TBSHS Team – Mitre Racing, races to the prize
TBSHS Team has the fastest car in England
F1 in Schools – Mitre Racing
A group of very talented and enthusiastic TBSHS students, accompanied by two former students, have won an exciting national competition F1 in Schools™ – at the national Autosport Exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham.
Aryan Armani, Adrian Atanassov, Rhys Sacco, Harrison Rowe from Year 11 supported by Anish Armani and James Petty from last year’s Year 13, won the regional round of the competition earlier in the year and went forward to the Final at the NEC in Birmingham last week.
All the team are doing Science and Physics and/or Design Technology GCSEs and are planning on continuing their studies at A-Level at TBSHS in September.
Each one of the boys has an area of expertise and takes a particular role in the team – Mitre Racing – so it is truly a team effort.
The practical task was to a design and build a model racing car, two portfolios of designs, photos and development plans, plus deliver a speech to the judges and finding sponsors to support their project financially.
The competition F1 in Schools™ is the world’s biggest engineering competition for students aged 9-19, and over the last 22 years 18 of the participants have gone on to work in the automotive industry some vial a Scholarship to UCL or entry into other universities to read Engineering. This involves the use of CAD (Computer-Aided Design), CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics), CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machining, 3D printing, and other technologies in the development of a gas-powered car which must adhere to strict technical regulations.
The competition includes time-trial racing on a 20m track, the submission of technical drawings, creating a portfolio of the project, developing a team brand, and establishing a strong social media presence. A score is given in each category to establish the overall winners of an event.
At the event, held this year a the Autosport Exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham, 62 schools took part and Mitre Racing achieved the fastest car in England and the second fastest in the UK.
On the day of the finals 62 teams lined up at the starting line, taking it in turns to complete four runs of the car, which were timed by a laser timer monitoring when the cars crossed the finish line. Mitre Racing had chosen to enter the Professional class, which is harder, due to the specification required and needing the most effort in terms of the portfolio, presentations and strict restrictions on the cars. The minimum weight for the car is 50g and the boys’ car was 50.0g in weight. On day two, after a lunchtime time race slot, the team anxiously followed the leader board to monitor their position.
Only three state schools made it to the final of the competition, possibly based on money; Mitre Racing started with £1600 for the project, some teams are believed to have had up to a £30,000 budget.
The team also won First place in Research and Development, Professional class (consisting of 16 schools).
Each of the boys has worked incredibly hard, outside their GCSE workload, spending an estimated 20 hours per week designing, testing and working on their project.
They have also been very successful in obtaining sponsorship – Tant Labs, Nissan, Arrow Electronics, Price Bailey, Simscale, Delta2020 and TeamGantt have all invested in the project with money or expertise.
The team are planning on improving their car further and entering the competition next year, when hopefully, they will all be in year 12 at TBSHS studying, Maths, Physics, Design Technology and related subjects at A-Level.