Sir Jackie Stewart OBE to join leading motorsport engineers and writers at Cranfield University

Three times Formula One World Champion, motorsport safety campaigner and former F1 team boss Sir Jackie Stewart will join leading motorsport figures for the first History of Motorsport Technology Conference and Dinner at Cranfield University on 3 July 2012.

The History of Motorsport Technology Conference will be an integral part of National Motorsport Week 2012, held between the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

In association with media partner Motor Sport Magazine, the conference will address:

•        Grand Prix giants and the Land Speed Record

•        Ground effects from the 1920s

•        The major 'schools of motorsport engineering'

•        Engineering insights from an innovator’s career: the remarkable Colin Chapman

•        F1 race car design and development in the 1960s and 1970s

•        First age of F1 turbocharging

•        Developments during the Group C era

•        Safety in motorsport

•        Race car simulator development

•        Gaining advantage in Grand Prix motor racing

•        Evolution of the UK motorsport technology cluster

Organised by Cranfield's Motorsport Engineering and Management Programme Director Clive Temple, speakers include Peter Wright, Joe Saward, Karl Ludvigsen, Brian O'Rourke, Graham Humphrys, David Tremayne, Mark Hughes, Professor Mark Jenkins, Graham Campion and Charles Armstrong-Wilson. Craig Scarborough will display his illustrations covering technical developments in the atrium.

There will be a display of competition cars from the early years to the 2000s that reflect some of these key technical developments. It will be a full day’s programme including a keynote address given by Peter Wright, together with a networking lunch. Tea and coffee will be available at registration. Following the conference there will be a dinner. Guest of honour at the dinner is Sir Jackie Stewart. In recognition of William Boddy OBE, there will be the Bill Boddy Award for the best presentation on the day.

By organising this conference – the first in a series of annual conferences dedicated to the motorsport - Cranfield University is setting out to recognise both the contributions of our engineers and the historians and journalists who have charted these developments. It is considered that the latter groups should receive greater recognition of their work academically.

Cranfield is one of the world’s leading university centres for motorsport. The University has been actively engaged in motorsport research, consultancy, education and testing since the 1970s. Cranfield’s facilities are second to none and include the Cranfield Impact Centre and Cranfield Motorsport Simulation. The MSc Motorsport Engineering and Management has accelerated many graduates to careers in motorsport.

More information at www.motorsportconference.com

Event date: 3 July 2012 during National Motorsport Week

Location: Vincent Building, Cranfield University, College Road, Cranfield, Bedfordshire, MK43 0AL   

The History of Motorsport Technology Conference will be an integral part of National Motorsport Week 2012, held between the Goodwood Festival of Speed and the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Leading motorsport engineers and designers who have contributed to the sector’s key technological developments and internationally recognised motorsport historians and journalists will present papers here at Cranfield University. Presentations will also cover the context in which these developments have taken place and the development of the motorsport technology cluster in the UK.

Topics covered will include:

• Grand Prix giants and the Land Speed Record
• Ground effects from the 1920s
• The major 'schools of motorsport engineering'
• F1 race car design and development in the 1960s and 1970s
• First age of F1 turbocharging
• Developments during the Group C era
• Safety in motorsport
• Race car simulator development
• Gaining advantage in Grand Prix motor racing
• Evolution of the UK motorsport technology cluster

Organised by Cranfield's Motorsport Engineering and Management Programme Director Clive Temple, anticipated speakers include Peter Wright, Joe Saward, Karl Ludvigsen, Brian O'Rourke, Graham Humphrys, David Tremayne, Mark Hughes, Professor Mark Jenkins, Graham Campion and Charles Armstrong-Wilson. Craig Scarborough will display his illustrations covering technical developments in the atrium. 

There will be a display of competition cars from the early years to the 2000s that reflect some of these key technical developments. It will be a full day’s programme including a keynote address together with a networking lunch. Tea and coffee will be available at registration. Following the conference there will be a dinner. Guest of honour at the dinner will be three times F1 World Champion, Sir Jackie Stewart OBE. In recognition of William Boddy OBE, there will be the Bill Boddy Award for the best presentation on the day.

By organising this conference – the first in a series of annual conferences dedicated to the motorsport - Cranfield University is setting out to recognise both the contributions of our engineers and the historians and journalists who have charted these developments. It is considered that the latter groups should receive greater recognition of their work academically.

