Xiangyang, Hubei, 2020.
“The champion of the overall electric vehicle score is Tongji University!”
In the waiting area, 25 young people cheered, raising their arms and carefully lifting their beloved car onto the podium.
Champagne, trophies, prize money… standing on the highest podium of the Chinese Formula Student Electric Championship, they shouted again and again: “DIAN Racing! No. 1!” enjoying their champion moment to the fullest.
They had worked for seven years for this moment.
This is a team founded in 2013 – the Tongji Electric Racing Team, named DIAN Racing. This March, it celebrated its tenth birthday.
In May, the School of Automotive Studies and the College Student Automotive Science and Technology Innovation Practice Base of Tongji University will also celebrate their 20th anniversary.
01 The Birth of a Race Car
Ten years, ten generations, 624 people – enthusiasts of electric racing and engineering came together.
“It feels cool” is almost the initial reason for all members to join the electric team.
The team’s dream is pure: each year, they independently design and build a race car to participate in the Formula Student Electric series.
Beyond the pursuit of speed and efficiency, the team’s establishment also stems from environmental concerns.
In an era advocating sustainable transportation, DIAN Racing follows the trend of electrification and intelligence in the automotive industry, hoping to inject new vitality into the development and promotion of new energy vehicles.
The team is divided into technical, management, and business departments. Besides students from the School of Automotive Studies, there are members from different colleges such as the School of Electronics and Information Engineering, School of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, College of Arts and Media, and School of Economics and Management.
When they first join the team, members may not realize that experiencing the entire manufacturing process of a race car takes almost all their spare time.
Behind “cool” is actually the grind of “fixing the car for eight months, driving it for five minutes.”
In the atrium of the School of Automotive Studies, there is a workspace of about 100 square meters – the dream base of DIAN Racing, where new race cars are born each year.
Starting from the overall concept design, the team analyzes problems from the previous year’s competition one by one and seeks solutions. At the same time, they also learn from other excellent teams and design plans based on their own situation.
With ideas in mind, they proceed to modeling, simulation, software design, then manufacturing mechanical parts, assembling the vehicle, until the car runs on the track, gradually refining and verifying the process.
“From computer drawings to small parts, and finally to a real race car. It feels magical and not easy at all,” said Liu Fan, captain of the 2020 season and 2016 undergraduate student at the School of Automotive Studies.
The black-and-white body with red line accents – the DRe series race cars combine good looks with strength.
Adhering to the concept of “lighter, faster, more stable”, the performance of the race cars improves each year.
From the early steel tube frame to the carbon fiber monocoque, the body weight has been halved. Technologies such as the battery management system, cooling system, and distributed control system have undergone iterations and continuous innovation, improving the vehicle’s energy efficiency while ensuring efficient and stable operation over long periods and under extreme conditions.
From its inception, DIAN Racing has been endowed with the goal of becoming a world-class team.
Innovation is the core of pursuing excellence. The team constantly challenges itself to achieve 100% originality within its capabilities. “If it’s not self-made, it creates dependence on external support and hinders future innovation,” said Song Jiasheng, captain of the 2022 season and 2019 undergraduate student at the School of Automotive Studies.
Over the past ten years, the team has achieved many “firsts” – the first dual-motor team in China, the first four-motor team, the first team to manufacture its own battery box and battery management system, the first four-wheel-drive team with a complete dynamic control algorithm, the first team to manufacture its own vehicle control unit, etc., possessing first-class technology.
02 Flag Accomplished
Admittedly, innovation also means more risks.
Since participating in the Formula Student World Championship, DIAN Racing has basically won first place in various individual awards, but it was always missing an overall championship. The team hasn’t always had smooth sailing.
In 2019, consecutive failures in the Japan and China competitions made the road to the championship bumpy. Especially in the Japan competition, DRe19 achieved the fastest lap in the endurance race, but just a short distance from the finish line, a sudden cooling system failure occurred, ultimately resulting in third place overall.
Only one step away from the championship.
Taking over the baton from predecessors, 2020 season captain Liu Fan set a goal: “New season, must go for the championship.”
