F1 in Schools Regional Finals 2013: a resounding success!

All in all, the F1 in Schools Regional Finals in Griffith College on the 8th March were a great success!
The day started off with assembly of our stand and any final preparations to the car like sanding down excess pieces, applying the stickers etc. We reached the venue by bus, and were there early to set up our stand, stick up our posters and set up our PCs and blog display. Also, we received the provisional timetable for the day: when we would be racing, who we would race, and when our verbal presentation would take place were details included.
We were really impressed by all of the other teams, in both the F1 (Senior) and D-Type (Junior) categories. Teams from all corners of the Leinster region were assembled in Griffith College ready to race! The cars varied in size, colour and weight, but all looked in with a chance of progressing to the next round: the national finals.
At the start of the event, all the teachers and students assembled in front of the stage to listen to the address given by one of the chief judges, who introduced us to the judging panel, spoke to us about the timetable of the day and regulations. After wishing us all luck, we hurried back to our stands, to wait for the first race to begin.
Cars were raced two by two, down a long thin track at speeds of up to 110 km/h and more! Each team nominated a member to press the button to launch the car, and their reaction times were tested. The organizers gave each team a few practice runs to allow for nerves! When each member was ready, the race began.
We were visited by the judges, who were all very friendly, several times throughout the day. We were pleased with how we presented our work and spoke about our design. Just before lunch, we were called for our verbal presentation and PowerPoint presentation, which we believed went brilliantly!
We were one of the last teams to race our car, and thankfully all went well: we had no breakages along the way and raced an excellent time!
After a short break in the goings-on, the results were announced! We were bursting with anticipation to find out who had raced the fastest, had the best design, but ultimately who would progress onto the National Finals!
We were thrilled with our result of the team with the best CAD, and the facts we had qualified after all our hard work!

Here's hoping the National Finals in Griffith College will be just as good!

Verbal presentation

As part of the f1 in schools competition, each team must make a five minute presentation in the regional final and a ten minute presentation in the national final. For the regional final, getting the presentation ready wasn't too hard. Each member had a different topic to talk about, however it was difficult getting everything said in the five minute slot that we were allocated. A lot of preparation went into getting the presentation ready but it all went really well at the regional finals.
Here is our presentation from the regional finals:

Rapido y furioso from Eilise123

Our competition portfolio!

As part of the f1 competition, each team is required to submit a portfolio. Since we found out that we had gotten through to the regional finals, we have been working on our portfolio for the competition. The portfolio contains all of the research, designs and marketing strategies that we have done.
It took a while to get all of the pieces for the portfolio together. each member of the team was assigned a section to work on. Getting the work done wasn't the problem, it was putting all of the work into the portfolio that took the most time. Making sure every detail was correct and all of the topics were included to a while but it was eventually completed. It was then sent off to be printed and binded and came out looking really professional.

Finals are just around the corner!

As the finals in Griffith College grow ever closer, the race is on to have everything from our actual car design right down to our portfolio and display stand ready to go. 
We are finishing making any changes to our computer-aided designs of the car and putting it through the virtual air tunnels for the final time. We have tweaked any parts of the design that need adjustment and have finalized any measurements.  We changed our wheel design for the national finals- the bearings recently arrived and we are now looking to assemble our new wheels.
Also we are having the car remade by the Institute of Technology, Cork, and are due to have it painted and sanded by Colour Care crash repair any day now!
Although there is a lot to be done before the national finals in Griffith College next week, we are looking forward to the event and can't wait to get an opportunity to race our newly adjusted car!

Our Display Stand!

On the day of the competition, we believe our display stand looked really great. We had refined our colour scheme to red, orange and navy, and that looked very sharp! Our portfolio had been completed and was printed on large white pages detailing all of the information about our car, team identity, computer-aided designs of the car and all the measurements. We had large posters with all of this information around the three walls of our stand also. We displayed some of our designs on a laptop and displayed this blog on another. (Also we had our customised 'Rapido y Furioso' mug at the stand!) It certainly looked the part and was very professional! Our uniforms that were red and navy were in keeping with the colour scheme of the stand- we looked like a real pit-stop crew!
Here are a few pictures, take a look.

Uniforms are ready to go!

For the past few weeks, We have been under a lot of pressure to get the uniforms that we would be wearing for the competition. At first we were going to get polo shirts and get our logo embroidered onto them. however we then decided on getting jumpsuits instead. We thought that they would look more professional and would fit better into the F1 concept, as actual formula one drivers wear these suits. We eventually found a website that had what we were looking for. We decided on getting two red jumpsuits and three navy jumpsuits as they fit into our colour scheme and thought that it would be better then having all one colour. 

Once the uniforms arrived, we contacted a printing and embroidery company to have our names, and sponsors put onto them. The staff in the shop worked very hard to get what we needed done as they agreed to do them under short notice.

We were really happy with how they turned out in the end. Our names and team name were embroidered onto the front on one side, with our principal sponsor, Itb, on the other side. Printed onto the back, it our team position( job) and also our website, for promotion.

