inspiral blog

As usual we did our end-of-year soundtrack as a way of reflecting on the year. My picks can be found here. This year we each chose a song to play for everyone else, which was a great way of connecting in to some of the emotions and experiences each of us has had that we don’t always necessarily share. As well as that, it was Advent 2, so we continued with Advent in Art.

All year we’ve been hearing updates from Matt on the car project he’d been working on as part of his mechanical engineering degree. In fact, he was the team leader, so much of the responsibility fell to him. The project was to build, from scratch, a Formula SAE car which was to be raced at the end of the year against other universities. The race was last weekend.

I have to say I had no idea how big this event would be; an international cast of hundreds of drivers, with 20 race teams and universities represented from around the world.

Two drivers did 16 laps each for the teams. Hitting a cone was a 2 second penalty; spinning off a 20 second penalty. The course was very twisty, so there wasn’t much of a chance of opening it up down any straights, but it showcased the drivers’ skills. One of his teammates drove first and Matt drove the second half. Since it was a time trial there was no overtaking.

A few pictures:

Matt looking pensive before the race:

Matt accelerates out of the corner:

Driving into the corner:

Matt approaches the car in front (just before it came off):

This would’ve been perfect had the marshall’s head not been in the way:

The car:

The happy-looking driver:

Matt drove really well and his team came 8th overall. They won a third place trophy in the acceleration division, which was an awesome effort. Great for all of us to go and support him in what was the culmination of a massive year of hard work.

We celebrated the beginning of the church year by learning a bit about what it is and how it works, and then beginning the first week of the Seeds’ Advent in Art cards. Will be good to reflect on them over the next few weeks.