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Motorsport

27 Oct 2017

Last week we covered electric hoverbikes in Dubai and today we’re continuing along that path but with a slight twist. What do you get when you cross a motorcycle with new technology and a mountain bike? The answer is simple – a hybrid electric motorcycle called the LMX 161-H. It resembles downhill bicycles and is described as a super-light electric motorcycle weighing in at just 42kg. Early reports suggest it’s ideal for off-road, freeride and enduro use but just as suitable for urban travel.

Two young French engineers and avid riders, Adam Mercier and Lucas Suteau, are responsible for this concept as they see a future for electric motorsport. Their vision turned prototype and the project has quickly become a crowdfunding campaign. Their aim is to get the worlds lightest freeride electric motorcycle to hit the streets all over the world. If all goes according to plan, the first deliveries will go out in May 2018.

21 Apr 2017

Automotive Engineering at it’s Best

Great road cars, sports cars and racing cars all have one important thing in common – total design and engineering! These are not just sports cars; they’re automotive engineering genius. With such striking features, phenomenal power to weight ratio, intelligent design and mind-blowing top speeds, who wouldn’t want to get behind the wheel?

18 Feb 2017

McLaren has announced that it is to construct the new McLaren Composites Technology Centre (MCTC) in Sheffield. The facility is the result of a £50m joint investment with Sheffield City Council and the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC).

The facility, which will create 200 jobs will be the first purpose built facility outside of the existing McLaren site in Woking, Surrey. The centre will be responsible for the research and manufacture of carbon fibre chassis for current McLaren automotive cars and also for future models. With work on the new centre due to start shortly, it is anticipated that there will be 2 years of research and development before advanced carbon fibre chassis will be manufactured from 2020. This will mean that at this point in time almost 60% of all McLarens will be UK sourced.

23 Sep 2016

British motorsport company Prodrive announced this week that testing of the Hummingbird folding lightweight bike would begin in October, with anticipated production and sales starting early in 2017.

The Hummingbird is the concept of London based designer Petre Cracuin. Petre along with co-founder Ligia Stan has a passion for bikes and the project was born out of their desire to have a lightweight folding bike that was not only a pleasure to ride but was also easy to carry around and looked good. Despite having multiple bikes themselves, they realised there was nothing out there that fitted the bill so Petre set to work to solve the problem and the Hummingbird was born. A folding bike that is comfortable to ride, looks good, is easy to fold and carry and weighs in at an astounding 6.7kg. To put that in perspective, that’s the same as two normal weight domestic cats!

23 Jul 2016

When we think of the technical developments in F1 and motorsport generally, we can all probably think of an area in the automotive industry where those developments have had an impact. But do you ever think about what or who else benefits of those developments?
If I was to say that the care of premature babies has been impacted by motorsport technical developments you’d probably wonder how. What about supermarkets? How could they possibly benefit from the motorsport industry?

These are only a couple of examples of where motorsport innovation is being used to solve challenges in other industrial sectors.

3 Jun 2016

At the end of April the Bloodhound Education team, combined with the BBC micro:bit project launched a huge competition for secondary school children; The Model Rocket Car Challenge.

Supported by the army and Microsoft among others, and forming part of the Guinness World record rocket car challenge, school teams are challenged to make foam rocket cars and race them through approved tracks; the aim of course, to be the fastest!

The races are being organised through the network of Bloodhound hubs and will see a series of regional heats that will lead up to a final at the end of June at the Santa Pod Raceway in Northamptonshire. The winners will spend a day watching Bloodhound test runs as well as securing a financial prize for their school.

24 Mar 2016
Following on from last week’s exciting news about the partnership between Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing, we are sticking to the theme of motorsport with the news that sports car production is coming to South Wales.

Both TVR and Aston Martin have announced facilities for South Wales.

After much speculation Aston Martin announced that they will open a new factory at St Athan where they will build the new DBX crossover model. It is expected that the factory will be producing cars in 2020. The factory will create more than 750 jobs; even more when the wider supply chain and local business is considered.

18 Mar 2016

Aston Martin and Red Bull Racing announced a partnership this week to create the next generation hypercar.

The project, codenamed ‘AM-RB 001’ is to be a collaboration between Red Bull Racing’s chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey and Aston Martin’s Chief Creative Officer, Marek Reichman, bringing the classic and signature sports car design of Aston Martin together with the cutting edge F1 technology of Red Bull Racing to produce the ultimate hypercar.

The project will combine and unite some of the world’s best aerodynamics, composite experts and manufacturing masters bringing anticipation and excitement to customers and enthusiasts worldwide.

7 Aug 2015

Here at PRV we provide services to the motorsport industry and there’s no denying that there’s an insatiable appetite for all things motorsport in the UK. TV programmes and Formula 1 viewing figures back that up and the Formula E series was a big hit. But just how much does the engineering in motorsport impact the everyday road car development?

There will be some that say it doesn’t; F1 and race weekends are nothing but a chance for celebrity and excess to take the platform. However, that’s not the view of the motorsport Industry Association (MIA) or the automotive industry themselves, who say that the engineering innovations in motorsport have a significant impact on the wider industry.

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