Formula Student

At the latest Formula Student competition, held in Winton, Australia over the 6-10 Dec 2018, the University of Canterbury Motorsport (UCM) students won several awards, impressing the judges and securing first place in Business Presentation for their electric vehicle and the combustion car took home third place for Engineering Design. This is the first year the UCM students have designed and built two state-of-the-art race cars to enter in the highly competitive international event – one electric race car and the other driven by a more conventional combustion engine. Find out more about our 2018 cars.

In March 2018, the team signed a generous sponsorship deal with world-renowned Triumph Motorcycles Limited.  This year's team has been ranked third in the combustion engine class, out of 556 teams. The exceptional performance of the team attracted the interest of Triumph Motorcycles Ltd in the United Kingdom, who will supply the team with ultra-high-tech three-cylinder engines and parts that are similar to those it will supply for the Moto2 grand prix motorcycles.

The 2016 team designed an electric race car that made history in Melbourne in December by becoming the first electric race car to win a dynamic event at the Australasian Formula SAE competition, competing against more than 30 other university teams.  It was also the first New Zealand-built four-wheel-drive electric race car, and the first New Zealand team to compete in an international motorsport event in an electric car. 

The 2015 team celebrated a podium finish in the 2015 competition in Melbourne, Australia. The team placed first in skid pan, second in autocross and second in the business presentation part of the competition, where students had to ‘pitch’ their car to a panel of mock investors.  The 2015 car was painted in pink and blue, in tribute to the late Christchurch engineer and entrepreneur John Britten, who designed and built the famous Britten V1000 motorcycle. 

2013 was the first year a team of student competed in the competition, where they won the Inspired Engineering Award at an international university racing car competition in Melbourne.  The following year the team's car was 25% faster than the previous year, and technically more sophisticated.  The UC team designed and built their own racing car last year that clocked 0 to 100km an hour in under four seconds, and UC was the top ranked rookie team in the world out of more than 500 university teams worldwide.

• Follow UC Motorsport on Facebook.
• Explore the UC Motorsport webpage
• Contact and join UC Motorsport at ucmfsae@ucmotorsport.com

For more information about the competition or sponsorship opportunities, contact the Faculty Advisor to the Formula Student team: