PROM Racing - Formula Student Team

About the Team

Our team was founded in 2008 and since then it worthily represents the National Technical University of Athens in the worldwide competitions of Formula Student. The objective of our team is to conduct research, design and manufacture a Formula-style racing car, with which it will take part in these competitions. This year, Prom Racing, following the lead of the global tendency and continuing its ever-increasing progress, is aiming to manufacture its very first electric racing car, after attending the Formula Student Combustion competition for 12 years.

Our goals

·       Drawing upon our design and manufacturing experience from our last year's car and based on our experience and the feedback given by the judges at the competitions over the years, our team, for a second year in a row, aims to manufacture a Full Carbon Monocoque Chassis, which will be improved in several ways and designed to suitably match the new Powertrain. One of our basic goals is to keep the weight as low as possible, lower the center of gravity and increase the stiffness of the chassis and the suspension. The department of Aerodynamics has as its upper goal to use more specific models of research, which will be applied on the study of quite complex aerodynamic geometries. The high voltage sub-team, in cooperation with the vehicle dynamics department, chose, by the use of simulations and analysis, the new motor, the most suitable assemblies and battery cells. Moreover, tests are accomplished on the new telemetry system, with the aim of increasing the range and the transmission speed.

·       However, the most difficult part of this year's undertaking has been the finding of resources and funding, due to both the fact that a transition from a combustion to an electric racing car entails high costs and the unfavorable financial situation prevailing in our country, in general. Thus, in order to eliminate these difficulties to the greatest extent possible, we composed, since the beginning, a detailed budget, so that we know the financial needs that will arise during the year and we sought to offer a significant number of professional compensatory benefits, with the intention of attracting sponsors. These perks were categorized into sponsorship packages, always based on meritocracy. Furthermore, one of the main goals of our team is to develop close relationships with our sponsors, who are our supporters in our demanding endeavor.

·       This year, our Marketing Department is trying to establish Prom Racing as a well-known, recognizable brand. One of our highest priorities is to get the Greeks more familiar with the Formula Student Competition and, of course, to make known the Prom Racing's achievements to them. In order to accomplish this plan of ours, we reconsidered our whole marketing strategy and we decided to start off by following some basic steps. Specifically, we have reorganized our social media strategy and we tried to attract a permanent and loyal audience. Our marketing innovation is the "Prom Show", the official YouTube show of our team, in which the everyday routine in Prom Racing is presented and, additionally, a lot of challenges that our members have to face.

·       Last but not least, a better planning of the team structure has begun, via well-placed recruitments throughout the year, which will highly contribute in our team's most gradual transition possible to the Driverless (without a driver) Class of Formula Student over a time period of 2 years.

Our Printed Circuit Boards:

Cooling System

The cooling PCB fulfills the key role to control the operational area of the radiator fan and the water pumps.

Precharge

A circuit which ensures that an intermediate circuit is pre-charged to at least 95 % of the actual accumulator voltage before closing the second Accumulator Isolation Relay.

Discharge/TSAL

Discharge is an analog circuit for safety reasons, in order to discharge an charged capacitor between the accumulator box and the inverter of our formula car. TSAL is an analog circuit, which indicates the tractive system status with multiple leds.

Dashboard

This PCB is responsible for many actions in the formula car, including handling the buttons that interact with the shutdown circuit as well as the ready to drive sequence (a characteristic sound defined by the rules of the contest). The Dashboard PCB also activates the Ready to drive Sound and other driver controls, such as the DRS, the dashboard screen navigation buttons, the drivetrain setup knob and the launch control button.