A team of final-year students from Bournemouth University’s engineering programme is working with the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu to breathe new life into the legendary Sunbeam 1000hp, which became the first car to go faster than 200 miles per hour on 29 March 1927. The team hopes to make the car run for the first time in more than half a century to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the car’s 203.79 miles per hour (327.97 km/h) land speed record.
‘Working on the Sunbeam 1000hp has created many exciting opportunities for our students to take their learning and research and put it into practice, to contribute to new knowledge creation, knowledge exchange and students as researcher initiatives,’ said Adil Saeed, the programme leader for the engineering programmes at Bournemouth University. ‘Our work on Sunbeam started in July 2021 with the core objectives to identify, measure and analyse structural failures within Sunbeam that pose significant risks to its structural integrity utilising non-invasive ultrasonic techniques.
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‘The continuation of this work via our final year students means that this is a rare opportunity for us to carry on working on this British Icon,’ he continued. ‘This project goes a long way to achieve BU’s vision to be part of the community around us and to engage our students in activities aimed at providing solutions to the real-world problems and informing the education we deliver. Furthermore, it will help us to achieve BU’s goal for our students to be a key part of the research we conduct, co-create knowledge with BU and play a crucial role in everything we do.’