A RACING car made from bicycle parts and designed and built by students and staff at Hinchingbrooke School has come second in a nationwide energy efficiency competition. The car, known as the Stag and named after the school emblem, was built and designed

A RACING car made from bicycle parts and designed and built by students and staff at Hinchingbrooke School has come second in a nationwide energy efficiency competition.

The car, known as the Stag and named after the school emblem, was built and designed by Dave Leater, head of design technology, retired technology technician Roy Stanton and a team of 11 students between the ages of 11 and 17.

Work started on the car in April and finished last week, just one day before the car was raced in the Shell Eco-marathon held at the Rockingham Speedway.

"The car achieved 531 miles per gallon, which is brilliant as it put us in second place and 28th overall out of over 100 entrants," said Mr Leater. "The students loved the experience of building their own racing car and were able to learn how hard it is to design and build such a vehicle when you are trying to achieve minimum weight, small size and efficiency."

The car, which is powered by a Honda GX31 engine, was sponsored by Honda UK and driven by Izzy Melvin and Samantha Harris, both from Year 7. The Stag has many innovative features, including a chassis made of layers of three millimetre ply and foam and an aerodynamic shaped tail.

The school received a cash prize and a trophy for finishing second.

The car will be on display in the main reception of the school this week and then moved to the DT department where it will be stored.

Mr Leater added: "I would like to thank Adam and Matt from Richardson's Cycles of Huntingdon for their invaluable support and Gary Smith from Charpack for the donations of materials."

INFORMATION: The Shell Eco-marathon sees teams try to beat previous fuel efficiency records over seven laps of the Rockingham race circuit.