Concrete toboggans: An engineer’s idea of fun

Dive into the longest-running engineering competition in Canada that has a lasting impact

SportsMaeve Holbrook — Published February 3, 2025 0 minutes

Created in 1974, the GNCTR is the longest-running engineering competition in Canada. The task is to build and race a 159 kg “concrete” toboggan with a steering and braking system that fits five people. Unlike the name suggests, the toboggans are not entirely made of concrete; rather, their sliding surfaces are.

The competition tests students' creativity and teamwork while allowing them to employ techniques and knowledge that they learn in the classroom. It also serves as a networking and recruitment opportunity. 

The GNCTR is one of the only design and engineering competitions to have a spirit element. Teams are awarded points based on their ability to “exemplify the values of GNCTR and embody the overall spirit and culture of the competition.” Therefore, each team must come up with a unique theme for their toboggan and all dress up accordingly. 

The competition is held in a different city and run by a different organizing committee every year. Each organizing committee is composed of GNCTR alumni who want to give back to the competition. The alumni have the opportunity to hold it in the city of their alma mater. This year, the organizing committee consisted of almost entirely Concordia University alumni.

“We wanted to bring the competition back to Montreal,” said Samantha Leger, VP of communications for this year’s competition. 

The GNCTR has a large alumni network, with most of the judges being alumni of the competition as well.

The competition consists of three main events: competitor interaction day, the technical exhibition (tech ex) and race day. 

Competitor interaction day takes place on the first day of the competition as a way for students to socialize and experience the city. The organizing committee has the most creative freedom with this event. 

“It is really an opportunity for the hosting city, or the hosting school, to kind of show off the culture of that location,” Leger said. 

This year, the competitor interaction day took place on Jan. 23, 2025. The teams visited Jean-Drapeau Park, hiked up Mount Royal and went on a tour of the Old Port.

The technical exhibition happened on the following day, Jan. 24, 2025. This was where the real competition began and the majority of the judging happened. Each team was judged on their toboggan design, technical communication, spirit and, most importantly, safety. 

Different judges walked around the exhibition hall with clipboards to assess the toboggans while others waited in a room off to the side of the hall for teams to complete their technical presentations. Each team had to submit a technical report and two safety reports about their toboggan, then perform a technical presentation in front of the judges at the technical exhibition. 

Mauricio Murillo, co-VP of the technical exhibition for the Concordia Concrete Toboggan Club, thinks that “tech ex day is made for networking.” Competitors could socialize not only with employers like PCL Construction—a long-time sponsor of the competition—but with other students as well. 

Behind the sponsorship tables were all of the team’s exhibits, made out of the crates they used to ship their toboggans to Montreal. Each exhibit matched the team’s theme, as did the members’ outfits. 

The technical exhibition is an important and fun event for the competition because it allows teams to show off their hard work, build relationships with other teams and talk to employers in their field.

Every race day, there are three races that each team must complete: drag race, giant slalom, and the Reine de la Montagne tournament. For this year’s race, which happened on Jan. 25, 2025, teams were awarded points for the fastest run time, their steering performance, their braking performance and their position in the Reine de la Montagne tournament. 

Twenty-seven awards were distributed at the closing ceremonies on the evening of Jan. 25. Most notable were the “Most Spectacular Run,” “Best Theoretical Toboggan” and “Most Sustainable Team” awards.

A detailed breakdown of the competition’s results will be available on the GNCTR 2025 website by Feb. 3, 2025.