Loughborough’s Formula Student team has another great season

Posted on October 3, 2018 by Lane Motorsports

Loughborough’s Formula Student team sponsored by Lane Motorsport

Regular visitors to this site will know that Lane Motorsport provides interconnection solutions – primarily based on the Souriau 8STA platform – to the Formula Student team at Loughborough University (LU Motorsport). Souriau’s 8STA circular connectors are ideal for applications where high performance, small size and light weight are key factors – most notably in the motorsport sector. Lane is an assembling distributor for Souriau connector products and offers standard connectors from stock and customer specific connectors assembled to order on short lead times.

The Formula Student programme tasks a university team to produce a prototype for a single-seat race car for autocross or sprint racing and present it to a hypothetical manufacturing firm. The car must be low in cost, easy to maintain and reliable, with high performance in terms of its acceleration, braking, and handling qualities.

During the competition, teams must demonstrate the logic behind their proposal and must be able to demonstrate that it can support a viable business model for both parties.

Loughborough’s 2018 car, known as LFS18, was an improvement over last year’s car thanks to some significant changes aimed at saving weight and improving driveability. The car weighed in at 215.5kg with fluids, down from 230kg the year before. This was mainly thanks to the teams change from 13in wheels to 10in wheels that required a full redesign of the suspension geometry and chassis.

Loughborough’s Formula Student team sponsored by Lane Motorsport

Season’s ups and downs

According to Josh Harris, Deputy Team Leader at LU Motorsport, the car put in a very strong performance at Silverstone finishing 5th in Skidpad, 5th in Acceleration 10th in Autocross and 8th in Endurance.

“Overall the team finished in 10th place, our highest finishing position since 2010. During the Endurance event we also won the ‘Top Individual Driver’ award for one of the drivers. Said Josh Harris.

Loughborough’s Formula Student car

“The team set off to Europe immediately after the UK event to compete in Formula Student East held at the ZalaZone in Hungary. We were on a high after FSUK but unfortunately the car suffered an issue that caused it to impact the crash barriers within the test area. Most importantly, the driver was completely uninjured. However, the car suffered some bodywork and suspension damage. The team worked extremely hard to fix the car but unfortunately missed the opportunity to set an acceleration/skid pad time by a matter of minutes.” Adds Josh Harris

However, the team was able to get the car out to complete three Autocross laps before a clutch issue stopped the final run. The car set a great lap time even without any aerodynamic bodywork fitted. After completing the Endurance event the following day, the team secured an overall finishing position of 24th.

Following FS East the team travelled to FS Czech. The team spent most of the build-up rebuilding the aero package after spare parts were sent out. The car passed scrutineering seconds before they closed before dynamic events – it was a mammoth effort from the team. Overall the team finished 26th in a very competitive field.

This year the team was able to use one of the University’s engine dynamometers in order to help improve its mapping. They successfully increased torque by 20Nm at 4000rpm which vastly improved the driveability of the car around the tight Formula Student tracks. The implementation of a custom gearbox was also hugely successful as this improved the spacing of the gear ratios and allowed for greater performance in the acceleration event especially (a best time of 4.098s achieved at FSUK over 75m).

Loughborough’s Formula Student team car

Taking the season as a whole, LU Motorsport finished 10th out of a total of 81 entries.

For Lane Motorsport, Pete Costin said, “Helping LU Motorsport over the past few years with interconnect solutions has been a very interesting and rewarding exercise. Watching each year’s team improve the car’s design and performance has been very satisfying. Souriau’s miniature connector platforms are designed for the exacting environment that is motorsport and the Loughborough team continues to make the most of 8STA’s high performance capability.”

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Souriau 8STA connectors and accessories can be modified to meet specific customer needs

Posted on September 28, 2018 by Lane Motorsports

Souriau 8STA Size 01 Modified Motorsport Connectors

We have developed a facility in which the tiny Souriau 01 8STA connector series can be modified and remodeled to suit a customer’s specific application.

According to Peter Costin, our Business Development Manager, many customers have a specific requirement often not met by a standard product. “The need to save weight and space, no matter how small, in a motorsport platform is crucial.” Says Peter Costin. “As an example, we can save weight by turning a standard connector into a single flange version using the same high precision machining techniques used by the manufacturer. We can produce custom nut plates or gaskets that match the profile of the modified connector”. Adds Costin.

Souriau’s size 01 8STA connector claims as much as a 20% saving in size and weight over the bigger 02 series. This while demonstrating the performance advantages including resistance motorsport fluids.

The Souriau size 01 connectors accommodate #26 removable contacts and wires from 24 to 30 AWG.

