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School and Scout group pedal car racing

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School teams

Stuck for a high quality, enjoyable, demanding and rewarding Design & Technology teaching project?

Pedal car racing is the obvious answer - To design and build a useable, reliable and durable human powered vehicle would make a suitably stiff challenge that could be undertaken by students of virtually any age. To then race it with any degree of success would not only be the ultimate proving of the vehicle's design and construction, but would teach all those involved about the necessity of teamwork in such a project - a project that students could get genuinely excited by and enthusiastic about.

These are lessons that would apply far beyond the confines of any academic qualifications, being relevant to most "real world" situations. After all, when did you last see a recruitment advert that stated,

"Appalling teamworking skills are essential and preference will be given to candidates who can show a long history of refusing to work with others"?

Pedal car racing enhances a CV and provides a concrete and interesting subject talk about at interviews, being a constructive, competitive and team- orientated leisure interest - and please note, this is written from personal experience, not conjecture.

With under-12s, under-14s, under-16s and open racing categories already in place, this is one project where younger students will not be disadvantaged - they even get the chance to "put one over" on teams of older racers, as the storming Yello Velo team did during its debut year and subsequently.

In Australia, a similar racing event is run, however there it is designed to be a schools project event which culminates in a race, rather than a racing formula which coincidentally would make an excellent schools project. Each year, up to 130 teams from across Australia design, build and race vehicles in a 24-hour event. The brief (basically) is to design and build a non-polluting personal transport. You can find out more about the Australian International Pedal Prix at: www.pedalprix.com.au

The next paragraphs are (shamelessly!) copied from the above site, to indicate how their event is viewed:

"The teams participating in the competition are mostly from primary and high schools, although there are some private entries. Each team spends many months designing and constructing their vehicle, aiming on safety, efficiency and reliability. The learning activities team members can be involved in include:

"Design - Overall task planning, streamlining, mechanical and structural efficiency and component design (e.g. steering systems)

"Skills - Computing skills, drafting skills, joining techniques, assembly techniques, finishing techniques and communication & observation skills

"Knowledge & Understanding - Energy systems, mechanisms, power transmission, steering systems, braking systems, drag & friction and materials technology.

"Issues - Mobility for urban & country people, safety on our roads, implications for mass production & for manufacturing industry, mobility for the disadvantaged, health and fitness and pollution issues."

Back here in the UK, how you choose to write up the brief for a school project is entirely up to you, but provided the vehicle you finish up with complies with the letter and the spirit of BFPCR rules, you can enter it into any or all of the BPCC races and demonstrate your students' technical and team skills.

I would suggest you could easily add "Business awareness" to the above list, by including approaches to local businesses for sponsorship into the complete project. This could be the most comprehensive, effective, useful and downright fun project you ever decide to run.

With only six drivers (plus one substitute) permitted per car, you may find you have more recruits than you can fit in a team - No problem, just have more teams! This will give an added incentive to all those concerned in the project, as the most vital people for any team to beat will no doubt be their classmates! (Some Australian schools entered as many as NINE teams into the 1999 event which, incidentally, was won by a single 2' 30" lap at the end of the 24 hours).

As a final note Andy Chant, one of the most frighteningly quick racers of recent years, started his racing career with his school team and Lea Manor School still hold the London to Paris pedal car record.

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Scout teams

There are already dozens of Cub, Scout and Venture units from across Britain racing in scoutcar and BPCC events - why not make yours one of them?

Climbing, canoeing, camping and the like are all good and (hopefully!) fun activities, but pedal car racing offers a new, different and exciting challenge. Not many scouting activities rely solely on the troupe for their equipment (I'm sure that somewhere, at some point, a troupe has built their own canoe, or made their own tent, but these are not common occurrences) but in pedal car racing there is a sport which you can truly call "all our own work" - The design, construction and finishing of a race car or cars would be entirely down to the troupe who would be racing it (or them).

If you already race in scoutcar events but so far have not entered any BPCC races, why not? With longer races and no mandatory pit stops, tactics and timing become much more important. I assume you race scoutcar events because you enjoy the racing, so why not do it more?

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