EMBLEY NEWS
Embley Gryphons win Ford Engineering Award
Our Embley Gryphons travelled 130 miles to Ford’s UK headquarters to compete in Greenpower’s Ford Dunton Heat, and what a day it proved to be!
The event consisted of four endurance heats and our team began strongly - finishing 5th in the opening race, before improving to 2nd, 3rd, and then 2nd again in the final heat. This consistency secured 3rd place overall, just 30 metres behind the joint leaders - an incredibly small margin in Greenpower terms.
In addition to the podium finish, our Embley Gryphons were proud to receive the prestigious Ford Engineering Award. This accolade recognises innovation and technical excellence and is judged by professional Ford engineers. This represents a tremendous achievement for the team. In just two years, they have overcome technical failures, driver errors, and every type of weather imaginable and this result was hard-fought and thoroughly deserved.
The team’s success was underpinned by a series of well-engineered upgrades, recognised through the Ford Engineering Award. These included the addition of heat sinks, a cooling fan and extra flooring to improve airflow and thermal management, alongside ferrite cores and an upgraded speed controller. Alongside these improvements, students carried out detailed calculations to ensure optimal gearing for the circuit to balance efficiency and speed across each race.
Thank you to the team’s sponsors, whose support has been vital throughout their journey. We are immensely grateful to Forelle Estates for their guidance, financial support and for providing access to their QinetiQ testing site. The team would also like to extend their thanks to the staff and parents for their support. Looking ahead, our Embley Gryphons aim to continue refining the car’s design, particularly its bodywork and efficiency, while also developing our first fully scratch-built car.
