February Half Term 2020
It maybe February half term, but for a number of CAUC members - they have been busy attending university lectures and a work party weekend at Darley Moor.
This blog post starts on Thursday 20th February, when a number of CAUC team members (...who are also members of F1 in school teams Nebula & Sigma Racing) headed up to Bolton University National Centre of Motorsport Engineering (NCME) to attend the lecture by Proffessor Willem Toet and Proffessor Robert Fernley on Aerodynamics in Formula 1: Ensign and the return to ground effect in 2021.
Willem Toet gave a great talk on ground effect and how it was making a return to F1 in 2020. He spoke about some of the sensors that can be used on F1 cars, in order to understand what the airflow is like on track. He was incredibly inspiring - and given our recent work on OpenFoam has given us lots of food for thought and things to consider with our own designs.
The members of Sigma Racing had been extremely forward thinking and ended up bringing their regional car and portfolio along to the talk - just in case any opportunity arose!....Well, such an opportunity did present itself! Whilst giving the talk, Proffessor Toet saw their car and asked them to come and show him what they'd been doing - he discussed with them how they'd designed, tested and manufactured their car, before speaking to Nebula about their own car designs.
Big thank you to Bolton NCME, Proffessor Robert Fernley and Proffessor Willem Toet for a brilliant and informative evening.
It was also great to see Mr G after his op - and fill him in on the progress that we've been making back in the tech suite.
Next up for our half term antics was a trip to Darley Moor Motorsports Centre. Located approximately an hour away from us, CAUC used to visit Darley Moor fairly frequently to test our cars and practice driving lines and are currently in the process of organising a practice day in the next few months. Therefore, when we saw a request on their facebook page for volunteers to attend their work party weekend to prepare the track for the new season - it was an absolute no brain'er! We wanted to pop along, show our support and lend a hand.
Therefore on Saturday (22nd February!) Cate, Lucy, Erin and Phoebe along with parents Debra, Dave and Tim headed to Darley Moor to help plant 200+ Trees around the circuit.
Think some of us got a little more muddy than others!! Not sure what Cate was most disgruntled about here - the mud splatted up her leg, or the fact she dropped her lip balm into the mud!!!
100 trees down - another 100 to go! Time for a rest break....and lunch. Darley Moor very kindly treated us to a fabulous lunch spread of sandwiches, homemade soup, cakes, tea and squash!!
After lunch it was time to plant the last remaining trees.
200 Trees planted.....check!
On Sunday (23rd February!), it was over to Charlotte, Immy and Charlotte's dad Paul to lend a helping hand. Having completed the tree planting - their task was to re-paint the toilets and changing rooms.
The photo below was taken as Charlotte was demonstrating her special painting move...which to quote Immy was ''quite spectacular''. Unfortunately, we missed a trick and didn't manage to get it on video!!!!
After another delicious lunch of Sandwiches, quiche, scotch eggs, crisps, cake and chocolate (we were well and truly spoilt by the staff at Darley Moor!!) - it was back to painting. Although this time, Immy somehow managed to end up with more paint in her hair than on the wall!!!
Finally, before heading home, they got the chance to have a drive round the track in Paul's van. Taking inspiration from Gav's greenpower track videos - Charlotte filmed the circuit to show the rest of the team in preparation for our own practice day.
....So a busy few days, but a half term well spent in our opinion! Hopefully Immy has managed to get all of the paint out of her hair by Tuesday!!!!