Dynamics UPC Manresa Team Interview

Amira Tamam

Introduce your team briefly.
Dynamics UPC Manresa came into life in 2015 as an initiative from the EPSEM’s (Escola Politècnica d’Enginyeria de Manresa) students in Spain. Since our first competition with the DYN-01 our team has evolved and grown, to behold now 50 members and a brand new beast, the DYN-05.

Tell us about your team’s history with Formula Student.
Summer 2016 was the first time the name Dynamics appeared in a competition, taking part at the Formula Student Spain event with the DYN-01, our very first car designed and built in less than a year (quite an achievement for a first-timer team). Since then, we have kept coming back each season to the FSN contest. In 2018 Dynamics went big; with the DYN-03 proving to be our best car to that date, we attended our first competition abroad, at Formula Student Netherlands (FSN) coming back home with a second overall position. Since then, the team has never stopped improving, coming back in 2019 for yet another step into making our name big.

What does joining Formula Student Netherlands mean to you?
It is a comeback. It is an opportunity for us to come here again and bring another trophy after these years of hard work. 2019’s DYN-04 was a big step forward in innovation which led the pace for this year’s car to be a true winner.

What are your main goals for this year?
We cannot lie to ourselves, winning is our biggest and more ambitious goal. But what we are really here for is to learn, and having the very innovative, competent (but not so reliable) of our last car, we knew we could make it faster, lighter, grippier. Better overall.

What made you think of/choose FSN?
We attended FSN in 2018 and since then it is an experience we wanted to repeat.

What makes you different from the other teams?
We are not a big team. We do not have a big budget every season to develop a new car. We are quite young as a team. And yet, every year our name appears amongst the winners in some of the competition’s categories. We like to think that our work and ambition is what sets us apart from other teams.

What is your biggest achievement in Formula Student so far?
A second overall position in 2018’s Formula Student Netherlands.

Describe your car in three words.
Fast. Black. Fénix.

How did COVID-19 affect your team and how did you deal with it?
When COVID burst in March ‘20, everything shut down, turned off. We had the 3D design of the car finished and we had just started fabrication, so it was a hard hit on us. All the work moved to our homes and what was able to move from our workshop to different houses was moved so a couple of members could keep on going with the building process. Through lockdown, all of our weekly meetings were telematic and we focused ourselves on new projects which since then were more left aside while only focusing on having the fastest, best looking and overall best car. So for us, this “COVID” time is not lost time, not at all, it is more of an invested time in new and thriving projects for this season, and the following ones. Surprises we have in store all of you will be able to see when the time comes.

 

You can follow Dynamics UPC on their social media platforms for more updates and information.
Instagram: @dynamics_upc (https://www.instagram.com/dynamics_upc/)
LinkedIn: Dynamics UPC Manresa (https://www.linkedin.com/company/dynamics-upc-manresa/mycompany/)
Twitter: @Dynamics_UPC (https://twitter.com/Dynamics_UPC)
Web: http://www.dynamicsupcmanresa.com/es/