Latest Press Releases > February 2006

20 February 2006

Technologically Improved NUS Race Car Vies For Top Global Honours
NUS is only team from South-East Asia and from a country that does not manufacture cars to compete at May 2006 International Formula SAE competition

The National University of Singapore's (NUS) Faculty of Engineering is pleased to announce the official launch of Centennial II , a technologically improved race car that will represent the University and Singapore at this year's highly prestigious international Formula Society of Automotive Engineers (FSAE) competition.

Touted the toughest inter-varsity competition of its kind, this race is held annually in May at Pontiac, Michigan, USA and will see the convergence of approximately 140 race cars from colleges and universities throughout the world. All the teams will be assessed in a series of events ranging from design evaluation to competitive driving.

The fourth in a series of race cars built by students from NUS' Faculty of Engineering, this latest race car is aptly named Centennial II as it was produced and completed while NUS was celebrating its centenary. It takes the 12 undergraduates approximately one year to design, build and prepare the race car to compete head on with cars from other world class universities like Cornell University, Duke University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Purdue University and University of British Columbia .

A Better Car to Compete Against the Very Best

Unlike the previous race cars, the sleek black coloured and improved Centennial II will boost an even lower Centre of Gravity (CG) which is ideal for race cars. Features include the inclining of the driver's seat at 45 degrees to the vertical, and the replacement of the oil sump with the one-inch pan. The safety of the car has also greatly improved with the installation of a fully triangulated space frame chassis made of cold drawn steel tubes, while the driver's head will be well protected all round by a main roll hoop. An adjustable pedal box has also been installed to suit drivers of different heights. The technical specifications for Centennial II can be found in Annex 1.

Selecting and Training the NUS FSAE Team

Applications are open on an annual basis to second year engineering students to apply to be part of the NUS FSAE team. Out of approximately 70 applicants each year, only a total of seven get selected. These seven students embark on special evening classes on race car engineering principles, as well as engage in practical hands-on training such as machining, fitting, welding and other workshop techniques.

The second year students also understudy their seniors in their second year, help design and build a race car in their third year and finally design and build their own race car when they are in their fourth year. All these 12 undergraduates are also trained to double up as competition drivers. The hours spent on each car are long and only the very best and most determined get selected to be part of the NUS FSAE Team. Refer to Annex 2 for a list of the final year team members and their areas of responsibility.

Training Talents for the Industry

The invaluable experiences and training that NUS FSAE team members get while on this programme has resulted in many of the graduates being well sought after by both private and public sector organisations. Some of the graduates who worked on the previous NUS race cars are today playing key roles as engineers in multi-national corporations or in the government. Mr. Ng Kian Loong, a recent graduate and member of the NUS FSAE teams in 2005 and 2006 said, “Being part of this programme has changed my life completely. I had gained very important soft skills like project management, system integration and team dynamic skills. All these, together with the automotive engineering knowledge I had gained by building a race car from scratch has no doubt helped me excel in my current job as a project engineer at the Defence Science & Technology Agency.”

“The NUS FSAE Race Team has done exceptionally well over the last few years,” said Professor Seeram Ramakrishna n, Dean of NUS' Faculty of Engineering. “We plan to do even better this year and put not only NUS, but Singapore on the world map of motor car racing. The fact that we are the only participating team from South-East Asia and from a nation that does not manufacture cars indicates that our team would face many problems. These include the lack of local expertise in race car technology, the lack of a suitable venue for testing the race car and the long distance from Singapore to the States where the FSAE competition is held. The global minded and enterprising attitude fuels the determination of our students to succeed, and this spirit of theirs is indeed commendable.”

	Annex 1: Centennial II (2006 NUS FSAE Race Car)
	Annex 2: Final Year Team Members of Centennial II