By Zaihan Mohamed Yusof

THEY have returned home with their heads held high, but not in the clouds.

The National University of Singapore (NUS) team bagged 19th position out of 119 entries at this year's Formula Society of Automotive Engineers (FSAE) competition held in Michigan, US.

The yearly competition pits formula car builders against the best from universities around the world.

Achieving its best result since entering the competition in 2004, the NUS FSAE team also became the top team in Asia again with their 2009 formula car, the Centennial V - designed, built and raced by undergraduates.

The team nearly gave the competition a miss due to the Influenza A(H1N1) pandemic.

The NUS race car had arrived in the US earlier, only to be re-packed into a crate destined for home, before a last-minute call was made to compete.

The task of building the NUS car with a 600cc motorcycle engine was divided among its 16-student team.

The result of the team's effort is a one-seater weighing 202kg, capable of 0 to 100kmh in under 4seconds.

One area where the steel-framed car underwent weight loss was the car's pedal section.

Its weight had been trimmed by 71 per cent from 1.6kg to just 464gm.

The steel and aluminium pedals were replaced by hand-built, carbon fibre ones.

The car, built at an estimated cost of $100,000, also include innovations like the paddle-type gear shifter, similar to what is used in Formula 1.

The paddle shifters, located behind the steering wheel, allow full throttle, gearshifts without the driver taking his hands off the steering wheel.

Aided by compressed air and activated electronically, each gear shift happens instantaneously within 100 milliseconds.

Said Mr Mazher Anwar, 24, who took four months to perfect the paddle shifter: 'At first we faced problems. The paddle shifters would work on campus, but would fail when we tested them elsewhere.

'We took along a manual shifter for the competition, just in case the paddle shifters failed.'

Rigorous testing

During the competition, FSAE cars go through rigorous testing involving endurance, cornering stability, overall handling and sprint prowess.

Said Mr Alan Kor, 25, who is in charge of the car's electronics: 'Sometimes when we are tired or unmotivated, the word 'passion' written by our team leader Weiliang on the car's brakelights, reminds us why we're building this car. It gives you that little bit of energy to push on.'

Barely home for about a month, the next NUS team is already working on a 2010 car.

This article was first published in The New Paper.