Our size 01 8STA interconnection package also features a range of heatshrink boots made by HellermannTyton and ultra-lightweight protective caps by Weald Electronics.

 

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Souriau 8STA high power circular connectors from Lane Motorsport

Posted on September 5, 2018 by Lane Motorsports

Souriau 8STA Power High Motorsport Connectors

We have available Souriau 8STA high power connectors designed for autosport applications where high performance, small size and light weight are key factors.

They are  available from our online store.

The connectors are derived from established military specifications MIL-DTL-38999 and Eurofighter JN1003 and feature a rugged aluminium body with conductive black zinc plating as standard.

The Souriau 8STA power contacts size 4 can handle up to 200A continuous and are suitable for many demanding autosport applications including starter motors and batteries . They are suitable for wire sizes 8, 10, 16, 25 & 35 mm².

This is one of the smallest and lightest circular connector of its type available on the market. The connectors feature a positive locking mechanism capable of 500 mating cycles.

Operating temperature is – 55ºC to +175ºC and, when mated, the connector meets the requirements of IP67 and can withstand salt spray and autosport fluids.

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Heat shrink boots and 8STA connector accessories from Lane Motorsport

Posted on July 23, 2018 by Lane Motorsports

8STA motorsport / autosport connector accessories

To support the Souriau 8STA offering, we offer a comprehensive package of 8STA compatible heatshrink boots made by HellermannTyton and accessories made by Weald Electronics. These include nut plates, protective caps and gaskets – all designed to meet the often extreme environments found within the motorsport sector.

We are now HellermannTyton’s biggest distributor of moulded boots and shapes for the motorsport market.  The company stocks standard boot, glue lined boots, high temperature boots for fuel tank applications, both straight and right-angled variants and the very popular V9500 twin pack epoxy used to glue standard boots.

Weald’s recently introduced lightweight caps – available in shell sizes from 01 to 24 in both receptacle and plug formats – are as much as 40% lighter than standard motorsport caps. Sealing is to IP67 and they are available with or without a lanyard.

Weald has redesigned the 8STA nut plates for shell sizes 01 to 24. To make them lighter, Weald has profiled them to better mirror the shape of the connector flange while a new single flange nut plate saves even more weight. Weald’s gaskets are available in high-temperature materials for shell sizes 01 to 24.

This comprehensive motorsport interconnection package is available to specify and purchase online at our online shop.

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Oulton Park proves challenging for Sam Osborne

Posted on April 25, 2018 by Lane Motorsports

After a crash during a track day at Snetterton earlier this month, our racer Sam Osborne considered himself lucky to be able to get to, let alone ride at Oulton Park. His bike was OK, but he fractured his L3 (the L3 vertebra located in the lower back portion of the spinal column) – ouch!!

Lane Motorsport racer Sam Osborne at Oulton Park

Qualifying

Despite the injury, Sam qualified 7th in class and 30th overall. Taking part in the weekend was important because adding to his points tally could be key as the season goes on. That’s dedication for you.

Racing

In Race 1 Sam moved up a few places from his start to finish 5th in class and 25th overall.

In Race 2, he was 7th in class and 26th overall.

Not surprisingly, Sam struggled at Oulton Park. Apart from his back issue, he is still coming to terms with his new, more powerful Suzuki prepared for Sam by MSG Racing Suzuki.

Sam says “Didn’t think I was going to be racing this weekend anyway, so just happy I could get out, roll round and get some points. On wards and up wards. Round 3 is Cadwell Park and we like it there. Hopefully get back into the groove a bit”.

Lane Motorsport racer Sam Osborne at Oulton Park

For the record, Sam is currently 5th in the Sportsman Championship.

Lane Motorsport specialises in interconnection solutions for the motorsport sector. It offers a comprehensive package of 8STA connectors and 8STA compatible accessories made by leading manufacturers Souriau, HellermannTyton and Weald Electronics. The 8STA accessories include heatshrink boots, nut plates, protective caps and gaskets – all designed to meet the demanding environments found throughout the motorsport sector.

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Sam at Donington – A weekend full of positives!

Posted on April 3, 2018 by Lane Motorsports

Sam Osborne, Lane Motorsport’s sponsored biker, declared the season’s first event “a great success”. After excellent early season practice and some key modifications to his Suzuki, including the addition of suspension components by the leading Italian manufacturer Mupo, Sam turned up at Donington confident that he could compete on equal terms with the leading riders in the field.

Sam Osborne Lane Motorsport Racer at Donington Park 1

Qualifying

Ready to go on wet tyres, Sam heard that the racing line was drying fast so he took a chance and decided to change the rear tyre for a cut slick. The result? A very creditable 12th.

