By NASA MARIA ENTABAN

THERE’S nothing like spending hours in a workshop, rolling up your sleeves and working with tools to give an engineering student hands-on experience.

That was the main reason team Raging Bull from Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, Petaling Jaya, Selangor – made up of Gatelin Wee Yue Lin, Ng Shie Hea, Daniel Yong Yew Rong and Lee Chong Siang – took part in the Bosch Power Tools Asia Cordless Race 2011. Winning the competition was just a bonus.

“It was a chance to do something by ourselves, with our own hands,” said Gatelin, 22. “Most of the time we learn more about theories, and we don’t go to workshops very often to actually use machines and learn technical skills.”

The team of four engineering students beat 12 other final teams. Raging Bull proved they had the fastest and most efficient go-kart during the Malaysian finals held in the heart of Kuala Lumpur on July 30.

The competition kicked off in early April. It encouraged students from local universities to form teams of up to five and come up with a blueprint for a racing kart where the drive system is powered entirely by four pieces of the Bosch GSB 18V-Li Professional cordless drills.

Twelve teams were shortlisted from 53 initial entries and each team received an allowance of RM12,000, and six Bosch GSB 18V-Li Professional cordless drills, to build an actual racing kart based on their submitted blueprint.

Upon completion of their racing karts, the teams were pitted against each other at the Malaysian qualifying leg, an exciting race which saw several karts break down.

In the end, the race came down to reliability, as many of the teams’ karts suffered technical glitches throughout, with Raging Bull finishing fastest.

Their win came with the prize of RM3,000 cash and RM2,000 worth of Bosch Power Tools products, as well as a trip to Beijing, China, with second place winners Quad Drive from UCSI University, Cheras, KL.

Raging Bull and team Quad Drive (made up of Chan Pak Leong, Low Chern Yee, Ang Ming Joo, Tan Ying Hua and Lee Thean Chai) will go up against teams from the Philippines, Thailand, South Korea and China at the Asia finals in Beijing next month.

The team spent a lot of time working on the reliability features of the kart, and in the end all the efforts paid off as their kart proved to be the most secure during the race.

Team Raging Bull from Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) will be making their way to Beijing this September for the Bosch Power Tools Asia Cordless Race 2011 finals. (from left) Gatelin Wee Yue Lin, Ng Shie Hea, Lee Chong Siang and Daniel Yong Yew Rong.

“We spent one month building the kart, and one month on trouble-shooting to make sure our kart was secure, reliable and safe,” explained Chong Siang, the team’s 22-year-old driver.

The boys of Raging Bull admit that of all the karts, theirs looked the most simple, with minimal artwork and hardly any flashy accessories, but that was what made their kart the fastest and the one with the least amount of complications.

“We thought a lot about safety. Even though our kart looks simple and light, it is very stable,” said Daniel, 22.

The team, made up of three Mechanical Engineering students and one Megatronics Engineering student, said that after prayer, two things proved instrumental to their success: dividing of the workload and time management skills.

“We divided our workload into sections,” Daniel said. “After the initial discussions on design, we decided that one person would work on the power transmission, one person on the chasis, one on the steering system and one on the materials.”

Chong Siang said, “It has been a real honour to have been a part of this competition, giving us a great opportunity to challenge our engineering skills to build our own race kart from scratch.”

For now, the boys are looking forward to the race in China, looking for videos of their competitors to scope out the standard in the participating countries.

Team Quad Drive from UCSI University came in second in the Malaysian leg of the Bosch Power Tools Asia Cordless Race 2011. (clockwise from left) Chan Pak Leong, Low Chern Yee, Ang Ming Joo, Tan Ying Hua and Lee Thean Chai.

“It’s going to be tough because the teams from these other countries are really, really good,” said Shie Hea, 22. “Since we can’t make any more major modifications to the kart, it’s all up to our driver to take us through the race and hopefully win it,” he added.

For more information on the race, visit www.bosch-pt-cordless-race.com.