NED students enter competition to design formula racecar

Students working day and night to design a racecar to take part in global Formula Racing competition.

KARACHI:

Sixteen students at the NED University of Engineering and Technology are working day and night to design a racecar to take part in the global Formula Racing competition this December in Australia.

Team formula NED is going to be the first team from Pakistan. The students have one thing in common — passion for motorsports. They will be competing with students from different universities to build a single-seat racecar and test it before it hits the track.

Fortunately, students are not required to have a lot of experience to take part.

“I know very little about designing a car but I’m sure by the end of this project, I will [know a lot],” said a Formula NED member and a final-year automotive engineering student. The team is putting in more than 25 hours a week on the project. Work continues even on holidays.

The Formula SAE competition started off in the US in 1978 and was originally called SAE Mini Indy. Since then, it has been organised in the UK, Australia, Japan, Brazil, Italy and Germany. The cars that are entered must be low maintenance, have a low initial cost and follow a set of rules.

The challenge is to come up with different designs to get a faster and more economical racecar, which is not only fully functional but has an extra edge over its counterparts.

The competition is a chance for students to showcase their technical talent. It is also an extraordinary learning opportunity because the students interact with different people, hunt for sponsors, use high-tech materials.

The four-wheeler beasts will be judged by the racing industry’s most prominent engineers and consultants, including Bill Mitchell, Doug Milliken, Claude Rouelle and Jack Auld.

The jury will have its eyes on more than 30 teams. The project is entirely managed by the students but they need some help when it comes to money.

They require funds to make their dream come true. Visit their website www.formulaned.com to find out how you can support their cause.

The writer is a final-year Automotive Engineering student at NED University

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2011.