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Press Release - 15 July 2005

Student racing car is fastest in the world

A racing vehicle built by engineers at the University of Bath proved to be the fastest student car in the world in a recent competition.

The car, built by final year Mechanical Engineering students, won the Acceleration Test section of the Formula Student competition at Bruntingthorpe, near Leicester.

The car covered 75 metres (82 yards) in 3.97 seconds, reaching a speed of about 80 mph. This is the first time a student racing car has covered this distance in under four seconds.

A minor oil leak meant that the car did not complete the 22km (13.6 mile) Endurance Section, and the team finished 18th overall out of 70 entries.

Students from most British universities entered, as did teams from 40 overseas universities. The overall winner was Toronto, Canada.

Each year a car is built by engineering students at Bath as part of their degrees. The University also entered a car which had taken part in last year’s competition, and which came fifth this year.

The students also entered a design for a car which will be built next year, and this won the Design Section outright.

“The success of the two cars and the design shows what hard work and creativity goes into the competition,” said Dr Geraint Owen, who supervises the students.

“We run at a budget considerably less than many entries, so we are proud that we did so well.”

The University of Bath is one of the UK's leading universities, with an international reputation for quality research and teaching. In 16 subject areas the University of Bath is rated in the top ten in the country. View a full list of the University's press releases: http://www.bath.ac.uk/news/releases