Need for speed: Student-designed Formula One car visits Peshawar

Created by NUST students, the race car will be part of an international competition in July.

PESHAWAR: The provincial capital played host to the country’s first locally-manufactured Formula One sports car on Sunday, attracting hundreds of visitors.

The car has been made by students of mechanical engineering at the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Karachi and was displayed at a local hotel.

A 30-member student team worked on the project for nearly one year.

The race car is all set to participate in Formula Student, a popular student motorsport competition, in the UK on July 9. At least 144 international teams will compete in Formula Student.

Several ministers of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, including Ali Amin Gandapur, Ziaullah Afridi and Arif Yousaf, attended the event as chief guests.

Gandapur, while talking to journalists, appreciated the work of NUST students and said the government should provide all sort of facilities to students whose work makes a good name for the country.

Raheel Mustafa, a member of the student team told The Express Tribune that 30 students, including five girls, worked on the project. “The designing took six months while manufacturing it on campus took another three months,” he said.

“The project is named NAS-14 after a former dean of the NUST Department of Mechanical Engineering, Captain Nadeem Ahmed (Shaheed),” added Mustafa.

He added his team was shortlisted for the international competition out of 178 entries this year.

Before arriving in Peshawar, the race car was on display in Karachi and Quetta, and following its Peshawar visit, it will head to Islamabad and Lahore.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 23^rd, 2014.