #M024 #FormulaSAE #FSAE #FormulaStudent #UniversityofAuckland #UoA

Can a micrometre make a difference when autoclaving carbon fibre parts?   Yes, and it can cost you thousands.   Precision is everything when working with carbon fibre composites. So at FSAE47, our Composites Subgroup relies on the need for top-tier breather cloth, bagging film, and mastic tape. Without these crucial components, we wouldn’t be able to autoclave carbon fibre components with pristine accuracy. 📏   That’s where Advanced Aerospace comes in. With their world class components, we can invest our time into making sure that our chassis and aerodynamic package can be perfect. Even down to the last micrometre. Before curing pre-impregnated carbon, our team needs to perfectly apply release fabric and perforated plastic on our carbon, then bag it to vacuum level. There is zero tolerance for air voids. This means, preparing an entire chassis could take days, if not weeks…   But thanks to Advanced Aerospace, we can achieve this in just a matter of hours!   Advanced Aerospace delivers innovative in-house composite solutions to the aerospace, space, marine, and automotive industries. And along with providing the finest release fabric and perforated plastic, they even let us use their autoclave! ♨️   Thank you to James and the team at Advanced Aerospace, we are grateful for your continuous support in helping our team. 🇳🇿   https://www.advaero.com   #Composites #CarbonFiber #Engineering #FSAE47 #FormulaStudent #Motorsport #M024 #AdvancedAero #UoA

We had an exciting day at The University of Auckland Mānawa Mai Open Day! Last week, we proudly showcased our team alongside Engineering at the University of Auckland, offering prospective high school students a glimpse of FSAE47. Morning to afternoon, our setup on Level 3 of the Engineering Building was buzzing with activity. A diverse age range of students inundated our senior members Winola Hu, Alex McGivern, Frank Lin, and Christoph Kim with many questions. From Year 13 & 12's all the way to as young as Year 10! We were delighted to see parents and younger siblings join along, highlighting how motorsport engineering inspires all ages. 🏎️ Our competition-winning car, the M022, was the star of the show. We were thoroughly impressed by the technical depth of questions from students, eagerly pointing out specific parts and demonstrating their passion for motorsports. Future The University of Auckland Business School students were also intrigued! Many were fascinated by our sponsorships, marketing, and finances which collaborate with industries worth up to billions of dollars. From technical displays featuring parts from all subgroups, to racing sims that kept everyone engaged, the day was a big success. Big thank you to one of the other student clubs Vroom for keeping our guests entertained with their racing sim! Thank you to everyone who came along. We can’t wait to see you all again in a year or two! 😉 #Motorsport #Engineering #Racing #Business #NZ #M024 #FSAE47 #FormulaSAE #FormulaStudent #UniversityofAuckland #UoA

Our carbon fibre monocoque is complete! Students on our Composites Subgroup spent the last few months manufacturing the chassis for this year's car, the M024. Here's how we did it: Structural Design Leader Hugh Holroyd led the design of the chassis using Fusion 360 provided by Cadpro. The Composite regions were optimised by our Senior Composites Member Isaac Morris. Then later validated on Altair HyperWorks, Ansys with LEAP Australia, and physical testing on an Instron. Heading into manufacture, our Co-Chassis Leaders Ashni Cumarasundaram and Ishan Rama led the team's Composites Subgroup. We laid up dry fibre from New Zealand Composites on our CNC machined plugs from JACKSON INDUSTRIES. Then, we resin infused those carbon fibre moulds with supplies from Adhesive Technologies NZ and PPS Industries, ensuring nice, aerodynamic curves. Once the moulds were autoclaved at Innovate Composites Ltd, pre-impregnated carbon was laminated. Between the inner and our skins of the chassis, was aluminium honeycomb core. At FSAE47, we are assured of high-quality composites from Southern Spars, Advanced Aerospace, C-Tech Ltd, and EASY COMPOSITES LTD. This builds a lightweight and strong chassis, an icon of our team. The hardpoints, which are crucial to bear loads from other components of the car, were supported by Gurit's high strength, low density Corecell foam. As well as gluefilm, which joins the composites materials into one piece. Finally, we put the top and bottom moulds together with an inner and outer joint strip. All vacuum sealing was done as low as just a few mBar's with VacPuc. With a final trip to the autoclave... ... the chassis was demoulded successfully!!! 💪 This is only possible because of our sponsors, supporters, and fans from around the world. Every year, our mission is to innovate, learn, and have fun by applying classroom skills in motorsport. And with your help, our designs become reality.🧡   But, the campaign is still far from over! It's now time to assemble the car! Join us as we continue building the M024! ⏩️ #Motorsport #Engineering #Racing #CarbonFiber #NZ #M024 #FSAE47 #FormulaSAE #FormulaStudent #UniversityofAuckland