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A (Mostly) 3-D Printed Race Car Hits 140 Km/h
An anonymous reader writes with an excerpt from a story describing the efforts of a 16-person team called "Group T" competing in the Formula Student 2012 challenge. They've created a car called the "Areion," described as the world's first 3D printed race car. "The Areion is not wholly 3D printed but most of it actually is. It was tested on Hockenheim race circuit and
went from zero to 100km/h in just four seconds. Maximum speed Areion achieved on the same circuit was 141km/h."
The car features an electric drive train and bio-composite materials, and was created using a printing system called Materialise.
More information in the original article: http://www.materialise.com/cases/the-areion-by-formula-group-t-the-world-s-first-3d-printed-race-car
Except the circuit board is a major functional component of a computer. What was printed was more like the decorative bezel on the front of the case... all the weight and stress bearing components being of more conventional manufacture.
You may not realize it, but racers aren't street cars - racers have frames that carry all the weight/stress.thrust and roll cages that protect the driver. The shell is pretty much decorative.
It's because Formula Student courses are extremely tight and curvy. A shorter wheelbase gives you a smaller rotational inertia, which means you can enter and exit corners faster. This comes at the expense of high speed stability, and indeed most FSAE/FSC cars get quite unstable above 90mph.
On top of that, a shorter car is a lighter car, and every gram counts on a race car.