מקוטאנה המרוץ מטיפוף פורמולה, משותפת לסטודויים מעוניטרות בן גוריון ובצעלאל, עברה עברה את נסיעת המבהן

This is the second year in a row that an Israeli delegation will participate in the prestigious competition

The Formula racing car, which is shared by students from Ben-Gurion and Bezalel University, successfully passed the test drive. The driver of the car, team member Rani Dekel, took the car for a particularly successful test drive, as part of a purposeful display of the car before it was sent to Italy, which was held on Thursday at the Kochav Yair race track.

The professional and powerful racing car, which was designed, designed, built and manufactured in collaboration between students from the mechanical engineering department at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and students from the industrial design department at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, is a project created from a first-of-its-kind collaboration between the two educational institutions. In the project, the students planned, built, manufactured and designed a racing car, which will be sent on Thursday night to Italy as part of the Formula SAE racing competition.

This is the second year in a row that an Israeli delegation will participate in the prestigious competition, but this is the first time that there is a partnership between the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the Department of Industrial Design at Bezalel: the students from the university are responsible for the engineering aspect of the project, while the students from Bezalel are responsible for the style and design.

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev's racing team, BGR - Ben-Gurion Racing, consists of undergraduate students from the Department of Mechanical Engineering who design, manufacture and compete a Formula SAE standard racing car, under the guidance of Prof. Eran Sher, as part of the final project. Each student team has to manage a complete process of developing an engineering product, starting from the planning stage to production and assembly, in addition to being responsible for mobilizing the resources for the project, with proper management that will ensure compliance with the goals. The competition is primarily an engineering competition with an emphasis on creative and correct engineering content, but also on economic planning, the way the project is presented, and of course dynamic events that test the vehicle's performance. Such a project simulates the work of engineering teams in industry and gives students a first taste of real engineering work.

Due to the project, the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design opened a special course for vehicle design, under the direction of Dori Regev, senior lecturer in the industrial design department. The student groups from the two institutions met throughout the year in a series of lectures, visits and mutual meetings.

According to Regev, "We used all the knowledge and aerodynamic research provided to us by the team from Ben-Gurion. That is, if we were told that a certain space should be allowed, or they needed a certain space between one place and another, we used this information and combined with our initiatives and ideas, we developed the concept. The big challenge was to use our abilities and talent as designers to create a complete adaptation to the needs of the engineering team. It was a perfect combination. The project presents the unique possibility of combining together developers from two different fields of interest, who complement each other, which makes it possible to lead a real development process, which enriches both parties, by creating a real first-rate motorized product."

Ben Levitan, director of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev student group, said excitedly: "This is the first time I see the car painted and ready with all the logos on it and I am very proud of the result. We started working on the project a year ago and it is a tremendous achievement to be here today. We are a team of 25 students and in my personal opinion, it is a great honor to be a part of this. I want to thank all the sponsors who helped us reach this time, as well as the mechanical engineering department at Ben-Gurion University."

"We believe that we have created a racing car that will allow our team to compete against the best Formula SAE teams from around the world, and we are waiting for the moment when we can show the car's performance in Italy," he added.

Tamir Palachinski, the founder of last year's original project, who spent the last six months interning in Italy at an Italian racing car company, seems very pleased with this year's racing car. "I am very proud of the team that managed to build an amazing car. This shows that the tradition will continue for many more good years and I wish the team success in the competition in Italy."

The largest association of transportation engineers in the world - SAE, organizes various competitions intended for engineering students, with the most prestigious competition being the Formula SAE - an engineering competition in which student teams are required to design, produce and of course compete in a single-seater racing car of the formula type. The competition takes place every year in different countries around the world (USA, Italy, England, etc.) and more than 300 teams take part in it. The Italian Formula SAE competition will take place at the "Ricardo Faletti" square in the city of Varno di Melgari, starting from Friday September 14th until Monday September 17th 2012.

The race car group shared with Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design could not operate without the support of the sponsors, which include the shipping company UPS (which will kindly send the car to Italy), the Logi-X & Run-Up Group, Object, Philco Engineering , ITS Engineering, Michael and Joan Rahab and many more who supported the innovative project.

Last year, the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev's race team was incredibly impressive in its performance in its first appearance at the competition. The team was the best of the new teams and placed fifteenth out of a total of 57 competing teams. This year, together and in cooperation with Bezalel, the car team aims for a higher position.