The second edition of Formula ATA, organised by the Italian Automotive Technical Association took place at the Fiat Auto owned Balocco proving ground last month bringing together engineering students from around Europe. Described as a sport-technical event, it is dedicated to engineering students to enhance their know how, creativity, team working skill and professional competences. The event was divided into two big competitions addressed to the small single seater (Formula SAE Italy) and to ecological two, three or four wheeler vehicles (Formula TECH).

Eighteen teams contested the Formula SAE Italy trophy with points being awarded in seven different categories: Presentation, Design, Acceleration, Skid Pad, Autocross, Endurance and Economy. The prestigious European universities taking part this year comprised of the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Universität Bayreuth, Politecnico Di Torino, Universität Stuttgart, Universita Di Modena E Reggio Emilia, Coventry University, University Of Applied Sciences Munich, University Of Applied Sciences Graz, Fachhochschule Kiel, Graz University of Technology, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Brunel University, University Of Applied Sciences Amberg-Weiden, Universita Di Padova, Universita Di Catania and the Universita Di Lecce.

The overall winners this year were the team Joanneum Racing Graz from the University Of Applied Sciences Graz who beat the TUG Racing Team from Graz University of Technology. These two battled it out for honours and eventually Joanneum Racing Graz came out on top, by the slenderest of margins though: 902.9 points to 893.7. Third place went to Rennteam Uni Stuttgart from Universität Stuttgart with 794.5 points, fourth was Hawck Racing from the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (722.4 points), fifth went to the Running Snail Racing Team from the University Of Applied Sciences Amberg-Weiden (683.6 points) while sixth place was claimed by the Madmodenaracers from the Universita Di Modena E Reggio Emilia (649.3 points).

Born in 1981 in America and devised from the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) the competition since then has been diffused in England, Australia and Brazil, raising up a great success among engineering students from all over the world. Every year it moves hundred of teams that face many hard working hours and thousands kilometres to participate to the official competitions. In 2005 the ATA, signed a licence agreement with SAE, to organize Formula SAE Italian event that will be held every year in September. Determined by official rules, Formula SAE allows students to participate with a complete single seater car or with a project.
 

This programme gives student teams the chance not only to confront each other in static and dynamic tests, but also to live the event in a professional like context and, last but not least, to have fun. Formula SAE provides two entering class: Class 1 for Team who compete with the complete vehicle and Class 3 for teams competing only with the car project. Since first edition success, in 2006 ATA opened the competition to 25 Teams: 20 in Class 1 and 5 in Class 3. Participants were judged this year, as during former edition, by a Technical Committee of experts who come from the car racing field.

The second Italian Formula ATA event took place the during Monza Grand Prix weekend last month, so the event had the added bonus of attracting some Formula 1 personnel to Balocco. Novelty of this year was that the ATA International Conference on “Advanced Chassis Control” focusing on By-wire technology and its application to improve vehicle performance and safety took place at Balocco over the same weekend.

The Balocco Proving Ground's facilities proved to be an ideal location at which to hold the second edition of Formula ATA. The proving grounds were established in the 1960s to provide the test tracks for the development of the new Alfa Romeo cars, initially consisting of a 2,000,000 sq.m of road surfaces divided into speedways, special roads and off-road tracks. In 1992, a circuit of 7,650 metres for the high-speed testing of cars, with banked curves of up to 30 percent inclination, was constructed enabling top speeds in excess of 300 km/h, together with a 7.7 km circuit for road trials on trucks.

The “Langhe mixed circuit” was built in 1993; 21km in length, the test track includes flat and (with gradients of up to 14 pct) sections and a 3.5km special surface section. In 1999, the facilities were completed with a 2.4 km test track for the ride-comfort testing of vehicles. Today the surface area of the test tracks exceeds 5,000,000 sq.m in total with a combined length 65km of test tracks encompassing a very wide range of road types.
 
The facilities are used extensively by the Fiat Group (including Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Maserati and Ferrari) for the testing and certification of new vehicles and for the organisation of sporting events on behalf of manufacturers of cars, trucks and motorcycles from around the globe.