Dalbeattie High School Formula Schools competition

DBT McNish Team

Once again I am proud to be involved with Dalbeattie High School Formula
Schools competition. As first time entrants and in fact the only Scottish
entrant in 2007, it was an incredible achievement for the school to come out
as overall winners. The whole team did a tremendous job designing, building,
developing, project managing, find sponsorship for and finally racing their
remote control car to victory at Silverstone on June 14 against over 100
other schools.

They are adding to the rich history that our area, Dumfries and Galloway in
Scotland, has in the motor industry. With racing drivers such as Innes
Ireland, David Coulthard and myself all having raced at the top flight to
world renowned designers like Ian Callum and the Longmore brothers, Chris
and Martin to name a few. You never know, some of the pupils might be
involved in the design and be engineering your car in a few years time or
could be in the driving seat themselves!

Led by Technology teacher, Ron Orr, the 12 pupils that
are going to defend the title in 2008, again at Silvesrstone, on June 12 are:-

Chassis and Drive train Body and Aerodynamics Sponsorship and Promotions

Ross Kennedy Sarah Joyce Susie Clark

Alistair Thompson Cameron Roberts Katy Watt

Alex Sweet Alister Hunter Rebecca Kelly

Christopher McClelland Fern Davidson

Pascale Le Grice

I hope you will follow their progress here on allanmcnish.com or on their
own official site (created by the pupils)
http://beta.take2theweb.com/pub/sso/dalbeattie/b.html or on
http://www.formulaschools.com/. We will be updating you through the design,
test and development phases of the 2008 project prior to the big race.

Current Activities

May 2008:-

Chassis and drive train:

Chassis drawings have been sent to E-Teq. The final assembly of the race car can start next week.

The exhaust manifold has been sent to Alan Young.

New lightweight front and rear bumpers are being designed and once the design has been finalized, these are being sent to E-teq to be cut.

Body and aerodynamics:

DBT McNish's wind tunnel is completed. We have tested our new mould in the wind tunnel. Alterations were made to increase aerodynamics efficiency and improve the air flow from the back of the car. The mould was then sent to Protocall.

We have received 3 moulds in the form of an Audi R10 which one is to be used as the practice car.

The wind tunnel is being used to design the rear wing.

Sponsorship and promotions:

The race day display has almost been finished. The Hotel has been booked. We have a female member of staff accompanying us on June - Mrs E Nish.

We are also producing the May newsletter and this should be with our partners and sponsors soon.

Race Day is fast approaching and is only 6 weeks away. We will hopefully get a month of testing in before we go to Silverstone.

Four of the team are currently taking part in driver training, twice a week after school. We have built a full size replica of the race track in the school yard and we are currently training using a scale replica of Allan's DTM Audi A4.

All of DBT McNish Racing would like to thank our sponsors and partner's who
have supported our racing programme in the 2008 Formula Schools Challenge,
without your help our title defence would not have been possible."

This year, the following companies have provided sponsorship:-

Dalbeattie Lions Club Alan Young Engineering

Bridgend Builders Dalbeattie Day Care Centre

Drive Inc E-Teq Scotland ltd

Galloway Controls Islecroft Caravan Site

Islecroft Garage Lowland Employment Services Ltd

MPG Cycles M.R. Clark and Sons

Protocall Design Solutions Scottish Engineering

Thistle Products TSC

Wheelspin Models Tree of Life - Dalbeattie

Allan at Dalbeattie High School, for their model car racing programme.