They don’t have their P’s yet but they are racing an F1 car at up to 80 kilometres per hour on a track.
A group of Year 11 students from Pacific Hills Christian School, at Dural, have joined the global F1 in Schools STEM Challenge and are using this experience to advance their understanding of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.
Their car is only a model, and the dual lane computer-timed track is just 22 metres long, however, their futuristic car is capable of reaching those speeds in one second. That’s quicker than a real Formula One car!
The students call themselves Frontier Racing and they had to learn advanced software that does three-dimensional computer design, virtual reality aerodynamics and computational fluid dynamics. Then, they made the bewinged racer using a 3Dprinter and a three-axis machine centre. This is the same type of work as that carried out by professional engineers with university qualifications.
Despite only coming together as a team a few months ago, Frontier Racing went to its first competition against other Hills-based schools and surprised everyone by winning awards for the best engineering, innovation, manufacturing, industry collaboration and verbal presentation. As a result, they gained a place at the NSW State Finals which are being held this month.
The winner of that event will represent New South Wales at the National Finals, and the eventual winner goes on to the World Finals. Australian schools have won the World Finals more times than any other nation (six). Both the 2017 and 2018 World Champions are Australians.
