Red Baron Term 1 2011 - King's College

Red Baron Term 1 2011
The Red Baron by Taylor Zhou
Last year King’s College
School House placed an application
for the third Red
Bull Trolley Grand Prix and
was astound when our design
was one of only 100
designs chosen from over
2000 applications throughout
New Zealand. We were astonished
to finish in 35 th
place out of all 84 competitors
present. Over 100,000
people raced to the event,
which was held at Auckland
Domain where Lower Domain
Drive was transformed
into a 700m-race track complete
with numerous tight
bends. Furthermore, we
were one of only two underage
teams competing in this
event.
The design of our trolley was a replica of the famous German biplane flown by Manfred
Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, known as the Red Baron, in the World War I.
After six weeks of planning and constructing we had achieved what some say was
impossible due to our skill and time constraints.
The team consisted of Sam Gibbs (Pilot), Taylor Zhou, Sam Tietjen and Henry
Mannering who had spent many hours in the top secret King’s Technology Centre.
We would like to greatly thank Mr. Mann and Mr. Oliver for giving up many hours of
their own time in supervising and aiding the team with throughout the six-week period
while sharing their expertise with us. I am sure we have got a large bill ahead of us.
We also thank Harry Gower, Marcel Renata, Barnaby Abdale-Weir and Anthony
Quirk for supporting the team through the construction period.
We would like to thank Mr. Burns for financially supporting the project and Mr. Dyer
for giving us the opportunity to participate in what was truly a staggering event.
Our trolley consisted a four-wheel steel chassis with a rack and pinion steering system.
Additional wood framing was added to support the PVC sheet body throughout
the trolley. A new braking system was added in hope to provide further braking power
as additional weight has been added. The trolley was finished in a red (a tribute to
the original Red Baron and School House, obviously) and finishing touches include a
wooden propeller, a custom made Iron Cross with ‘School House Red Baron’, a
matching helmet and a series of King’s College and School House crests.