Race to the finish line: ECU Racing launches lighter, quicker, more powerful car

To coincide with Edith Cowan University (ECU) Racing’s 15th anniversary, the team have unveiled their new, student-built race car.

Lighter, faster and boasting more power than those before it, the new racing machine is destined to accelerate to new heights, with preparations underway to compete in the UK at the world’s largest university competition, Formula SAE.

“We have confidence that this car and our team will perform with what it takes to make it to the UK for one of the best races in the world when it comes to student engineered vehicles,” student engineer and team leader Ashley Ure said.

“At the beginning of the year the team starts with a blank slate, we use multiple different types of software to aid us in our design.

“We focus on design for manufacture as the students make most of the parts on our in-house machines, and then it’s all about quality control, assembly and testing to make sure we get the results we want.”

Weighing in at a feather light 150 kilograms, it can travel 75 metres in under four seconds.

“The cars are incredible to drive, their small size means that they are nimble as anything, and when you’re so low to the ground the sense of speed is incredible,” student engineer Cian Butler said.

The ECU Racing car is bound for Melbourne in a month where they will continue to test and prepare the car to ensure pace and reliability at the competition.

After achieving second place in the 2012 Formula SAE-Australasia competition, the team made the decision to travel internationally which resulted in the 2014, 2016 & 2018 campaigns, landing the team in the middle of the English countryside at Silverstone for the Formula Student UK competition.

The team performed well at the 2019 Australasian competition, taking out the overall static events win for the first time in the team’s history, set up by a 1st place in Business Presentation and 2nd in Engineering Design.

In 2023 and 2024 – as the lighter, quicker and more powerful machine accelerates its way to the racetracks, the team say, this time they’re confident of a win.

“We performed really well in 2022, bringing home six trophies and narrowly missing out on a podium – this year we are coming back stronger,” Ashley Ure said.

15th anniversary of ECU Racing

Over ECU Racing’s 15-year history, 11 cars have been built by engineering students.

From ECU08 to The Nail in 2011, to Lawrence in 2022.

For more on the history of ECU Racing and to keep up to date with upcoming races head to ECU Racing.

Source: Edith Cowan University