When a former member of staff at Cardiff Sixth Form College left behind an RC car that had fallen into disrepair, the intention was always that some years later a student would take on the challenge of restoring it back to life.
Enter A2 student Jiahua Zhao who willingly took on the project with the blessing of Physics teacher, Alex Kampas. After stripping the car down, Jiahua began replacing key components including the engine and despite having no background or knowledge of the car itself, redeveloped it into a lightning quick machine. After spending months completing the project, the Cardiff Sixth Form College student was quick to thank those who helped him along the way.
“I’d like to say a big thank you to Mr.Kampas for giving me the opportunity to work on the RC car. I not only enjoyed the fun that the mechanical work brought to me, but also the skills that I developed through this which will be essential for my future study, career and life.
It was an enjoyable, interesting but tough journey as I started with a pile of parts in pieces with no background knowledge at all about nitro RC cars. I did a lot of research about the mechanics in it as well as learning about the ‘tuning’ process and how to actually ride a nitro RC in order to get its best performance. After I first finished assembling the car it didn’t even start up and that was when I realised that the devil is in the details. I learnt that patience and trying continuously are important particularly on things like this where one extra turn on a screw could literally spoil the engine.
But luckily, I, actually we, managed to solve all problems and make the car alive again. It is indeed a pleasure to finally get it fixed and running. It was also a team effort, I can’t really take all of the credit myself as without the help, advice and support from Mr.Kampas, Brian and Usman it might take me another few decades to finish it off. Once again, thank you all very much!”
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