Feature: Team Spark university of Iceland
In December, I usually like to visit Iceland. It’s one of my favourite places, due to the beautiful nature and great culture. In my experience, they also have the best New Years Eve party!
Iceland is home to Team Spark, the electric Formula Student team from University of Iceland. They began competing in 2011 in the UK and in 2016, for the first time, they also competed in Italy.
Their 2016 car certainly caused a buzz at the Silverstone event, with the unique method of production they used for their aero package. F1 Aerodynamics legend Willem Toet produced a fantastic article on the subject, which you can read here.
The team tell me that 2016 was the first car they produced with an aero package at all, so this is a very impressive effort.
Unfortunately, due to an electric failure, the car did not pass scrutineering at Silverstone, however they were able to sort this in time for Italy and achieved 10th position overall.
Team Spark is a friendly and humble team. They express the difficulties that a team in a fairly remote location has to overcome in order to build their car each year. Actually, they do a fantastic job and their team management is clearly very good. They explain that they have approx. 40 members in total and they are all undergraduates.
Here are the key stats for the 2016 car:
Power source: Electric
Batteries: LiPO
Capacity: 12.2 Ah
Voltage: 600 V
Top speed: 120 km/h
Motor: Emrax 228 High Voltage
Power: 100 kW (134 bhp)
Gear ratio: 1:4
Weight: 273 kg
Chassis: Steel space frame
Body: Carbon fibre
In the workshop, I instantly spotted something that caught my eye. The team had adapted a set of Hoosier tyres for the ice and they looked incredible.
I doubt many motorsport teams can say that they have used tyres that look like this, which prompted me to ask the team what they had used them for. Luckily they captured everything on a stunning video, which is available here
Team Spark is certainly one to watch with interest over the next few years. I look forward to seeing how their 2017 car progresses and hope to watch some more ice driving videos from them in the future!
You can find out more about Team Spark on their website or by following them on social media:
Website
Author: Beth Lily Georgiou
Follow: @BethLilyRace
Evodays 
I am such a big fan of this team and their team management skills. The car battery which they have chosen is really great. Knowing that all the team members are undergraduates and have still achieved so much is really fantastic!!
LikeLike