The car is designed with the use of a programme known as Solid Works.

1. We began by building a block in SolidWorks. We decided that it was best to begin designing our car like this so it could be easily shaped the way we wanted. We made the block 160 x 20 x 18.
Changes to the car after the regional finals
2. We then added the side pods. To satisfy rules and protect the back wheels we extended them sideways to 58 mm. We made them 30 x 18 when looked at from the sides to keep within rules.

 1. We shortened the overall length of the car. This was done so that the wheels would be closer to the front aerofoil and the side pods.


2. We changed the shape of the side pods.  This was done partly because  the machine in Carlow IT could not do cuts from more than one side.
 3. Next we added the front aerofoils and adjusted the side pods. We made the front airfoil as half an ellipse. We did not want to create lift or downforce so we tried to make it a neutral shape and yet deflect some of the air over the front wheels. We made it 25 cm long and 12 cm high - max. allowed.
4. Then we reshaped parts of the block to create a more aerodynamic shape.  

3. We rounded the back to allow the air to come back together more smoothly.


4. We made a notch at the back for the rear aerofoil. Then we assembled this car with the wheels and the back aerofoil.
 5. After that we added the cylinder for the canister. - again contributing to a more aerodynamic shape. We did this by using the loft feature in Solid Works.
 6. We then added the back aerfoils and refined the corners to more curvy shapes to help the car be more aerodynamic and therefore faster! We then added the rear airfoil. Formula 1 cars use this airfoil mainly to achieve downforce. We did not need this so we wanted to make it as neutral as possible. To keep to the rules we made it 15mm wide and 4mm high.
7. We made the holes for the axels. We also decided that the holder for the compressed air canister could be extended farther so we did some editing of this feature.
The car when we first got it back from Carlow IT. Does not look quite like the one we had drawn in solid works. Some work to be done. Two days before Regional final!
  
A few hours later after some work was done on it.
  
The car at the regional final.