Land Rover ramps up for ‘TrackNAVCHALLENGE’

Land Rover’s TrackNAVCHALLENGE was officially launched yesterday at the Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon, with four teams of students competing to be crowned the first winner of this challenging event.

TrackNAVCHALLENGE is aimed at 14-18 year old students and tasks them with designing and building a radio controlled four-wheel drive model which emulates what a real Land Rover can do. The vehicle must meet a specification devised by Land Rover engineers in partnership with educational specialists and is tested on its ability to successfully navigate a specially designed indoor model track. The challenge can be undertaken by groups of four to six Key Stage 4 or 5 pupils in lessons – such as GCSE Engineering and GCSE Design and Technology – or as an extra curricular activity.

In addition, a portfolio detailing the experience, design and decision making process, along with financial records and a questioned presentation to a panel of judges, means that this challenge meets academic and industry standard benchmarks.

The ambition of TrackNAVCHALLENGE is to raise awareness, interest and enthusiasm in engineering through practical ‘hands-on’ application of Design and Technology, Mathematics and Science.

The teams navigated their vehicles over a model indoor all-terrain track. The course, specially designed by creative engineering partner D3, accurately replicates the everyday obstacles Land Rover's full size models are required to tackle.

The ‘A Team’ from Chase Terrace Technology College, Burntwood, beat off strong competition from the other teams to pick up the winning trophy and earn themselves the prize of a day at their local Land Rover Experience centre where they will have the opportunity to experience Land Rover's supremacy in off-road capability.

Sponsored by Ricardo, an award for Innovation and Creativity was also presented to Chase Terrace’s ‘A Team’ and the Best Electronics award, sponsored by Rapid Electronics Limited, was received by the ‘Famous Stars and Stripes’ team from Richard Hale School, Hertford.

Land Rover’s UK Managing Director, John Edwards said: “Land Rover prides itself on being the world’s leading brand at creating and inspiring a spirit of adventure so it is logical that we should use this philosophy to engage and inspire young people who will play a significant role in the automotive industry of the future. It was an absolute pleasure to see the hard work and dedication these teams have put into this project. The students have clearly relished this demanding challenge and I have no doubt that TrackNAVCHALLENGE will ignite a spark in many more students to come and demonstrate that engineering can be a rewarding and stimulating path to follow within the automotive industry.”

For more information or for educational establishments wishing to register for the next academic year, email tracknav@landrover.com or ctallis@landrover.com.