Students impress in building Formula One Race Car

A challenging achievement in automotive engineering to design and build a Formula One Racing Car, has been mastered by a small team of MTU students working from a shed in rural North Tipperary.

The Formula Student Competition is one of the most prestigious in the world attracting contestants from up to 33 countries scattered worldwide.

The programme invites university teams from around the world to design, build and race a single-seater racing car from scratch, giving third-level engineering teams real-world experience of the challenges and demands of motor racing.

There was a sense of jubilation in the hillside village of Kilcommon on a misty late July evening as the locally designed and made Formula One racing car, which was placed in the 'top of class' position at the 2026 Silverstone Contest final the previous week, arrived in the village for a rousing 'welcome home' community reception.

A large gathering at the local Community Centre applauded the arrival of the 'miracle' machine and several of the team members being hosted by the local Community Council.

Very Rev Fr Dan Woods, AP, Kilcommon and Hollyford, congratulated all involved in such a landmark achievement for the area and recalled how local team member, Nathan Killane's grand father, the late Gerry Byrne was a man ahead of his time on machinery ingenuity and Nathan is following in his footsteps.

PROJECT'S BIRTH

The birth of the achievement goes back to Nathan, a native of Kilcommon and Darragh O'Grady, from Thurles, who met at second level in Thurles, before they both graduated to study engineering at TUS, Limerick and dreamed of designing and making their own Formula One car as a project outside of college classes with a lot of support from TUS.

"More than two years ago we had an idea and an ambition but we hadn't a copper towards the cost involved when we started," recalled Nathan.

His mother, Eileen was encouraging and supportive throughout and facilities provided at the home and home shed were invaluable., while his dad, Chris Killane was a huge asset as their faculty advisor.

Having solicited support from colleagues at TUS, on designing, fund raising and the down to earth mechanics of actually building the car, they started to formed a like minded team of ten fellow students, with very valuable guidance and advice at TUS and sought sponsorship support to fund the project.

They promoted the idea through posters at the college while a small group of college students interested in supporting and furthering the objective was formed and met weekly to plan the course of action.

The core team of enthusiasts who worked on the project included Nathan Killane, his second level school colleague, Darragh O'Grady, Thurles, Paddy Seymour, Killoscully who became one of the leading team leaders and had a huge input into the whole project to which he was very dedicated.

He has just completed his degree course in engineering at TUS and will return to do a masters in the 2026-'27 college year.

Included in the core team also were Ciarra McDonnell, Monaleen, a lifetime Lego enthusiast, who acted as programme development manager co-ordinating the work, Mikolat Bieletai, Portlaoise, James Lake, Castletown, Ballyagran, Co Limerick, Will Kinahan, Ardnacrusha, Lauren Fox, Ennis, Szymou Kielak, Castletown, Sean salanah, Limerick City, Asha Grant, Kenmare, Maro Stratlat, Town, Micheal Gill, Mayo, Daniel Gammell, Effin, Ricardo Roque Palios, a native of Mexico, Mariam Taha, Scariff and Gerry Killane, Kilcommon.

"We had to learn how to design a car first and there was a 200 page rule book for the competition which had to be followed much of which was all new to us and we spent most of the first year designing the car," said Nathan.

SOURCING OF PARTS

A shed at Nathan's home became the out-of-college workplace and the sourcing of required parts got under way with the emphasis on using recycled parts, while ensuring quality requirement was upheld.

Some of the parts were scoured from dismantling yards, including Comerford's near Nenagh, while some parts were also provided by North Tipperary Motor Factors at Newport, and a 27-year-old 600cc motor cycle to power the car was purchased on Donedeal.ie

Adaptability and problem solving became a regular requirement of the progress on assembly "working full time over weekends bringing it together" with the approaching deadline of being in Silverstone on July 16.

A year ago they were chosen for some grant support from the Higher Education Authority and were the only group outside of Dublin to be chosen for a €25,000 grant towards the project which was a huge benefit and assisted them to source and purchase quality parts.

They were also one of two Irish recipients chosen for funding under the Formula Student Build Fund from 137 applications in 33 countries and received €1,100 towards the purchase of parts from RS.

Each entry in the contest at Silverstone is very closely scrutinised by a team of engineers to select the small number of participants to progress to the next stage of racing on the track.

"It has taken some teams up to six years to get to racing their cars which is the ultimate objective, because the scrutinisers are very exact that all the rules of the competition have been complied with on the design and assembly of the cars and that the cars meet the required standards," explained Nathan.

"They gave us a list of things to look at again and minor adjustments to make so that we qualify to race the car on the track next year," he said with delight in his voice.

"We can't wait for the day to get on the track. We are taking a few week's of a break now and then going full throttle to finalise everything for next year," he added.

"The new goal is to have the car in full spec for 2027 and we are confident that we can achieve that," he said.

The car has potential to reach a speed of up to approximately 140 kmh, but the actual performance and the agility of how the car behaves on the track is of equal or greater importance in the final adjudication process.

"There are a few things that we feel that we can tweak and we will be having a general overall review on how it is performing now ahead of 2027," he explained adding that the team are very happy with the progress to date and what has been achieved at this point.

On review he admits that "it was difficult at times and needed full commitment not to walk away from it, because it was challenging, but the team were determined to see it through to the end".

Trying to keep within the strict rules, which required a very high spec, was difficult with the limit on funding available to meet the cost of top spec parts.

Nathan exudes with confidence that they are now within sight of achieving their goal and look forward to fine tuning the whole construction ahead of hopefully achieving their ultimate ambition to drive the car in racing mode at Silverstone in 2027.