Cranfield is one of the world’s leading university centres for motorsport. The University has been actively engaged in motorsport research, consultancy, education and testing since the 1970s. Cranfield’s facilities are second to none and include the Cranfield Impact Centre and Cranfield Motorsport Simulation.

> Register now for the Conference

Cranfield reserves the right to change information without prior notification.

CMS are pleased to announce the release of the Snetterton 2011 layout. The new layout along with a large range of other tracks are now available to drive at our facility based at Grand Prix Racewear.

You can view the new Snetterton layout here. 

This is a perfect opportunity to get some pre season testing in, especially if you have just moved up into a new formula. If we do not already have your car modelled we are able to very rapidly create a high fidelity model to match your real life track data.

Contact us to book now!

Kat has an excellent weekend at her first time at the notorious Spa circuit.

Starting from 11th on the grid for race two, Impey made a great start diving down the inside of the famous La source hairpin and making up 4 places, by the penultimate lap. Impey was hounding 3rd place man through Eau Rouge and made a fantastic slipstream move into 3rd place, but the fight wasn't over and had to defend all the way to the finish line, crossing one tenth of a second a head to take a well deserved 3rd place.

Impey said "It was a fantastic weekend for me, not only to finish on the podium, but my very first time I've been to the Belgium Spa circuit! I think doing some research and simulations paid off because the circuit felt familiar.

We look forward to welcoming Kat back into the simulator at Cranfield to help her prepare for her future races.

Find out more about Kat at http://www.katimpey.com

Cranfield Motorsport Simulation would like to congratulate the Fortec Renault BARC team after a succesful session in the simulator.

Josh Webster is now the new points leader of the 2011 Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship having won round five and placing second in round six.

As this was his first ever race meeting at Oulton Park, Josh used the CMS simulator facility for track recognition and pre weekend practice.

Kieran Vernon also had a great weekend after using the CMS simulator, placing second from a grid position of seventh in round five and fourth in round six.

With the Protyre Formula Renault BARC Championship now heading into an 8 week summer break, CMS look forward to welcoming the Fortec team back into the simulator in preparation for the next round in Croft on 23rd/24th July.

Continued development with Fortec sees Formula Renault BARC drivers Kieran Vernon and Josh Webster at CMS. Once again, both drivers were left impressed with the sustained motion cueing simulator and found the day to be highly beneficial prior to the Oulton Park race weekend. Race engineer, Sean Thompson, found the live telemetry data to be an excellent tool for car set up and the overlaid replay feature allowed visual comparison of where the drivers were gaining or losing time. CMS would like to wish Kieran and Josh the best of luck during this race weekend and for the remainder of the season.

CMS has recently welcomed Formula Renault drivers Will Stevens and Félix Serrallés at the simulator at Cranfield. They both found the onset and sustained g-cues allowed a much greater feeling of the behaviour of the car and were able to run a successful test session around  the Nurburgring. Following this successful simulator session, we look forward to welcoming them both back in the near future and wish them both the best of luck for the remainder of the season.

Cranfield Motorsport Simulation (CMS) is pleased to announce the delivery of the first fully functional “G-cueing” simulation system to Formula 1.

A leading UK test driver’s reaction to the enhanced fidelity simulation provided by the CMS system was ‘Until I tried it I didn’t believe it, but now I am a convert, it’s amazing’.

CMS’s technology has been in development for many years in the domain of fast jet and helicopter simulation. It is firmly based upon the science of human physiology and it exploits the brain’s response to sensory inputs. CAe’s Technical Director, Professor Ian Poll said “Most simulators used in motorsport are little more than fair ground rides - with the emphasis being on shaking the driver about! Our system, however, uses a variety of carefully tailored inputs to the body’s sensory system and the driver’s brain interprets these to be the result of real accelerations being applied to the body. If the brain believes it, simulation becomes reality and the training value is considerably enhanced”

CMS was created in 2010 to meet the need for hi-fidelity simulation in world motorsport.

For more information, please contact
Graham Campion, CMS Business Development Manager.
Tel: +44 (0) 1234 754099
E-mail: graham@Cranfieldmotorsportsimulation.com

Issued by:
Cranfield Aerospace Limited, Cranfield, Bedford, UK. MK43 0AL.
www.cranfieldaerospace.com