Students find the karting formula

The event, run by the Greenpower Education Trust, promotes sustainable engineering to young people with the aim to link education, industry and community through inspirational engineering projects.

As part of the initial research, students visited ‘The Experience’ in Glasgow, who operate a go-karting business which includes electric karts.Dave Black, one of the College Lecturers involved in the project, commented: “The students are ‘buzzing’, having seen a real electric kart in Glasgow, and with the kit arriving, they just want to get on and start the build. Obviously we need to ‘walk’ before we can ‘drive’, and research, testing and checking are all vital to the success of the project.”

The Motor Vehicle Level 2 students have been raising funds by offering a car valeting service, whilst one group of NC Engineering students have been grass-cutting, and have organised an Xbox tournament within the Fujitsu room at the Scottish Borders Campus.

The Introduction to Engineering students organised a raffle, whilst another group of students from the NC Engineering course also offered a handyman service, all to raise funds to enable them to build and take part in the Greenpower racing events.

The serious work of building starts very soon, with students working out the various weight components and the detailed drawings required to enable the ‘College Electric Kart’ to be built and raced in the Greenpower Formula 24 races later on in the year.