The mission of the competition is to create “….a fun and exciting learning environment for young people to develop an informed view about careers in Engineering, Science and Technology.”

The Challenge The F1 challenge aims to encourage team working in the design and manufacture of a scale model of a Formula 1 racing car that is powered by the thrust generated by the sudden release of gas from a small CO2 gas canister. The challenge is a national event with heats taking place in nine regions covering the whole of the UK. The national finals are being held on the 14th January at the ‘Autosport International Show’ in the NEC, Birmingham. The winners of the national final go on to represent the UK internationally.

Sponsorship The competition is sponsored and partnered by a number of companies and organisations including: Jaguar Cars BAE Systems Corus The CBI Becta EEF The Manufacturers Organisation The Royal Academy of Engineering. The Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

The teams have to cover the roles of: Team Manager, Resources Manager, Manufacturing Engineer, Graphic Designer, Design Engineer and design and manufacture the car using CAD (computer aided design) and CAM (computer aided manufacture). They have to put together a portfolio of design work, a display and give a presentation to a team of judges.

The Woodhouse Team effort. All Lower 6th Product Design students were invited to formally apply for places in the F1 team at the end of last year when they returned from study leave. The following students were given a place: Amy Pidwell Zain Meer Nina patel Martin Price Francesca Mullin Ismail Docrat

The team secured sponsorship from ‘Suregrave Ltd’ who had supplied us with our computer controlled router on which the car would be manufactured. They were interested in the prospect of raising their company’s profile within the challenge. (One of the sponsors of the challenge is a competitor of theirs).

In addition the team were lucky to have the opportunity to visit Prof. Peter Bearman at Imperial College who is Senior Research Investigator in the Department of Aeronautics and advises Ferrari on the aerodynamics of their racing cars.

The team spent many hours overcoming considerable difficulties but were able to complete the design and manufacture of a competitive car before the regional finals.

The South East (Including London) and East Anglia Regional Finals The teams’ heats were scheduled for Monday 14/11/05 at the CEME (Centre for Engineering and Manufacturing Excellence) in Hornchurch, Essex with a second day of heats and presentations on Tuesday.

The team weren’t confident when the time for the presentations arrived….

but they had, in fact, ‘swept the board’ being awarded:

Fastest R-Type car (The 16+ category they had entered) Best R-Type team (Top marks out of 300 for Design, Speed, Manufacture, Presentation and Portfolio). Best overall team. (The best team of the 20 teams competing over the two days in all the categories). The prize for the last category carried with it a cheque for £ from ‘Thames Gateway College’ and the opportunity for the team to work on the design of a real production car.

The team is scheduled to have a second meeting with Prof. Bearman to discuss improvements to their winning car on Wednesday 30th Nov. (They need to shave off 0.4secs off their best time to beat the last years UK champions’ best time.) Imperial has agreed to let them use their wind tunnel to identify where their car needs redesigning to improve its aerodynamics.