News: F1 in Schools
Carter are proud sponsors of Team Memphis
About the Challenge:
F1 in Schools Ltd is a not-for-profit company established with committed partners to provide an exciting yet challenging educational experience through the magnetic appeal of Formula One. F1 in Schools is rapidly realising its potential of becoming the only truly global educational programme that raises awareness of Formula One among students and school children in every region, in every country, on every continent. Spanning age ranges of 9 to19 its main objective is to help change perceptions of engineering, science and technology by creating a fun and exciting learning environment for young people to develop an informed view about careers in engineering, Formula One, science, marketing and technology.
30 countries.... 9 million students.... 1 experience of a lifetime!
F1 in Schools is a multi-disciplinary challenge in which teams of students aged 9 to 19 deploy CAD/CAM software to collaborate, design, analyse, manufacture, test, and then race miniature gas powered balsa wood F1 cars. F1 in Schools is the only global multi-disciplinary challenge for students aged 9 to 19. It is a unique global platform for the promotion of Formula One and partners to a youth market. Teams must raise sponsorship and manage budgets to fund research, travel and accommodation. The challenge inspires students to use IT to learn about physics, aerodynamics, design, manufacture, branding, graphics, sponsorship, marketing, leadership/teamwork, media skills and financial strategy, and apply them in a practical, imaginative, competitive and exciting way. The founding constitution of F1 in Schools stipulates that it is, and shall remain, a not-for-profit organisation. Funds raised through sponsorship are invested in administering, developing and expanding the challenge. All income is deployed in accordance with guidelines laid down by Formula One Management.
The competition involves the design and making of a balsa wood Dragster style car which is then propelled using a pressurised Co2 Cartridge. The cartridge is placed in the back of the back of the cars and they race side by side along a 20metre long special track. A whole race can be over in just over 1 second with cars travelling up to 60kph! These are scale speeds of up to 220mph! The current world champions and world record holders are from the United Kingdom and Team Memphis hope to carry on this great tradition!
Team Memphis:
Team Memphis from St Dunstan’s Community School, Glastonbury were named 11–14 winners in the F1 in Schools South West Regional Championships. The engineering genius and sheer excitement of Formula One was held at the University of Exeter for a special event, in which seven secondary schools from across the South West competed. Following the Regional Championships, Mr. Berin Nelson Design and Technology teacher approached Carter Manufacturing Ltd in search of an improved Wheel Bearing design to take to the National Finals held at the Autosport show in Birmingham. Their wheel bearing requirements were compact in design, high precision, low friction and high speed rotation.
The wheel bearing Team Memphis had used to win the South West Regional Championships gave a free running rotation of approximately 5 seconds which was the benchmark set for the new design.
After design, consultation and manufacturing, Carter Manufacturing sent out a new bearing to Team Memphis. The response from Mr. Nelson was “We just wanted to say THANK YOU! as we have received the bearings and had time to test them on our jig. The standard bearings we were previously using spin for approx 5 seconds, the world champions car wheels spun for about 47 seconds and these Hybrid bearings you have supplied us currently have the record at 1 minute and 47 seconds! Like Duracell they just keep going! They are a definite YES from us!”
The newly designed wheels and bearings were taken to the Autosport Show in Birmingham for the Regional Finals. We are pleased to announce that Team Memphis achieved 3rd place in the 11-14 year old category. The time difference between 1st and 3rd place was separated by a mere 1000th of a second.
Congratulations to Mr. Nelson and the pupils of Team Memphis! We at Carter Manufacturing are proud to have been a sponsor this year, and we look forward to the 2009 championships!
Team Shooting Starz:
Following the National finals at the Autosport Show, Carter Manufacturing have been working with Team Shooting Starz from the Richard Rose Central Academy in Cumbria.
Team Shooting Starz achieved First place at the Autosport Show National Finals, and with the new Wheel Bearings from Carter they are hoping to further the winning streak at the World Championships to be held in London June 2009.
