Formula 24 - An Update

Sarah is a sales & marketing content writer, with ten years of experience within the engineering & manufacturing industry.  Working both at Qimtek and on a freelance basis, she can usually be found hammering away at a keyboard or with her head in a pile of engineering drawings. 

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Back in February 2017, you may recall that we wrote about Kew House School’s participation in Formula 24 - a programme which requires its members to design, build and race an electric powered car, whilst adhering to a stringent set of technical regulations. Students aged between eleven and sixteen work together to produce a vehicle that will outperform those designed by their peers, over the course of two ninety-minute races held on both a regional and international level.

Almost two years later, we’re thrilled to report that Kew House School have completed their first race at Castle Combe race track. Year 8 student Max has provided us with the following report:

“We arrived in the morning and got signed up straight away. We set out our equipment and got ready for the first race. When the race started, we expected to see the car zooming ahead but sadly we encountered a problem with car which left us trailing the pack.  

We took the decision to bring the car in early knowing something was wrong. We concluded that it was the malfunctioning throttle that was causing the problem, so it had to be removed, a big task to do with limited resources and time. We got to work stripping the throttle system and replacing it with one of our brake light indicators which meant our engine was either fully on or off. We then rolled our car to the second race, the race started, and it was clear that the lunch time fix has worked. We found ourselves overtaking nearly half the grid before the second corner and ran the car for the full 90 minute race on one set if batteries.

It was a fantastic day and we all learnt a lot about the strategies and engineering involved in running a race team.

We came 127th out of 512 in the end of season results with a top speed of nearly 27mph, a great first race. Now we are developing the car over winter and looking forward to the new season in April.”

  - Max, Year 8 student at Kew House School.

In order to improve their car for 2019, Kew House School’s pupils are looking to get a mould made up to complete some fibreglass/carbon fibre work. They are also considering telemetry systems to live track their data at races, as well as new custom race suits for the team. If you are able to assist or offer advice to Kew House School, please contact Karl Wigart on 01256 394 500 to discuss.

Congratulations to everyone involved!