Students' Noble racing effort  05 | 08 | 2016

A SCOTS NISSAN dealer has jumped in to support a team of Silverstone-bound amateur racers from Edinburgh University by supplying a vehicle and trailer.

Alex F Noble & Sons, the Midlothian-based dealership, provided the Edinburgh University Formula Student team with a Nissan NV400 Van and a twin-axle car transporter trailer to get them to the Mechanical Engineers’ UK Formula Student competition held at the Northamptonshire circuit.

Aimed at University engineering students, the competition — organised by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers — challenges student-led teams to design, build, test and present a working racing car in competition with over 130 teams from more than 30 countries.

“We were on a very low budget to build our car for less than £3000,” Fahad Iqbal, the team’s aerodynamics leader, explained. "This proved to be a big challenge as we were competing against teams with more than 15 years’ experience and six-figure budgets.

“We wanted to get our name out there and gain more recognition and support from our University and sponsors, so I approached Colin Noble, a director of Alex F Noble & Son, as I had previously worked at the dealership on a workshop placement.

“Being a racing driver himself, as well as a director of a major car dealership, Colin had great empathy both with our motivation to build a car and also with our desire to develop as mechanical engineers.

“Restricted by a low budget, we would have struggled to get to Silverstone without his company’s help.”

Unfortunately the team from Edinburgh faced unforeseen electronic problems with damaged wiring during the final of six aspects of scrutineering and ran out of time to detect and diagnose the fault.

Despite this they were awarded the Team Spirit Award, and earned a reputation of good sportsmanship towards other teams.

Relared: Noble Scot lifts Radical title

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Jim McGill