Ben Gurion racing project.

We are on the map and we're staying on the map – not only in sports, in everything" Tal Brody, 1977 By Ofer Rotem and Tamir Plachinsky The Race Car Project is a project in which Engineering students design, build and of course compete with a racing one-seat motor vehicle, under the Formula standard, at an international For-Students-Only competition, called FORMULA SAE. This competition is organized by The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and which has taken place continuously for over 30 years throughout the world. More than 300 teams from different universities take part in it. Till now, Israel never had a representation in this competition. The entire motor vehicle is designed and built by students as part of their graduation project. The group which was established at Ben-Gurion University was called "BGR – Ben-Gurion Racing" and is constituted of 21 Engineering students divided into 11 designing teams, each being led by a professional advisor from Academics and from Industry, this in addition to assistance from many students from lower academic years. During the school year the students develop their skills beyond their Major's assignments and experience for the first time a process of real engineering work which includes team work, goal setting and meeting targets, designing with the consideration of budget limits and manufacturing capabilities and above all – a combination of passion with Engineering studies. Because of this, the group will help to prepare better engineers who will lead the Israeli industry in the coming years. The project's goal for the coming year is to build a first prototype and race it at the competition in Italy which will take place in September 2011, while developing the infrastructure needed to implement the project in a multi-year framework. We will manufacture and develop a new Israeli Formula car every year, all of which will be of a "Blue & White" (Israeli) design and which will represent the state of Israel at international competitions and which will eventually also win at the race. Recruiting the right support for the project is an inseparable part of it and for this a detailed marketing plan was prepared, under the consultation of professionals, which will allow a long exposure in the local media, from now until the time of the competition in September 2011. The fact that this is the first Israeli group to take part in the competition is attracting a huge attention from the media and already this month viewers will be able to see a TV story about the project, which will be aired on Israel's channel 2. In addition to that, it is helpful that the Car Racing law was approved in the Knesset and Israelis are about to have the first legal car races. The matter of the races existence will raise even more the importance of this project as a factor which prepares engineers for the motor field. It can be summed up that in this area too Israel is marching forward! For more information and contact details, visti the website www.bgracing.com Good luck to the BGR group!! Translated from Hebrew by Michael Greenberg