Greenpower is a UK race series where all the entrants are secondary school pupils, who have designed and built their own cars using identical free-issue 24-volt motors and 12-volt batteries. These cars are made from a variety of materials from wood to aluminium. The race is to see which team can complete the most laps in four (4) hours. All teams consist of five drivers and four pit-crew.

Motor sport enthusiasts were treated to an afternoon of thrills at the annual 4 hour Greenpower rac Read more

Greenpower is a UK race series where all the entrants are secondary school pupils, who have designed and built their own cars using identical free-issue 24-volt motors and 12-volt batteries. These cars are made from a variety of materials from wood to aluminium. The race is to see which team can complete the most laps in four (4) hours. All teams consist of five drivers and four pit-crew.

Motor sport enthusiasts were treated to an afternoon of thrills at the annual 4 hour Greenpower race. This year’s race 80 teams battled through the afternoon to claim top honours in this, the most prestigious race of the Greenpower calendar. Weather conditions were perfect for the race with bright sunny conditions. During the four hours of racing they managed to complete 50 laps. Rotary Racer (no 1) led from the start and dominated the race to produce an impressive win.

The attraction for schools getting involved in this project is clear, it generates a great deal of enthusiasm for a range of subjects that traditionally seen as difficult and perhaps a little boring. It attracts involvement from staff and parents from a multitude of disciplines and brings them all together creating a real community effort within the school.

Formula 1 may still attract huge sponsorship deals and a loyal fan base, but those who enjoy racing and have an environmental conscience are growing in number and if these youngsters give us a glimpse of the future we could be seeing Green Power style racing as the norm within the next decade or two.

The History of the sport:
‘Greenpower’ was coined as a name to best describe an event organised in 1999 in Sussex as part of a series of projects funded by Sussex Enterprise to assist advanced engineering companies in the county. Due to the dearth of youngsters leaving school to follow engineering careers, it was aimed exclusively at secondary schools to encourage a greater appreciation of engineering and, hopefully therefore, an uptake in the number of students studying technology subjects at both ‘GCSE’ and ‘A’ level. It provided a carefully structured programme to design, build and then race an all-electric vehicle with an event format that ensured that at least twelve pupils had to be involved in every vehicle, thus ensuring as large a number of pupils were influenced as possible.

A four hour race format was adopted for the race, after several years of its running, as it offered the participants plenty of time to use all five drivers and for the pit teams to fix problems that might arise during the race. It also presented the teams with an interesting theoretical and actual challenge in balancing speed against battery life. By allowing re-charging with a set limit of charging rate as well as a top speed limit of 25 mph. Close