Three youths to take part in Land Rover 4x4 World Finals

High school students Ahmed Khan, Yakim Dondi and Robert Dewar will be representing Bahrain in the Land Rover 4x4 in Schools competition to be held in the UAE in December. The youngsters, all of whom are 17, will be participating in the finals. The trio will be the first to represent Bahrain in the annual competition which requires participating teams to build a radio-controlled vehicle. Ahmed told DT News that he is expecting a tough competition but are hopeful of bringing the top prize to Bahrain. Excerpts from an interview with Ahmed.

How did you get selected for the competition? 

Two of us (myself and Yakim) have already competed in the F1 in Schools World Finals in Singapore in 2015. F1 in Schools is very similar to 4x4 in Schools and the organisers of both competitions are the same. Due to this previous experience of ours, we inquired the possibility of participating in the 4x4 in Schools World Finals. Since there’s never been a Bahraini representative, we were directly invited and we hope that we can encourage other students of participating in this competition from next year. 

Please explain how the competition works

The Land Rover 4x4 in Schools Technology Challenge requires students to build a radio controlled four-wheel drive (4x4) vehicle to the specifications provided by the International Rules Committee. It must successfully navigate and complete obstacles on an off-road test track which is just as demanding as a real off-road situation. The vehicle must emulate the capabilities of a full size 4x4 vehicle. The National Champions from each country are then invited to compete at the Land Rover 4x4 in Schools World Finals. The car is not the only aspect of the competition as we have to make presentations, a pit display and portfolios which all have a weight-age to the overall points in crowning the World Champion.

How challenging is this project? 

It is very challenging considering that we have to create a 4x4 car on our own along with organizing all the other things needed for this challenge. It would be much easier if we had the funds as we would be able to buy products which would make the process of manufacturing and designing much easier, along with increasing our chances of propelling Bahrain’s name at the World Finals in Abu Dhabi this December. 

Why did you decide not to take help from a mentor before participating in this?

Since we already have profound experience in a project which is similar to this, we think that we can work on our own and be able to create a car which will be competitive enough to challenge the other teams at the World Finals. We also want to relinquish the chance to do something challenging on our own and to help increase our engineering knowledge through our own pathways.

Explain your role for the project and that of Yakim and Robert

Yakim is the car manufacturer and engineer. He is in charge of designing the full car and assembling it. Robert is the graphic designer and logistics manager, which means that he organises the trip, and helps with the design of the car.

How much sponsorship money do you need? 

We are currently looking at a budget of BD1500, whereas the minimum we are looking to raise is about BD1200. We already have secured about BD400 of the funds, but we still need a vast amount to cover the costs. Our sponsorship package includes: information and logos of the sponsor in the newspaper, logo on our website, logo on our shirts which we will wear at the world finals across 5 days in Abu Dhabi, logo on our car, logo on our pit display, exposure to thousands of individuals based in the Middle East and around the world. So far, we have sponsors in the form of Mathay Bullens (Belgian company) and Saltid (Bahrain based company).