Racing

In the first race, Sam started off the line pretty well but dropped back to 20th.  He patiently made his way through the field to finish 15th overall and a brilliant 2nd in class.

Sam started Race two from 17th on the grid so there was much work to do. He moved up to 9th with a good start but dropped back to 17th, 3rd in class.

Before Race three, Sam made some adjustments to the foot rest positions and suspension settings and it seemed the bike was doing everything he wanted it to do. Unfortunately, three laps into the race he “lost” the front and ended up with a “did not finish” but thankfully with no harm to Sam or his bike.

Sam comments “Overall it was a great weekend and the bike has so much potential and I can’t wait to see what the future brings. After riding with the Mupo suspension for the first time I’m really impressed. It gives so much feedback it’s unreal. We felt the back squatting as I put the power on so we adjusted the pre load and it was like a different bike. I can’t wait for Oulton park now!

Sam Osborne Lane Motorsport Racer at Donington Park 2

Lane Motorsport supplies the motorsport sector with a comprehensive package of Souriau 8STA connectors and 8STA compatible accessories made by leading manufacturers Souriau, HellermannTyton and Weald Electronics. Designed to meet the demanding environments found throughout the motorsport sector, the 8STA accessories include heatshrink boots, protective caps, nut plates and gaskets.

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LUMotorsport Student Team – a good 2017 and a better 2018 in prospect!

Posted on February 27, 2018 by Lane Motorsports

Formula Student 2017 Car Launch

LUMotorsport is Loughborough University’s Formula Student team, comprising solely of student volunteers who design and build a single seat racing car from the ground up each year. Lane Motorsport  a division of Lane Electronics is one of LUMotorsport’s sponsors and over the years has been reporting with interest the progress made by the team as it develops each season’s car. Lane Motorsport supplies the Loughborough team with a variety of Souriau’s high performance 8STA circular connectors as well as the relevant assembly tooling.

Formula Student is an annual engineering competition in which student teams from around the world design, build, test, and race a small-scale formula style racing car. The cars are judged on a number of criteria including engineering design, technical inspection, acceleration, endurance and business presentation.

The 2017 car – the LFS17 – helped the team have what it describes as a successful season. The car kept LFS16’s strengths and, importantly, improved on its weaknesses. The most improved area was the custom turbocharged engine, where power was increased by approximately 30bhp with much improved driveability.

At the first event at Silverstone, the car put in a strong performance ending up in 13th place despite some technical issues. The powertrain continued to attracted praise from competitors and judges as it was one of the most powerful packages in the Formula Student Paddock. This meant the team were able to finish the Acceleration event in 4th place overall, missing out on a podium position by 0.002s in the top 6 run off.

LU Motorsport Team sponsored by Lane Electronics

The next event was Formula Student Czech Republic where LFS17 looked set for a strong finish until a stub axle failed during the endurance event. Prior to the failure, LSF17 put in another strong acceleration performance, improving by 0.3s over the time set in the UK event to finish 9th in a very competitive field. The team secured an overall finishing position of 24th.

A replacement part was fitted to the car and setup changes were made to prevent another failure from occurring, enabling the team to compete at Hockenheim in Germany.

The German event is one of the most prestigious events in the world, attracting an extremely competitive field. By this point, many of the car’s problems had been resolved and LFS17 put in a very good performance, finishing 34th overall.

LU Motorsport Team sponsored by Lane Electronics

Looking forward to the 2018 season

2017 was the first year that an LUMotorsport car had a full aerodynamics package (front wing, rear wing and floor). Therefore, the aim this year is to improve on all three by reducing weight, producing consistent downforce and revising the cooling system for increased aerodynamic freedom.

The unique turbocharged Triumph Daytona engine delivered an impressive 88bhp and 4th place in FSUK acceleration last year. LUMotorsport is aiming for further gains in 2018 as a result of securing the use of an engine test cell within the AAE department at the University.

The suspension geometry on LFS18 will be completely different to its predecessor as it will be fitted with 10 inch wheels – instead of 13 inch. The change will reduce the cars weight significantly and the suspension team is working hard to ensure that mechanical grip is not compromised.

Lane Motorsport specializes in electrical and electronic connector solutions for all types of motorsport platforms offering a comprehensive package of Souriau 8STA connectors alongside accessories made by HellermannTyton and Weald Electronics. These include heat shrink boots, nut plates, gaskets and ultra-lightweight protective caps – all designed to work alongside the Souriau motorsport connectors.

We hope to bring you more information on Loughborough’s LFS18  as the year progresses.

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Sam Osborne is back in the saddle – And with a new bike!

Posted on February 26, 2018 by Lane Motorsports

Lane Motorsport’s sponsored biker Sam Osborne is all set to return to racing this season after missing most of last year. His chance of a competitive season in the upcoming Thundersport GB GP1-Sportsman class has been give a massive boost with the purchase of a new bike.

