Subang Jaya, 20 June 2009 - Students from 12 institutions of higher learning today pitted their engineering skills to vie for cash prizes in the Perodua Eco-Challenge held at the Speedway PLUS Circuit in Subang Jaya.

The venue took on a carnival atmosphere as the teams came with busloads of supporters to the event, one-of-its-kind race in Malaysia.

The Perodua Eco-Challenge saw the 12 teams racing in their modified and decorated Myvi, which were sponsored by Perodua. In addition to one unit of Myvi, each team received RM10,000 to prepare the car for the race.

The institutions received their cars in a ceremony held at the Perodua Learning Centre on 30 March 2009.

The winning teams in the Perodua Eco-Challenge were decided based on the longest distance travelled in their modified Myvi with 1 litre of PETRONAS Primax 3 fuel allocated to them and time taken. In the second category, points were awarded based on the extent of modification done, design and students participation.

Earlier on the race day, about 140 students from 14 schools in Rawang and Hulu Selangor also participated in various activities such as drawing contest, Human Traffic Board Game, trivia questions and other games.

Perodua Managing Director Datuk Syed Abdull Hafiz Syed Abu Bakar said Perodua believes that the future of the automotive industry hinges on the development of eco-friendly technologies.

“Thus, this Perodua Eco-Challenge reaffirms our commitment in building affordable and fuel efficient cars,” he said in his speech before flagging-off the race. 

“If you notice, we have picked ‘Engineered for our next generation’ as the theme for this event. It simply means the things we do to reduce impact on the environment today will benefit the society of tomorrow,” Syed Hafiz said.

“Ultimately, the Perodua Eco-Challenge is all about the quest for making a good idea better. It is not just about winning the cash prizes on offer but more on the skills, knowledge and experience to be gained,” he added.

In addition to winning the cash prizes offered, the Perodua Eco-Challenge also allowed the students to test their engineering skills.

“More importantly, we want to promote the good driving habits among the Malaysian public,” Syed Hafiz said.
Meanwhile, the champions in both the manual and automatic categories walked away with RM20,000 each, first runner-ups received RM10,000 each while the third runner-ups took RM5,000 each.

In the engineering, design and participation category, the winning team received RM10,000, second prize winner RM5,000 and third prize winner was awarded RM3,000.

Perodua Managing Director Syed Hafiz and Osamu Oaki gave away the prizes to the winners.