The NAS15 is a student-built racing car, all set to compete in the Formula Student (FS) competition to be held at Silverstone, UK, from July 8 to 12. Last weekend the Interactive NUST FS team of 25 talented undergraduate engineers hosted a roadshow as part of their campaign "Racing to Learn" targeting school boys and girls to show how much knowledge can be acquired from participating in the FS competition.
I saw the show at Port Grand along with a jostling crowd of men, women, boys, girls and little kiddies, for who isn't attracted to cars, especially speedsters. Racing cars are fascinating vehicles. There was tremendous excitement as nobody had seen one in 'real life' before. It seemed incredible that we, a so-called failed nation, not only made it but were to take part in an international competition. Some people who did not know exactly what the FS competition was were telling each other Pakistan was going to participate in the Grand Prix.
The annual competition organised by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers is not just a motor race it is a challenge to students' inventive cleverness, skill, originality, ingeniousness to design and make a vehicle for motorsport. The NAS15 will compete against 135 teams from 28 countries. It is not the first time Pakistan is participating in the Formula Student competition. It will be the third time, and with each year the team has reached a higher and higher position. In 2014 the team came 52nd in a field of 106 teams. This year they aim to be among the top 35.
The rules of the competition, in a thick book, are strict. You could be disqualified for ignoring even a tiny one. Broadly, the vehicle has to be entirely conceived, and made by students. The drivers as well as workers in all departments, such as mechanical, engineering, even marketing and business are students. Last year, besides reaching the 52 position in the race, the team also was declared winners for "Most Effective Communication Strategy". As you can see, the competition is pretty comprehensive, designed to develop several kinds of skills.
The greatest challenge is that the vehicle's horsepower may not exceed 610 cc. So if all the cars in the competition have the same horsepower how it is that one wins the top prize? It comes from the lightness of the vehicle, mostly. The current vehicle is 75 kg lighter than the one made last year. It has a carbon fiber body, but the frame is still made of steel tubing. Three components are not local, the Honda CBR 600 RR motorbike engine, the driving wheel and the fat, large tyres called 'slicks' as they do not have treads. Last year's car had a manual transmission system; this year's has an electronic one. Computer imaging helped to identify parts which took stress and cut them out. The highest speed this car can reach is 121 km/hr, but what is incredible is that it can accelerate from zero to 100 km/hr in under four seconds. The young engineer students explained how it is achieved but it was all Greek to me.
It took the students eight months to build NAS15 at a cost of Rs 1.4 million. The entire team of 21 boys and four girls (one engineer and three in marketing) will be going to England. So how have the students managed the finance? They have sponsors. Their 'diamond' sponsor is the Interactive Group of Companies. Uniforms were made by Gul Ahmed and Pakola is the official drink. In short, the NAS15 is a Pakistani project all the way (barring those three features mentioned above). The name of the car is a tribute to a naval officer, the late Captain Nadeem Ahmed Shaheed who was killed last year. He was the faculty advisor of Formula NUST Racing and patron of the team..
From time to time Pakistanis astonish the world with their technological brilliance. In 1992 a World Bank team which included engineers, economists and other specialists visited a manufacturer of sophisticated electronic equipment in Liaquatabad. The team was impressed at the quality of work and astonished to learn the technician was an ordinary 'mistri' an illiterate man, with no schooling. Our students are brilliant too. So the question is, why are we backward? In two years the country will be 70 years-old. Others who achieved independence after us have advanced, China and South Korea, for example. What keeps us back? The usual excuse is lack of education, lack of resources, lack of finance and so forth. Nobody mentions the real reason for our backwardness is the mentality of our leaders both the military and civilian types. They have no vision. Pakistan's failure to achieve anything is always the fault of some one other than the rulers. The blame game is the favourite game of the politicians.
Comments
Comments are closed.