Car has arrived

Today our car from Cork I.T. arrived! i think we all were amazed at how light and small the car actually was.  We have also been in a lot of contact with our sponsors ITB lately and they have agreed to come and support us at the competition next Friday. They have also arranged for their photographer to come to the event and take pictures of us racing our car and our stand. We are all really looking forward to the event! 

Kfm radio Interview

Yesterday, myself (Katie) , Eilise and Ciara went to Kfm in Naas to represent Team Rapido y Furioso in a radio interview with Clem! We talked about what the F1 in Schools is all about and in particular how we are preparing for the competition. The whole experience was really exciting and we really enjoyed ourselves! :)

Here is the podcast of the interview so make sure to have a listen! :) 

Podcast Powered By Podbean

Our Sponsors ITB

This week we are delighted to announce that the main sponsor for Rapido y Furioso will be The Institute of Technology  Blanchardstown (ITB). On Monday we received confirmation from them that they would be happy to get on board with our team. As part of our deal we will be working closely with them to promote the F1 in Schools Challenge in schools in the Dublin 15 area. ITB will be have there own competition which will take place on the 14th May 2013, which we will also be helping them to promote. 

The money ITB have given you will  be used to fund various parts of our project including;

1. Our uniform
2. Printed Media
3. The painting of our car

Team Rapido y Furioso are extatic about working with such a major Institute in Ireland. We look forward to the up and coming weeks! :)

Busy, Busy, Busy

As we are on mid term over the next week w will be working hard o our report which is a compulsory part of the competition. In our report we document the decisions made, people we contacted, the design of our car and what our team is like. 

The two Ciara's will also be working on sourcing new sponsors and organizing fund-raising events! IF you are interested in sponsoring us drop us an email at f1rapidoyfurioso@gmail.com. 

Here is an example of what the final report should look like. Team Quasar were the national winners of 2012!

                               

Portfolio quasar from katiehurley06

Interview with Kfm

We are delighted to announce that we will be airing on the Kfm radio station on the 21st of February at 11:10 until 11:30! make sure you tune in to hear about what we have been up to and what the F1 in Schools competition is all about! Any sponsors we have we will give them a big shout out! 

Car Finished!!!

Yesterday we added some last minute touches to our car on solid works  We came into some difficultly during the week when we realized that the weight of our car was going to be to heavy. Therefore we had to make a few changes to insure that the car was as close to 55 grams as possible to insure maximum speed. 

There was also a change in the manufacture of our car. The people of Cork Institute of Technology will be looking after are car. 

We are delighted with our car and we hope you like it to leave comments to let us know what you think! :) 

Car design #2

Today we were working on our Car Design number 2. We have made quite a few changes compared to our first design. We have shaped the nose cone to make the car more aerodynamic. We have also added air channels to increase the aerodynamics of the car. We have also been working on the front airflow of the car. However, we plan to make the front of the airflow rounder so that the air flows over the car. We also plan to create some air channels underneath the car to add more aerodynamics. We will also be adding the wheels to our design with in the net few days as our design must be emailed to Limerick University by Friday. 

Car design #2 from katiehurley06

Design #1

Last week were busy drawing the developments which we would us to create and design our car on the Solidworks software at school. This is the beginning of our first design we have come up with. The nose cone where the gas cylinder will go, will come to a point to make I more streamlined and increase aerodynamics. 

We our currently working on our second design. We will have more pictures for you tomorrow!

Facebook and Twitter

We are almost at a 100 likes on Facebook! We really need your support,

anyone with a Facebook account make sure to like us!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/R%C3%A1pido-y-furioso/464564150272442

We also need a lot more followers on Twitter! 

anyone with a Twitter account make sure to follow us! We will follow back ;)  

https://twitter.com/1RapidoYFurioso

1000 Views!!!

Today we finally reached 1000 views! Thanks for your support! we really appreciate it! :) Make sure to keep check this blog and will be updating regularly.  

Looking for sponsorship

This week our Marketing Manager has been busy writing our press release and our letters to our sponsors. 

Every team participating in the F1 in Schools competition must look for sponsorship from Local businesses and Companies. The money the sponsors provide the F1 groups will go towards the cost of entering the competition, team uniforms, advertising and promotional publications, materials with which our car must be made such as paint and wheels.

In return for any form of endorsement or support, the companies / businesses name and logo will be prominently displayed on all our advertisements  such as promotional posters, pamphlets, our display at the competition and on our team's uniforms to acknowledge their generous contribution. Our team will also be interviewed by some local radio stations and local newspapers, we will make sure to acknowledge their support for our project.  

If anyone is interested in sponsoring us and wish to find out more, please do not hesitate to contact us at our email address; f1rapidoyfurioso@gmail.com

Support us!

Rápido y Furioso, are competing in the F1 in Schools Technology Challenge. The completion is open to all secondary schools in Ireland. Each team must design and manufacture a compressed air-powered racing car. As part of our project we have to promote our car and raise awareness. 

This week we set up our blog to record our progression throughout the competition! We will keep you updated each week. There will be more pages coming soon, so make sure to check them out! Feel free to leave comment on our posts at any stage. We would love to hear some of your feedback. 

Also, don't forget to like us on Facebook 
http://www.facebook.com/pages/ 

And follow us on Twitter
https://twitter.com/1RapidoYFurioso


We would really appreciate your support!