VU team exhibits sports sedan at MotorEx

A sport sedan designed by Victoria University mechanical engineering students and alumni and built by Jason Clements of Clements Motorsport made its public debut last weekend at MotorEx, held at the Melbourne Showgrounds.

MotorEx is Australia’s largest and most prestigious car show of custom-designed and modified cars, and features more than 400 vehicles with a collective value of more than $40 million dollars.

This is the first year a VU team has attended the event as part of their learning outside the classroom.

Besides exploring the 28,000 square metres of vehicles from all over Australia and showing off their own handiwork, the team were offered the chance to personally meet Chip Foose, a globally renowned custom car owner.

Mechanical Engineering Senior Lecturer Dr Matthew Lamb helped the team design the vehicle, with the assistance of Simon Roberts, a tech artist and mechanical engineer.

“The project allows students to engage with external parties from the Australian Sports Sedan Association and work together on a real world Mechanical Engineering application,” he said.

“It is a career-building experience, but it also gives them something to be proud of and to reflect positively on for a number of years to come.”

VU mechanical engineering students can also choose to be involved in the Victoria University Motorsport (VUM), a student-led group that designs components for race cars.