It’s a Suzuki GSX-R 1000, one of the best racing machines on the circuit. For the statistically minded, the GSX-R 1000 has a top speed of more than 173 mph (278 km/h), a 1/4 mile time of 10.1 seconds at 141.7 mph (228.0 km/h), and a 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) time of 3 seconds. Now that’s travelling! Sam Osborne New 2018 Bike

Thundersport is recognised as the most established, well known and competitive motorcycle racing club in the UK. It has produced many of the sports leading riders and is seen as the perfect place to start racing with racing categories that range from freshman or novice right up to the GP1 Elite class which is the club’s premier category.

We will report on his progress once the season starts. It begins with two practice weekends at Donington Park (23 Feb) and Cadwell Park (4 March) and then Thundersport GB visits seven circuits throughout the UK before the finals at Snetterton in October.

The weekend dates for the eight events are:

March 23       Donington Park

April 20          Oulton Park

May 26           Cadwell Park

June 21         Mallory Park

July 27           Brands Hatch

August 25       Anglesey

Sept 21          Cadwell Park

Oct 19           Snetterton 200

Lane Motorsport, a division of Lane Electronics, is known for its comprehensive package of 8STA motorsport / autosport connectors and compatible connector accessories made by Souriau, HellermannTyton and Weald Electronics. These include heatshrink boots, ultra-lightweight protective caps, nut plates and gaskets – all designed to meet the demanding environments found within the motorsport sector.

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Souriau 8STA Size 01 connector and accessory package available online

Posted on February 15, 2018 by Lane Motorsports

Souriau 8STA Size 01 connectors and accessories

Lane Motorsport has made available an ultra-miniature 8STA circular connector as well as a range of ultra-lightweight size 01 8STA compatible accessories.

The Souriau size 01 8STA connector offers a significant 20 percent saving in size and weight over the larger size 02 series while maintaining all the performance advantages which includes an anti-vibration design and a high resistance to motorsport fluids.

According to Lane Motorsport, these Souriau size 01 connectors accommodate #26 contacts that can handle wires from 24 to 30 AWG. Other key features of these ultra-miniature connectors include seven colour-coded orientations, PCB options and a boot termination feature.

Lane Motorsport’s size 01 8STA interconnection package features a comprehensive range of connector accessories made by HellermannTyton and Weald Electronics. These include ultra-lightweight protective caps, heat shrink boots, nut plates and gaskets.

Weald Electronics’ size 01 aluminium protective caps feature an anti-vibration locking design and are about 50 percent lighter than the standard size 02 designs. They are available in 14 sizes and two versions for plugs and receptacles. The caps can be supplied with or without a flexible, stainless steel micro wire rope lanyard.

Weald’s size 01 nut plates are profiled to better mirror the shape of the connector flange and are designed to help the assembly process.

HellermannTyton’s size 01 heat shrink boots are exclusively available from us. Available in straight and 90⁰ versions, these are heat shrinkable, strain relieving boots for backshell to cable transitions and are adhesive lined and made from fuel-proof material.

This comprehensive motorsport interconnection package is available to specify and purchase online in our online store.

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Huge interest in our motorsport connector and accessories package at Autosport Engineering 2018

Posted on February 2, 2018 by Lane Motorsports

Lane Motorsport stand at Autosport International / Engineering

We witnessed a huge amount of interest in our electronic connector and enlarged connector accessories package at this year’s Autosport Engineering Show held last month at the NEC.

We showcased our comprehensive selection of Souriau 8STA connectors and accessories including the incredibly small shell size 01 8STA Series of circular connectors which is becoming widely used in the motorsport world thanks to its weight and space saving characteristics combined with high performance.

Over the past 12 months we have made a number of additions to our ranges of 8STA Series compatible connector accessories. These include motorsport heat shrink boots from HellermannTyton, as well as ultra-lightweight protective caps, nut plates and gaskets from leading connector manufacturer Weald Electronics. Our Autosport Engineering booth also featured Weald’s modified 8STA connectors which are designed to save even more weight and space.

As HellermannTyton’s biggest distributor of moulded boots and shapes for the motorsport market, we showcased standard boots, glue lined boots, high temperature boots for fuel tank applications and the very popular VG950 twin pack epoxy used to glue standard boots.

Together, this all makes a comprehensive motorsport electronics and electrical connector package which is also available to specify and purchase online in our e-commerce store.

If you couldn’t get to the show and need more information about our electronic connectors for motorsport, please contact us by emailing motorsport@fclane.com or calling us on +44 (0) 1403 790 661.

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