Omani students throttle up for eco-car challenge in Singapore

Muscat: Six Oman engineering students, including a female software engineer, are set to step on the accelerator of their eco-friendly car to win the Asia Shell Eco-marathon race in Singapore.
Named Magalodon, the team will compete in the category prototype diesel, against more than 100 other student teams, between March 16 and 19.
Their challenge will be to drive the longest distance while using only one litre of diesel. The sole female member of the group will be driving the car.
“Compared to the past two years many features are improved this time. Our new car is around 30 per cent lighter and it has a transparent cover, which facilitates the driving,” said Mohamed Salman, the team leader.
The material of the body and chassis is Aluminum and Carbon fiber.
Al Shifa Al Hadi, the female student, will drive the GUtech eco-car.
Al Shifa who has been studying computer sciences at GUtech has developed a special software that controls the motor and the friction, which are crucial for saving fuel.
According to Dr. Emmanouil Bouzakis at the Department of Engineering in GUtech, low friction bearings need to be employed and to save fuel during the competition the driver will need to be well-informed, applying the correct driving method where no unnecessary braking or acceleration should be involved.
Last year, after passing all the technical checks and improving the different features the GUtech students’ team drove a specific fuel consumption of 0.6 litre per 100 km.
Around 100 teams participated in the Shell Eco-marathon in the previous years, but many failed the inspection tests and therefore were not accepted for the race.
The students hope that their ideas and inventions can contribute to building lighter and eco-friendlier cars in future.
Their car will be shipped to Singapore in a few days.