The Grampian Transport Museum Young Engineers Club has successfully qualified two of their self-built and engineered F24 electric powered racing cars for the Greenpower International Finals at the iconic Goodwood racing circuit on October 13th. The successful cars, Merlin and Bullet, had to compete in rounds at East Fortune (near Edinburgh) and Alford for their places in the final for which only 70 cars automatically qualify from hundreds around the UK.
At their home track in June, Merlin twice broke the record of the most laps travelled in the allotted time, achieving 128 laps in both races whilst competing against stiff competition from Banchory Academy, Albyn School, Harlaw Academy, Lochside Academy, Bucksburn Academy, Robert Gordon’s College and Lochgelly High School.
Team work
The Young Engineers Club meets most weekends at the museum where they engineer and prepare their own cars with help and advice from parents and museum volunteer and team leader John Rahtz, himself a retired engineer.
John is full of praise of the progress made this year “It is good to see how quickly the youngsters learn to apply their STEM subject knowledge to developing and improving their cars. That is one of the main aims of the Greenpower project and the results show that they have done exceptionally well. However, when I see how well everyone gels together as a team, developing their social and interpersonal skills too, I know that this will also be of great benefit to them in their future lives.”
A family affair
The young engineers are supported by their parents throughout the year, especially when trips are needed to other circuits such as Goodwood for the finals. However, the family connections go further than that as the preparation and driving crews of both qualified cars include siblings. Merlin is in the hands of Alexander Brodie and Harvey and Millie Pole, while Bullet is crewed by Charlotte Brown and Andrew and William McHardy.
The F24 races are each 90 minutes long, requiring strategic pit stops and driver changes to cover the maximum distance. There are classes for self-designed and built cars, like Merlin and Bullet, and for ‘kit cars’ bought and assembled to the same design. Motors and batteries are of a fixed type for equality with performance differentials created by engineering and driving skills.
Alexander’s father, Alastair Brodie, Is super proud of the whole club “GTM Young Engineers have performed well above expectations for a number of years now so as this current team has developed we have had a lot to live up to. Breaking the record for laps covered in the heats has given us a confidence boost for the finals as it shows that we are making good progress. The cars were qualified in 2023 too and we did extremely well. That was our group’s first experience at the top level so we are really hopeful of an even better result this year. We will certainly be trying very hard whilst competing against some of the best teams from across the UK”
Follow the team’s progress
You will find onboard video and more updates on GTM Young Engineers Club YouTube channel; For more information about the Greenpower Education Trust and the Goodwood final visit www.greenpower.co.uk
