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Only two weeks after its launch, its name has already appeared on the podium of the Formula Student championship: the ascent of Fenice EVO has officially begun!

E-Agle Trento Racing Team, the team of the University of Trento, officially presented the new model of the electric racing car on 7 July at the ‘Fabio Ferrari’ Science and Technology Hub in Povo (Trento). The team improved the overall set-up of the vehicle, introducing important new features in terms of mechanics, electronics, as well as software and controls. The work was made possible thanks to the collaboration with the mechatronic prototyping centre ProM Facility, which has been supporting the E-Agle Trento Racing Team since 2017 with regard to the design, development and production of the car’s components.

Fenice EVO already raced the track in the Varano de’ Melegari (Parma) competition held from 12 to 16 July 2023, during which it successfully passed technical inspections and achieved excellent results, including 2nd place in the Cost Event and 3rd place in Endurance.

The E-Agle Trento Racing Team and teamwork with ProM Facility

E-Agle Trento Racing Team is a racing team consisting of more than eighty students from the faculties of Engineering, Economics, Computer Science and Humanities of the University of Trento. The team designs, builds and competes on the track with a prototype full-electric one-seater racing car.

The team, coordinated by Professor Paolo Bosetti, participates in the Formula SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers), the engineering design competitions reserved for universities around the world, in which young talents compete in the development and realisation of a racing car.

The rules of Formula SAE require participants to integrate modifications to the vehicle every year: the E-Agle Trento Racing Team started with ‘Chimera’ in 2017 and progressed to the brand new ‘Fenice EVO’. Many parts of the cars, including some components of this latest model, were assembled in Rovereto thanks to the support of ProM Facility’s technologists and to the cutting-edge technologies of Polo Meccatronica’s prototyping centre.

What’s new in Fenice EVO

The birth of Fenice EVO is the result of intense synergetic work involving all the different teams of the University of Trento.

On the mechanical side, the rigidity of the chassis was improved and the weight of the rear rockers, steering column and radiator supports was reduced. The driver’s ergonomics have been improved and major changes have been made to the steering system, rear bodywork, inverter box and battery pack.

As regards the electronics:

• The steering wheel’s internal electronics were redesigned from the ground up, replacing the raspberry pi with a microcontroller, so as to significantly reduce the start-up time (from 30s to 2s) and eliminate overheating problems deriving from the raspberry
• The DCDC regulators of the LV BMS were removed and the management of unregulated voltage was left to the individual boards, so as to reduce costs, weight and generated heat
• As for the inverter box, a custom housing was created for the two inverters
• The inverters that power the motors have been stripped of their original boxes and components auxiliary to the high voltage system, resulting in a weight reduction of over 4 kg and a much more integrated system
• The ECU solution was improved by integrating panel connectors to reduce the internal wiring of the housings
• Wiring has been optimised, both in terms of weight and construction complexity

As regards the software, these significant changes led to:

• New LV BMS (from 12 to 24 volts) with revised board and HV system
• Fully overhauled ECU
• The creation of a special PCB for the steering wheel
• General telemetry improvement

The work done on Fenice EVO also introduced important innovative elements in the controls, such as the activation of the anti-roll bar, the Lap Time simulator and in the analysis of telemetry data.