Cromax collaborates with Academic Motorsports Association of Zurich

Cromax, one of the three premium global refinish brands of Axalta Coating Systems is set to collaborate with the racing team of Academic Motorsports Association of Zurich (AMZ) in Switzerland, which was founded in 2006 by students of ETH Zurich, the city’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) university and one of the top ten universities in the world.

Since it was established, AMZ Racing has produced a prototype every year to compete in Formula Student competitions throughout Europe. Formula Student is an internationally recognised motorsports competition specifically developed for students from universities around the world. In 2010, AMZ, the first Swiss team in Formula Student, moved to the eRacing series, which focuses on electric-powered racing cars.

The 2018 AMZ eRacing car, called eiger after the infamous Swiss mountain, was prepared at Axalta’s Training Centre in Pratteln, Switzerland, by the students and painted by Axalta technicians. The carbon fibre reinforced plastic chassis was first coated with NS2602, a non-sanding primer surfacer from Cromax. It was followed with Axalta’s 2018 Automotive Color of the Year StarLite – a white pearl colour that the students decided they had to use once they saw a swatch – and also a special red pearl effect colour, to match the impressive impact delivered by StarLite. Finally, the eiger was given its finishing touch with CC6600 Cromax Pro Star Clear, and later the Cromax logo, which the car will sport during the races.

Nirushan Arumugam, CEO of AMZ Racing and an engineering student, says, “AMZ offers us the opportunity to put our theoretical knowledge into practice in a highly-complex engineering environment. During this process we gather experience in the fields of leadership, innovation, and most importantly, teamwork. We also had a lot of fun and enjoyed the very positive and encouraging atmosphere the Axalta technicians generated.”

Clint Kaufmann, Technical Leader for Cromax in Switzerland, explains, “the challenge for Cromax was to deliver the design the team wanted without adding very much additional weight, which would negatively impact the race performance. Thanks to our innovative Cromax products, once the application was finished, the chassis only gained 320g, which is an excellent result!”

eiger was unveiled on 14 May 2018 in Dietikon, Switzerland, at EKZ, one of the country’s largest electricity suppliers that is committed to sustainability and renewable energies.

The AMZ Racing team, comprised of about 65 students from Swiss universities, will enter eiger into various Formula Student races through the season, which runs from July 2018.

For more information about Cromax products, please visit www.cromax.com/uk. To find out more about Axalta, visit www.axalta.co.uk and follow @AxaltaRacing. To learn more about AMZ Racing, please visit www.amzracing.ch.

To watch the video, go to www.cromax.com/eu/amzracing.