A TEAM from Kingdown who were the only school to compete against universities and businesses to build a car with the best fuel efficiency came second in Britain at the Shell European Eco-Marathon mileage competition.

Being one of 170 teams to compete, David Leater, team leader of the group, along with teacher Nick Webster and 10 students aged 13 to 16 worked outside of school hours every Thursday, designing and building a car to run on a track using as little fuel as possible, with the students cutting and shaping the model.

Kingdown were the only secondary school to qualify for the competition, and have been for the last six years, with all other teams being from universities and commercial companies.

The school’s car achieved 1,672 miles per gallon at an estimated 15 miles per hour, making them second best British team and 16th in the world, a 10 per cent improvement on fuel efficiency from last year.

Mr Leater said: “It was a brilliant experience to get into the marathon that uses such an excellent engineering level.

“The competition was very tense, and we are very proud to be a part of it.

“It benefits the students’ learning as it’s a spin-off to science technology and they can apply theory learned in class to real life worldwide.”

The marathon was held at The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London in the first week of July, and the car made by students was formed from ideas they have had over the past six years of competing.

Mr Leater added: “The staff are very impressed that the students are part of the competition and they themselves loved it.

“Everyone involved is very proud to have got as far as they got in the marathon, especially the drivers, ex-students of Kingdown, Alistair Mallard and Emily Wilson, who had to endure temperatures beyond 35 degrees in the cockpit for over 25 minutes due to temperatures reaching over 35 degrees in London.

“We would like to say a big thank you to our sponsors, WGP- One Team and Wiltshire Community Youth Group as we wouldn’t have made it this far without their generous support.”

For more information, visit the website www.shell.com/energy-and-innovation/shell-ecomarathon/europe.html