MAC MEMBERS PRIZE DRAW

A VISIT TO THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP WINNING HEADQUARTERS OF MERCEDES GRAND PRIX, FORMERLY BRAWN GP, FOR JUST £10 PER TICKET!

Michael Schumacher and Ross Brawn

• Design Office. The place where the car is born! Housing 40 engineers working on different aspects of car design and engineering, using the latest in Computer Aided Engineering.
• Machine Shop. Split into 4 sections, the machines employed in this area create almost sculpture like components, sometimes in what seems like miniature. See the machines which create the car components in this almost medically clean environment.
• R&D Lab. Housing some of the latest testing technology from simple bench testing to the 'new for 2009' 8 poster rig which allows the chassis engineers to test suspension systems on the complete car for each individual circuit.
• Composites. View the Carbon Fibre area including autoclaves, trim shop and bonding shop. Hold some real car parts and learn about how they are made.
• Inspection. Every single part which goes onto the car has to pass through inspection. Employing some of the latest computational equipment, this is one of the busiest departments in the factory, often operating 24hrs.
• Electronics. See how electronics have developed over the seasons to the tiny ECU processors which are now run on the cars.
• Race Bays. Hopefully catch some of the brand new 2010 cars being built up for the first race of the season.
• Transmission Shop. See the gearboxes being built up in their own purpose built facility.
• Sub Assembly. Assemblies including dampers, uprights, pedal boxes etc are all built up in this area as complete assemblies before being fitted to the car.
• Dyno. See the fully loaded engine and gearbox dyno which can simulate full race distances.
• Wind tunnel. Mercedes GP hope to be able to show winners round the wind tunnel, but this is a highly sensitive area so it will depend on the work being carried out at the time of visit.