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Day one wrap-up
After a heavy outburst of rain caused a few delays, 51 out of the 116 registered teams entered technical inspection today; approximately 20 of them have passed and have started heading out to the track for their practice runs. In fact, the first team through and on the track were last year’s winners, Luk Jao Mae Khlong Prapa (team 72) from Thailand!
Returning teams have honed their design ideas since last year’s competition, and found new ways to improve their energy efficiency and focus on sustainability, but there are also a lot of brand new teams, all excited to be here for the first time.
“The airline lost one of our parts for our Prototype ethanol car, so we’ve had a difficult start,” says first-timer Sunny Bhalia of Synchromesh (team 28) from India. “But all the other teams have been so helpful. We love the spirit of collaboration behind the scenes – the competition is only on the track, not in the paddocks.”
Team 72 from Thailand was one of the first ones to hit the track
Some new perspectives
The Aggielands (team 591) from Qatar are unique, as they have attended the European event in the past and have now moved to the Asia event with their Urban Concept GTL car.
“It’s much cooler than I expected!” says team manager Hussein Zahreddine. “In comparison to the European one, I think this event has a lot more new teams and people participating for the first time. The European event is very established, with a lot of very experienced teams. I think all the new-ness of this event may lead to more creativity.”
Zeal Eco-power UC (team 516) is one of three teams from the same Chinese university, and their first Urban Concept car. “We’re not that experienced in this category, so we hope to learn from the other teams,” says team representative Qu Zhuanghe.
Second time around
Malaysian team USM-EVT (team 701) are attending for the second time, this time with a very unusual Urban Concept electric car that is made entirely out of plywood. “We used fiberglass like everyone else last year,” says team manager David Chew. “But we didn’t like working with that material. You have to outsource so much of your production. Using the plywood has given us much more control over the design and build process. It’s slightly heavier, but we prefer it. Plus – our car is super-eco friendly now too!”
Many of the teams spent today getting their cars assembled and into the technical inspection. Tomorrow will see more cars and their teams ready for action.
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