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RS Components bring Saints Performance Automotive Design Closer to a Makerspace

Saints Performance Automotive Design (SPAD) is incredibly proud to announce the support of RS Components, our latest sponsor. RS Components is an international brand renowned for quality industrial products and engineering tools, and it is an honour to receive their sponsorship. We were supplied with an angle grinder and hand tools as part of a 78-piece mechanical tool kit, which will go towards the development of a makerspace to serve as SPAD’s base of operations. From our makerspace, we shall develop a car to compete in the Formula Student competition. For a student-led initiative in a university with no engineering department, this support is invaluable. SPAD has begun operations in a difficult time, owing to the ongoing pandemic and restrictions. As a result, constructing a car is not currently possible. However, ongoing donations from businesses in the engineering industry are of tremendous value and put us on the right track to lay the necessary foundations in the present to ensure we are competitive in the future. With the establishment of our makerspace, we will be even closer to making our mark on the Formula Student competition.

SPAD was established in 2020 at the end of the last academic year in the midst of the first wave of the pandemic by students dispersed all over the world. Since then, through our own drive and hard work, we have acquired numerous sponsors across the motorsports and engineering industries as well as developed an advisory board of industry professionals. Crowdfunding supported by the University has been of great value for our entry into the 2021 Formula Student competition as a Concept Class, and we hope, with the support of crowdfunding and sponsorship, to develop our team further in the years to come. We anticipate a move from the Concept Class into a full Class 1 entry by the 2022 season at the earliest. A Class 1 entry includes the development of a competitive vehicle for future competitions at the Silverstone Circuit. Further down the line, we are hopeful that we can create an electric car, and, with the support of the University’s Computer Science department, a self-driving car. We aim to manage a sustainable project and consistently seek to minimize our carbon footprint with a thoroughgoing aim of becoming carbon neutral.

SPAD is the first engineering opportunity of its kind at the University of St Andrews. Our members are drawn from countries across the globe, studying various subjects in the arts and sciences. We hope to expand opportunities in engineering to those who have previously considered themselves outside of the ordinary target demographic. Those who join our team can immerse themselves in a thoroughly collaborative process, whether through participation in the development of the car itself, or in logistics, market research, or public relations. We are incredibly grateful for the support of RS Components, who will be helping to bring our vision of broader engineering opportunities at St Andrew's closer to actualization, and we know that without assistance like theirs our makerspace could not reach its full potential.

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