The student modified and re-built racing car by the College of Cape Town’s Athlone Campus Automotive Motor Mechanic students, under the Young Engineers Motor Development Programme (YEMDP) has thus far participated in four competitive Clubman’s saloon events/races (entry class X). The vehicle is currently being raced (driven) by Mr Lucin Downes, Facilitator at Athlone Campus for Automotive Motor Mechanic.
After each race, the team made up of the students, educators/lecturers and facilitators, assemble for a strategic and tactical debriefing session to discuss the car’s performance, explore opportunities for increasing output and remedial action for imperfections.
Mr Reuben Mokotedi, Senior Lecturer for Automotive Motor Mechanic said, “The vehicle recently underwent Dyno Testing and Turning with RBT performance. A dynamometer is a device for simultaneously measuring the torque and rotational speed (RPM) of an engine, to calculate its instantaneous power and usually displayed by the dynamometer as kilowatts (kW) or brake horsepower (bhp). With the Dyno results, significant adjustments are already made to get more output from the car. Modification to increase the output of the car within the guidelines and specifications is all part of racing. With each race, there are new challenges and opportunities, a different adjustment, an addition in the engine bay, a modification here and there, creating a whole new dynamic work environment for the students ”.
The College wants to extend the YEMDP, a second car is already fitted with a race standard roll cage, the built-up of this car is scheduled for later on in the year, with entry proceeding in the new academic and race calendar year. The additional vehicle means that more students can participate in the YEMDP and receive exposure. There is good camaraderie among the other Clubman’s participants at the track, and some teams have offered to host students as pit crew on their vehicles. We also have students that are marshalling race events at the track, giving our candidates a wider range of duties and coverage while at the track.
“I would like to encourage students to study Automotive Motor Mechanic. Motor mechanics is our game, if you are a petrol head and love working on cars, this is the program for you. There are different career streams to be followed within the field, and the field is always expanding, with consistent new technological advances, making for growth opportunities and expansion within the field, even expanding into other engineering fields” said Mr Mokotedi.