Barden bearings keep the wheels turning on Team Bath Racing’s Formula Student car

Super precision bearings manufacturer, The Barden Corporation (UK) Ltd, is supplying angular contact ball bearings to Team Bath Racing for use on its 2014 Formula Student racing car. Team Bath Racing is a team of around 100 undergraduate engineers from the University of Bath. Every year, the team designs, builds and competes with a single-seater racing car in the worldwide Formula Student competitions. Having competed in Formula Student events since 2001, Team Bath Racing has established itself as one of Europe's top teams. In 2012, the team finished fourth in the Austrian event, the best performance that year by a UK team, as well as second in the endurance event in Austria and was the winner of the Cost & Sustainability competition (UK). As Franco Botes, Business Manager of Team Bath Racing comments: "We've been using wheel bearings from Barden since 2010 and they have proved to be very reliable. The car has a pair of angular contact ball bearings fitted to each wheel. Obviously, the wheels are a critical part of the racing car and the overall power train set up. If we fitted inferior bearings to the wheels, this would lead to increased friction, overheating and slower speeds around the track. The wheels undergo high lateral forces, particularly when cornering, and so having superior wheel bearings ensures high reliability, lowest possible friction levels and a better overall performing car." Barney Eley, Product Engineer at The Barden Corporation (UK) Ltd comments: "The bearings on the racing car are from our FAG range of angular contact ball/spindle bearings. These are mounted back-to-back in pairs on each wheel. The bearings are manufactured to P4 accuracy, with P2 internals. For extra performance, the bearings use ceramic balls and are outer ring relieved, sealed and greased."