With four schools, eight teams and over 70 attendees, MCM’s inaugural Marlborough Grand Prix (MGP) organised by Lower Sixth students Louis G., Soohyun P., Oliver G. and Edward T. debuted on Saturday, 11th April; a racing competition to prepare teams for the STEM Racing Regional Finals supported by Formula 1®. Each team designed their car using professional CAD software, analysed their car for aerodynamics, manufactured their car by 3D printing it with their logos and branding, before racing it down a timed 15-metre track to compete for the fastest finishing time.
Saturday morning started with all the teams arriving to construct their pit display, showcasing their team journey and innovation with posters, models and merchandise. At the same time, teams delegated members to work on assembling their car with the wings and wheels, followed by painting it with their team colours and logos. Each team also focused on entrepreneurship skills by delivering a verbal presentation at their pit display to a panel of judges, where some teams mentioned their partnerships with sponsors and others their sustainability goals through team activities.
After a lunch break, all the teams crowded around the racetrack to see the races unfold and the live track timings displayed on the livestream to the millisecond, calculated using laser and infrared sensors at either end of the track. Our first team, Zenith Racing had set a high standard with an impressive 1:874 seconds, but were closely beaten by La Corsa Vittoria with 1:861 seconds, later beating the record with 1:795 seconds. The following races from Voltan Motorsports (2:763), Red Bull Racing (3:300), Aerotech Racing, Bababa Racing, Tangkaz (3:691) and Helang (3:766) all had respectable finishes with Voltan also beating their record by 730 milliseconds (2:033) on their second race.
Congratulations to La Corsa Vittoria for winning Champion and the Best Enterprise Award, Zenith for winning the Best Engineering Award in 2nd place, and Voltan for a podium finish in 3rd. Thank you also to Sunway International School, SK Sungai Melayu and Tenby School for participating in MGP.
“MGP was a well-organised event and an amazing experience that taught our team many new topics that we were unaware of, and many new things that were related to what our team enjoys and stands for. Even though we faced a lot of new challenges and obstacles in our way, we were effectively guided by Harimau Racing throughout the competition, allowing us to pursue our victory and gain new, exciting and thrilling experiences through this competition. Thank you for providing us with this opportunity!” – La Corsa Vittoria
Collaboration with SK Sungai Melayu
The MGP was also joined by two teams from SK Sungai Melayu. Before the competition, on Wednesday 8th April, we welcomed the cohort of students into the MCM DT Department, where we introduced them to the MGP and brainstormed ideas with them. By the end of the session, we had laid the groundwork for SK Sungai Melayu’s two F1 teams: Helang and Tangkaz. In the two days before the event, the groups finalised their pit displays and we printed their cars, ready to compete alongside MGP’s other six teams.
Written by: Louis G., Lower Sixth
