This is a competition run by an insurance company in Australia. The aim of the competition is to design a vehicle that you and the rest of your team has to keep going for 24 hours. The competition is mainly aimed at high school students although open classes are available. The main type of vehicles are pedal powered although there is a powered vehicle competition as well (choose your form of energy, whether it be petrol, battery, solar, or for the truly crazy...jet propulsion..just kidding there's a 60 km/h speed limit). The idea is to use scrap parts, such as pedals from bikes, to build your vehicle but there are certain limitations on it (e.g. you cannot use an entire bike frame...you can make your own bike frame, but you can't use it premade).
The competition is held over 24 hours, but it usually goes for about 4 days due to various safety testing, presentations that you have to make and set up. It is held in Maryborough in Victoria which is about a 3-4 hour drive from Melbourne, Australia.
Note that money makes a huge difference in this competition. When I competed we came second last for two main reasons: we had an unfit team, but our vehicle was constantly breaking down due to having extremely heavy thick bars for the frame (for instance, cost meant that we had a local welding company donate the bars which were about 5 cm in diameter whereas most other designs were using bars that were at most 2 cm in diameter).
Furthermore, the more affluent schools were able to purchase fibre glass covering that is simply means that there vehicles were waaaaaaay more aerodynamic then the poorer schools. (There was supposed to be a limitation of $6000 per vehicle, but I doubt it was very stringently followed).
It was a good experience however, and I'd recommend anyone who is able to do it, to try and do it. |
