Shortly after DibaOne had been built, NMMU Racing entered the 2010 Knysna Hillclimb, but decided to return to the event to fully test the capabilities of the vehicle at this year’s Speed Festival. Surrounded by Mclarens, Ferraris, and Lamborghinis, DibaOne ran solidly through practice and qualifying events on Saturday, to end up in the top-three shoot-out for its class on Sunday. During the event, our drivers, Vishek Mohanlal and Richard Chambers managed to improve their times by more than five seconds, finishing the 1.9km hill at an average speed of 106km/h.
Gugu Zulu also took time to wish our team well, and pose for a photograph. The team has appreciated the support and positive role model he has provided over the past year.
DibaOne competed in the Formula Student Germany competition in August 2011, becoming one of the most successful first-time entrants to the competition, while also taking the accolade of the first South-African Formula Student team to build and compete internationally with their car. The past nine months has been used to further test and tune DibaOne, while designing and building our second vehicle, DibaTwo. The result was a far superior performing DibaOne, both in terms of dynamics, and reliability.
Some of the improvements made to DibaOne include:
- Electro-pneumatic gearshift powered by CO2 gas
- Improved engine ECU calibration
- Suspension and tyre sensors to monitor and optimise vehicle handling
- GPS sensor for speed, location and lap times
We are very pleased to see the growth and experience the team displayed at the event, and look forward to seeing DibaTwo take shape, take to the track, and beat our time next year! We also hope to see more universities taking up the “Formula Student” challenge to make the event even more interesting in the future.
Congratulations to the NMMU Racing team on once again leading the way!
www.speedfestival.co.za