New joint Race Secretary Richard Santhouse, explains what went on at Silverstone recently for a few members
On Thursday 10th November, some of the Banbury Stars took the opportunity to visit Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub as Kalas, our kit providers, presented an evening with Vorteq.
The idea of the evening was to get an insight into the Research and Development that goes into making the world’s fastest skinsuits. The evening started at 6pm with welcoming drinks and snacks. During the first 30 minutes we had the opportunity to check out the Kalas and Vorteq collab skinsuits and other Kalas kit.
“Suits you sir” – modelling a Vorteq skinsuit
Shortly after at 6:30pm, Rob Lewis OBE presented ‘’An Introduction to Aero’’. Rob is hugely experienced in Aerodynamics and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), gained from a successful career in motorsport engineering and F1, also part of the ‘Secret Squirrel Club’ for the British Cycling team. The presentation was really good, it showed how the smallest of adjustments in skinsuit position and using differing fabrics can have a greater impact for both speed and distance.
We were then split into different groups to attend a Biomechanics and Wind Tunnel demo. The Biomechanics Engineer talked about the importance of a bike fit. The engineer showed the group a saddle seat map from a demo rider, we had to distinguish what was wrong with the saddle setup and make necessary changes to the bike. Following on, we visited the Wind Tunnel to see Max Belcher on his TT bike. We went inside the tunnel, chatted to the engineers and got to see a live demo, reviewed the data on the screens.
Watching Max Belcher in the wind tunnel
The evening was wrapped up with the opportunity to try the new skinsuits on and find the best sizing. Hopefully the new suits will be available to purchase next year.
We’d like to thank Stuart Quick for sending out the invites, Alex Tebbs from Kalas, Vorteq and Silverstone Engineering hub for hosting a great evening. If the opportunity comes around again, would recommend to attend.