Unexpectedly, the pandemic struck in 2020, spreading uncertainty.
To meet new challenges, Liu Fan moved much of the design work online, optimized digital management, strictly scheduled time, and boosted morale.
It wasn’t until June 2020 that members could return to school and begin non-stop processing and testing of parts. Despite difficulties, the team held onto its determination; the belief in winning the championship never wavered.
In the week before the car was to run, members worked intense overtime, reluctant to leave, hoping to do a bit more and refine the race car to perfection.
Under the night sky, DRe20 ran as scheduled on the track, and applause rang out at the test site.
As the competition approached, rather than being nervous, the members focused more on every detail, planning possible problems in advance and adjusting their state to the best.
In November 2020, the competition lasted six days. After some minor but harmless incidents, the team entered the final endurance race.
The driver drove DRe20 lap after lap, while the team members held their breath on the sidelines. When the car sped past the finish line on the last lap, they breathed a long sigh of relief, confident of victory.
Until the championship was announced, the team cheered wildly, releasing the pressure and emotions that had built up over time. The uncrowned king was finally crowned.
“We fulfilled the dream we’ve had since the team was founded; the flag we set back then has finally been achieved!” they exclaimed.
That night, the “DIAN Family” WeChat group exploded. Team veterans jumped in to congratulate, and founder Mr. Huo Da also sent encouragement.
A senior once wrote in a competition diary in 2016: “Old members may leave, so new members must take on the heavy responsibility. I hope you won’t complain about hardship or fatigue, and bravely shoulder the future.”
Waking up the day after winning the championship, technical member Wang Rui read this diary again and couldn’t stop crying. “I will always keep my love for racing,” he said.
03 In Evolution
After reaching the peak, the team was not satisfied.
At the end of 2020, DIAN Racing officially established a driverless team, stepping into the field of autonomous driving. After years of technical accumulation, the team independently developed a brake-by-wire and steer-by-wire system assembly, converting the DRe20 championship car into the first driverless vehicle.
One year later, the driverless car DRd21 performed impressively in its first competition, winning first place in the design report, second place in the autonomous system design report, and third place overall.
Building a dream car is not easy. Fortunately, this is not just the team’s goal, but a dream shared by many.
The Tongji University Automotive Innovation Base is a steadfast supporter of the team on its dream-chasing journey. It boasts world-class vehicle and new energy vehicle testing equipment, academic accumulation, and research strength, and has become an important platform for cultivating college students’ scientific and technological innovation practice.
Through ten years of persistent exploration and hard work, the team has attracted many automotive companies, such as Porsche and Volkswagen, to cooperate with it, and now has over 80 sponsors.
In April 2019, Porsche joined forces with Tongji University, signing a five-year memorandum of cooperation to expand collaboration in multiple fields.
Among them, after the launch of the “Charging Plan”, Porsche senior engineering experts have traveled from Germany to Shanghai multiple times to provide continuous professional training and technical guidance to the electric team.
The team has gone through ten years, accompanying and witnessing the growth of every member.
Here, they are exposed to a variety of professional knowledge, as well as process practices outside the classroom, and gain a more three-dimensional understanding of the industry.
Just like the parts of a car need to fit perfectly, more than 80 people building a race car together each year require close cooperation. In this process, they have forged deep friendships, and the team has become a place they miss and want to return to after graduation.
“Heritage, passion, innovation” – these are the team’s mottos.
Each year, some members leave, and new ones join. People change, but what runs in the team’s blood is problem-solving thinking, innovation ability, and tenacious “team spirit.”
With continuously updated race cars, advanced and mature technical experience, stable cooperative sponsors, and results that prove its strength, DIAN Racing is always in evolution.
They know that the road ahead is long, and temporary failures or successes will not stop their progress. What they care about most is never the results, but the team’s continuous development forward, becoming an industry innovation exchange platform and the driving force for becoming a world-class team.
We look forward to DIAN Racing, as a new generation force, bringing more surprises to Formula Student Electric.
Source: Publicity Department, School of Automotive Studies
Text: Chen Shaoying
Editor: Chen Shaoying