Every day's a school day here at the Young driver's car insurance academy

Some students, who, if having done their parents proud might have progressed to be young driver car insurers, like nothing better than to blow their entire first term grant, or student loan as its now referred to as, on the very same three things that their mothers warned them against. Namely arcade games, donkey rides and candy floss. No, sorry, I'm harking back to this young driver car insurer's own student days, misspent at Blackpool School of Art. No, I think it was probably badly kept beer, wanton women and poppy residue in every other young driver car insurer's case. Mind, for those that pick up and flick through the prospectus-full of mechanical engineering courses found on wire racks down at their local Tec College , you needn't heed any of the above advice, as it won't be bothering you. And I'd warn young driver car insurers to generally steer well clear of the Lancashire resort full stop these days unless you warmly embrace hen night carryings on, Glaswegians as far as the eye can see, and gay men.

Anyway, students, engineering, cars, insurance (yeah right?)...Formula Student is abbreviated to FS. More than this, its Europe 's largest student motorsport event. And it just so happens to be the location where young engineers scrawl down diagrams complete with math equations, construct something car-like, and then rag the what-not's off them around a track. And not just some glorified skate-park either. Bruntingthorpe Proving Grounds near Leicester is the place for students to be between July the 6 th and 8 th. As opposed to the gutter, a park bench, or the bed of someone quite repugnant. The event is organised by the Institute of Mechanical Engineers . And for that reason alone may not be everyone's cup of Castrol GTX. More than 80 Teams from across the globe are set to participate, with entrants from as far a field as Iran , India , America , Sweden and Venezuela . Aswell as 30 making the considerable effort of getting themselves to the track from various parts of the UK .

Once there (quite an achievement in itself if you've ever been one twelfth of the people wedged into a Fiat Uno and told to find Lincoln University by nightfall) students are given a design brief that asks them to piece together a single-seater on a shoestring budget. After they've been pointed in the direction of the shower block. The premise is that each team operates similar to an actual company. In as much as they elect one another to the falsified positions of Team Leader, PR Officer and Manager. And if there's anyone left over, perhaps Company Defence Attorney and Chief Liquidator, just in case. With the proposed sales-based target audience being the non-professional weekend autocross or sprint racer type who might normally take their Caterham 7, hip flask and moustache out for a saunter come Sunday, the assembled teams are judged at the event on design presentation and marketing skills. And whether or not the highly undeveloped go-kart that they've just slaved over will make it past the first corner before the cardboard chassis gets damp and the unlucky driver slips out onto the fast-moving track beneath.

If they do manage to achieve this, then the panel of judges will scrutinise certain elements even further. Testing each entry for its straight-line acceleration, figure of eight handling, a one-lap sprint, fuel consumption and an overall 13 mile endurance trial. Oh, and what I forgot to mention is that limits are placed on the vehicles frame and engine so that the students knowledge, creativity and imagination are stretched as much as their communication ability. For more information of the intelligent variety, be sure to check out the website that is www.formulastudent.com. For more information of the fulsome variety on young driver's car insurance, stay right here at 4youngdrivers.com. Only on other pages that might actually inform instead of mock you young driver car insurers. Which of course is a terrible thing to be found guilty of. Yet not quite as humiliating as discovering you don't have the right sort of young driver's car insurance all importantly.

Date - 15/09/2006