Wednesday, 19 December 2007

The UWA Motorsport team has added to an impressive list of victories, winning the 2007 Australasian Formula SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) competition in Victoria from an international field representing more than 25 universities.

Next stop for the distinctive UWA Motorsport yellow car is Detroit in May 2008 when the 37-strong team, all engineering students, will take part in a competition against 130 university student-designed autocross racers. After that they hope to take on Europe in July. Earlier this year, the 2006-designed vehicle was placed second in the Detroit event.

The Formula SAE offers engineering students all over the world the chance to conceive, design, fabricate and race an open-wheel race car. The team is entirely run and managed by students, with two academic supervisors. Cars are built in the space of 12 months – and UWA’s winning cars have always been yellow as that is the colour for the Faculty

Professor Mark Bush, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics, said the UWA Motorsport team consistently performed well at international level.

“Each year our Motorsport team wins international awards. Students involved in the project develop and demonstrate extraordinary skills in teamwork, management and leadership, technology, design and analysis, financial management, health and safety and marketing,” Professor Bush said.

“There is no doubt the Motorsport project and others available to UWA students ensure that our graduates are exceptionally well-prepared for employment as engineers and managers, and are highly sought after by employers.”

The Formula SAE competition tests vehicles in a range of events including fuel economy and endurance racing and rates the teams on their capacity to plan, finance and market their project to a board of investors.

“We sit down at the start of the year and work out what resources we have and plan a management structure: we act as a business,” project manager and fourth-year student Gurkaran Bansal said.

“In the second half of the year we come up with our first design concept. Engineering is an intense course and this is a hands-on project which definitely ignites the team members’ enthusiasm for their course.

“The feedback from our sponsors is that team members are highly employable and sought-after, being well motivated, hungry for success and eager to learn and to excel. And we aim for our yellow car to be the best-known in the world!”

For more information, visit www.motorsport.uwa.edu.au

Media references

Gurkaran Bansal (UWA Motorsport Project Manager) 61 8 6488 7912
0415 568 376

Simone Hewett / Sally-Ann Jones (UWA Public Affairs) 61 8 6488 7977
0420 790 097 / 0420 790 098

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