ACKNOWLEDGING that excellent engineers cannot be solely nurtured in classrooms, Formula Student is an international competition that was founded in the USA in 1981 by SAE International as a practical education programme for students to “create objects”. Experience gained in the programme is shown to be equivalent to three years work in the engineering industry, so is clearly a valuable pursuit. And for the first time, thanks to the initiative of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa is taking part in the programme and the latest project – to build a single-seater racing car – is well under way.