Students show F1 star their eco cars

Kimi Raikkonen at the Shell Eco-marathon event on Thursday. Student teams from ITE and NTU got a chance last week to exchange ideas on fuel efficiency with the racing ace.
Kimi Raikkonen at the Shell Eco-marathon event on Thursday. Student teams from ITE and NTU got a chance last week to exchange ideas on fuel efficiency with the racing ace. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Three student teams from the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) got a chance last week to show off their eco cars to Scuderia Ferrari F1 driver Kimi Raikkonen.

They also exchanged ideas about innovations in fuel efficiency and automotive technology, at a Shell- Ferrari event in Suntec City held ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix over the weekend.

In March, the students took part in the 2016 Shell Eco-marathon Asia in the Philippines, where they had to source for funds and build their vehicles from scratch.

Unlike a conventional race, drivers and their vehicles win by achieving better energy efficiency ratings than their opponents instead of competing to cross the finish line first.

EcoTraveller - a carbon-fibre car that runs on batteries, built by the team from ITE - can travel from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur on 21 cents' worth of electricity, the same amount used by an iron for one hour. The car was ranked fourth in the 2016 competition's "prototype" category.

Nanyang Venture 9 won the Innovation Award for its unique battery fire-suppression system, which uses carbon dioxide to prevent the car's lithium-ion battery from igniting as a result of overheating.

Nanyang Venture 8, which is made up of 150 3D-printed parts and impressed judges with its cost-effective production technique, took home the Vehicle Design award. The 2017 Shell Eco-marathon Asia will take place in Singapore from March 16 to 19.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on September 19, 2016, with the headline Students show F1 star their eco cars. Subscribe