So, after a successful trial period in Colchester with our Alternative Provision program, we were desperate for more space. The amount of students being enrolled onto our course exceeded our expectations. The hunt was on for a more suitable building. As you may have guessed by now, we are a very ambitious company, driven by a phenomenal team eager for success. Bearing this in mind, we wanted a building that would be suitable for future years. We always had plans to create a service and MOT centre to complete work on vehicles belonging to members of the public.
To find a building that could cater for the needs of our academy and service centre was going to be a huge challenge, however, it seems we were in the market at just the right time. A building measuring 18,000 sq ft had just come up on the market at reasonable cost. It had two separate workshops, with two separate entrances. It was almost like fate. We had to have it. We put an offer on the building that week, which was accepted! Luckily!
We picked up the keys on the 25th July 2014 and it signified a massive achievement for everyone at Rallysport. Hard work, sweat and lot of swearing and some tears had gone into the last two years and we could n
ow start to see the direction we were heading.
Here’s us entering for the first time! For such a big building, just having one small key seemed a bit of an anti-climax! Still, we were finally in! It soon started to dawn on us how big our challenge was going to be. We had less than 6 weeks to get the building into the ideal education facility for motor vehicle mechanics. Below are some photos of the building and task ahead!
Photos of the inside of the workshop before we started any work: (Top photo is our future service centre, bottom photo is set to be our academy)
First job was to build a wall and create a common room for the students:
It was then time for some paint and to start assembling the new vehicle lifts and the two that we bought over from our other site in Colchester:
Installation of the tyre changers and wheel balancers were up next:
Then it was time for even more paint!! Some windows for the Common room were also installed!
After a motorbike ramp and the cars were bought in, we were pretty much ready to rock and roll!
The front office area was then completed to make us look ultra professional!
We then turned our attention to the classrooms, where our students would carry out the theoretical side of the qualification! Their favourite part!
And after some long days, tiring nights and a few tantrums, we were ready for September. We had managed to transform 7,000 sq ft of workshop, 4 offices, 1 kitchen/team area, 3 classrooms, 2 store rooms and 3 toilet areas. To say we were all proud of the results would be an understatement, and to date, all visitors have been surprised by the quality of the facility we have!!
Roll on the opening of the service centre!!
