Bring Gaza Race-car Students In From
The Cold: Who Are These Amazing Youngsters?
07 August 2012
By Stuart Littlewood
Praised as "inspirational" they're expected to scour
local junk-yards for materials and parts
Last year engineering students from the Gaza Strip
took on the cream of Europe's technical universities
in a competition to build a race car, despite
obstruction by the Israeli regime.
Formula Student (FS) is a challenge to university
students around the world to design and build a
single-seat racing car, which they must then put
through its paces at the Silverstone Circuit in the
UK.
The aim, of course, is to inspire young people and
boost skills in advanced engineering. Students have to
pretend they've been hired by a manufacturing firm to
produce a prototype car for evaluation. As well as
technical skills, the exercise teaches management,
marketing and people skills. The motorsport industry
regards Formula Student as an ideal standard of
achievement for making the transition from college to
workplace.
Construction of the car itself has to conform to
nearly 30 pages of stringent rules and regulations. A
four-stroke piston engine no larger than 610cc must be
used, and this is enough to catapult the car from 0 to
60mph in just a few seconds. Electric or hybrid
vehicles are also allowed. The cars then go to
Silverstone, the home of Formula One racing, to be
judged in a series of tests that include technical
scrutiny and an examination of cost and
sustainability, presentation, and engineering design.
They are also put through performance and endurance
trials on the track.
Last year's Class 1 winner was the University of
Stuttgart. Stuttgart is home to Mercedes-Benz and
Porsche, so it's no surprise that the University is
renowned for its advanced automotive engineering. The
Khan Younis Training Centre (KYTC) in Rafah at the
southern end of the Gaza Strip, however, has no such
iconic, cutting-edge benefactors on its doorstep.
The lads from Gaza were entered in Class 2. They won
3rd prize for their business plan and came 9th with
their financial report. But Israel's illegal blockade
prevented specialty parts from Italy reaching them and
consequently they missed.the deadline for their design
and specification report and were docked a huge number
penalty points. Had they been awarded just an average
score for that section they'd have finished in the top
half of the table along with Bath, Budapest, Brunel
and Edinburgh.
After finalising the plans for the car and identifying
the parts they needed the students contacted various
suppliers around the world, only to be turned down
time and again. Eventually a firm in Italy agreed to
help, but when the parts were sent the Israelis
refused to let them into Gaza.
The team had to improvise by salvaging parts from old
cars and machinery. The engine came from a used Honda
motorcycle and the chassis was fabricated with
domestic hot water pipes. This and the lack of
sophisticated tools was hardly a recipe for ultimate
success. Nevertheless their efforts moved Dr Colin
Brown, Director of Engineering at IMechE (the
Institution of Mechanical Engineers), which runs the
FS competition at Silverstone, to declare: "It really
is inspirational to see a team working so hard with
the odds stacked against them like this. Formula
Student is a massive challenge in its own right, but
to be working with almost entirely recycled parts in
one of the most deprived areas in the world is
remarkable.
"These students epitomise the spirit and inventiveness
of those who take part in Formula Student."
It was rumoured that the Gaza team would be back this
year for another attempt. After wondering what could
be done to give these enterprising youngsters a bit of
a boost whilst in the UK I made provisional
arrangements for them to tour the factory of Lola
Cars, a name synonymous with motor racing since the
1960s.
But when I was finally able to contact the Principal
of the KYTC, Dr Ghassan Abu-Orf, he said the team
couldn't take part this year but would definitely do
so in 2013. "Those who participated in the 2011 event
were in their final year and already graduated... As
part of our preparation for our 2013 participation, 3
members of KYTC staff including myself will
participate in the 2012 Formula Student Competition as
volunteer judges… Once our participation is confirmed,
the three of us will start seeking sponsorship to
cover our mission. Keep fingers crossed!"
Their next attempt, presumably, will require an
all-new car and they need more time. So building on
the lessons from Silverstone last year, re-jigging the
curriculum and learning from judging is surely a wise
move.
"We will do whatever it takes to get this group a
great experience here," Lola had told me. "We will do
a tour for them and it will be a very educational and
fun tour." A kind gesture indeed. What's more they'd
be happy to receive staff members of KYTC even if the
students couldn't make it.
So imagine our great sorrow and disappointment - and
the massive shock to the entire motor-racing world -
when Lola announced two weeks ago that they were going
into administration.
This doesn't mean that the factory is closing. It
continues in business with reduced staff and hopes to
find a new buyer. I hear six Lolas are expected to run
in this month's Le Mans 24-hour race.
Who are these amazing youngsters?
KYTC was set up by UNRWA (the United Nations Relief
and Works Agency) in 2007 to provide training for
Palestinian refugees and inject skilled labour into
the local economy. One of its courses is Autotronics,
which includes diagnosis, maintenance & repair of
automotive systems, injection & ignition systems and
electronics & electrical systems.
The tiny coastal enclave of the Gaza Strip has been
cruelly and illegally blockaded by Israel, with
Western collusion, ever since Hamas won the 2006
elections fair and square and enforced their right to
govern. But the great democracy-preaching powers have
no hesitation in strangling other people's democracies
such as the Palestinians' if the wrong side is
elected. And they use criminal methods like collective
punishment, which itself goes unpunished thanks to our
morally bankrupt international community.
In 2009 KYTC's first Autotronics class, frustrated at
the lack of workshop materials for hands-on automotive
experience, set about building a race car from
recycled parts. The following year the students went
one step further and built a car to the exacting FS
standards, and 11 students eventually travelled to the
UK last summer to test their prized creation.
Who are these remarkable young people? UNRWA says that
many come from the sort of background the United
Nations calls "abject poverty", which means families
who don't have the financial resources to provide even
the most basic necessities of life.
Fate has dealt them another unkind blow by pulling the
plug on Lola's offer of encouragement, at least for
the timebeing. Let us hope there are other firms out
there at the cutting edge who are prepared to give
these bright and "inspirational" lads from the
hellhole of Gaza some eye-popping insights into
automotive engineering excellence… and bring them in
from the cold.
Fingers crossed, as the optimistic Dr Ghassan says.
POSTSCRIPT, 6 June
Dr Ghassan emails to report that the Formula Student
organisers have not selected him and his teaching
colleagues as volunteer judges for this year's event.
So another technology window to the outside world is
slammed on the prisoners of Gaza.
Stuart Littlewood's book Radio Free Palestine can
now be read on the internet by visiting
www.radiofreepalestine.org.uk.
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