19th January 2021
Virtual Car Team Week 34: Guess what's back, back again, Zoom is back, tell a friend....
With another lockdown announced and schools shutting, unfortunately, instead of heading back into the tech suite after the Christmas holidays, it was a return to Zoom for us and more virtual CAUC nights for the foreseeable future.
So, to kick start the first call of 2021, we began with a quick catch up and discussion of our favourite Christmas presents. For Cate, this was a full driving simulation set up and for Disney lover Katy, this was a board to display her Disney park pin badge collection. We were also pleased to hear that Father Christmas gifted Cerys a loose tea holder in the shape of a Koala that sits on the edge of the cup!! Sounds very cute and the perfect gift for our tea crazy Cerys!
Catch-ups complete, it was over to Richard to give us an update with the buck.
Showing us a number of progress photos, Richard took the team through each step he had taken to get the buck to our desired surface finish.
Unfortunately, there has been some misalignment of the foam pieces. Therefore these gaps have had to be filled with filler and sanded down. Once again, the Pattern Coat Primer has been our best friend - helping to guide the sanding process and eliminate the chance of sanding too far down. Instead, guides you to the 'higher' parts of the foam to get the even and smooth finish that we are after.
Next, Richard sprayed the buck with cellulose primer before then spraying with a thin coat of Black paint.(The paint used was actually from when we gave Brian his new livery back in 2008/2009...over 10 years ago!!!!!). Again, the idea behind painting the buck a darker colour is to aid the sanding process; allowing you to easily see the areas that have been sanded and areas that may still need a little attention.
We were very excited to hear Richard say that in his opinion, the buck is to a good enough finish ready for waxing....which means we can start making the mould! Woho, very exciting!
......All we need now is for the restrictions to ease, so we can finally meet up and get cracking!!
As you may recall from previous blog posts, we have spent some time discussing how best to split the buck up when making the mould. This MDF framing structure has now been drawn up on Solid Edge, therefore next, we headed onto Solid Edge to discuss our final design and the practicalities of the build process.
We have everything crossed that it won't be long until we can finally meet again and get cracking on the build.
Car update complete, we then heard from Em, Cate, Elf and Lucy who all attended a 'Girls on Track Virtual Event - an Evening with Bernie Collins', sharing with the rest of the team their top take away comment from the talk.(...which was to try and gain as much experience as possible, even if it's just making the tea for everyone, as (to quote Cate "you just don't know how far a good cup of tea can take you!!!)
The next activity on the agenda was a team design challenge. Taking inspiration from the International Autosport Show which is usually held around this time of year, the team were tasked with designing an interactive stand / pit display for the car at the show. With 40 minutes on the clock, the team were split into a 'Team Basil', 'Team Dylan' and judging break-out rooms. The only rule...you had to use the zoom whiteboard feature.
Without further ado, both teams got to work bringing their ideas to life.
40 minutes up, we came back together ready for the presentations to our judging panel. This week, the panel consisted of Richard, Jane, Jeff, CAUC alumnae Ella and Immy (who unfortunately missed the challenge due to connectivity issues and therefore was promoted to head judge!!!)
First to take to the stage was....TEAM BASIL.
Talking through their stand was team captain Cate who explained how they had: A Circuit Master Game - detangle the battery wires and wire them up correctly to make the car move, Basil Simulator, Keyring & Pens (...as everyone loves a freebie at these shows!), Pit Stop Challenge, VAR Headset - to see round our tech suite and a Scalextric.
With questions from the judges complete, it was over to Katy and Cerys from TEAM DYLAN to give their presentation.
In Team Dylan's stand, they had: repair the puncture, team 'face in the hole' boards with a QR code to share photos on social media, Podium stacks with the portfolio and information about the team on each post, our end of season video playing and Dylan propped up on trestles with CAUC banners decorating the legs.
Once questioning was over, the judging panel headed back into the breakout room to deliberate the winner. Meanwhile, to entertain ourselves, we created a poll to vote for our own winner. Rather surprisingly (...as we had expected each team member to vote for themselves!!), it was Team Basil who took the win.
Judges back, it was time to reveal the scores. Each team was marked out of 10 for 'How professional was the display?', 'How interactive was the display?', 'Uniform Branding /Marketing' and finally the 'oral presentation'.
Scores on the doors, Team Dylan finished on 25/40. However pipping them to the post, with a score of 27/40 was Team Basil!!!
Congratulations to Team Basil. We will be sharing both designs on our social media, so be sure to head over there and comment your favourite display. Are you team Dylan or team Basil?!!
That brings us the end of our first post of 2021. Hope you enjoyed catching up on our jam-packed evening.
See you next week!