Students to race hand-built car

The students have been working on the car for the past four years

A group of engineering students were due to drive their hand-built racing car at Silverstone this weekend.

The 12-strong team of Glasgow University students were competing in the Formula Student competition.

It challenges teams from across the world to design, build and race their own single-seater racing car.

The car was due to be put through its paces in a range of tests including a brake and noise test as well as an endurance and sprint race.

Team leader Samuel Smith said: "It has taken 12 of us four years of hard work to get the car finished and ready to race but it has been extremely rewarding.

"Racing a car that we built with our own hands at Silverstone will be an amazing experience and will make all the long days worth it."

Real-life exercise

The Glasgow group will be competing against more than 110 teams from countries such as Japan, Australia and the US.

Mr Smith said: "This is the first year we have been able to enter a fully working car into the race but we hope to be able to build on this attempt and submit an entry every year from now on.

"We have all learned so much from this challenge and can take away a huge amount of experience from it."

The competition, run by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, aims to promote careers and excellence in engineering, by providing students with a real-life exercise in design and manufacture.