60 years ago today, the very first Estonia-named formula vehicle had its first ride on the Nevski racing track in Leningrad. The project was led by Ants Seiler who was the first person to build racing cars in Tallinn’s car repair factory called “Nr. 1”.
At that time, “Estonia” was the fastest car on the circuit. It also set the speed record on Nevski’s racing track right away. Seiler got so much inspiration out of this achievement that he decided to make two additional formula vehicles. Estonia “2” and “3” were ready to compete in the summer of 1959. Their first start was at the NSVL championship in Minsk which kicked off formula vehicle Estonia’s further success story. In 2001, the last “Estonia” formula vehicle was built. It was reconstructed from formula vehicle E-26 and was named Estonia 26-9.
Overall, there are 1331 formula vehicles have been produced in Estonia, which leaves behind a lot of exploring, developing, and success stories.
6 years later, formula student series was founded. The series carries on the whole concept of formula Estonia. Formula student and the formula vehicle “Estonia” are connected by Juhan Sein. He also started the serial production of racing cars. Engineers in Estonia are still building formula vehicles just because of him. In the last few years, building formula vehicles have become more and more popular among the students. Each year, the interest in Formula Student Team Tallinn reaches to a greater extent. In the team, young engineers get the opportunity to build a formula vehicle, which is even faster and technologically more innovative than the one before.
Today, all of the people in relation to Formula Estonia were invited to Tallinn’s Town Hall for celebrating the occasion. FS Team Tallinn’s representatives heard speeches from Tallinn’s major Taavi Aas, Juhan Sein, and Indrek Petjärv. Sein gave valuable knowledge about the history of formula vehicle “Estonia” and Petjärv focused on the present and the future of building formula vehicles, emphasizing the importance of it.