Body Blows

A promise we have (finally) kept :-)

The central structure of the Kaar body is ready...as (obviously) you can see. Now, we turn to making all those stupid adjustments like the doors and windows...

Downside is the weight of the body...lots of it :-(

Meet the Team

The papers over, the tensions gone (or not), and work restarted...

But, before we actually do something (make the Kaar, that is), if we actually manage to do it...it is imperative (not quite) that we meet the team...so here goes

Team Manager. Master Lingerer. One Dimensional Monstrosity. Indecisive. Devoid of Leadership Qualities. Rude. Bossy. Arrogant. Thats me. My job? To visit everyone working on the project, and get my photos taken :-D

Some say...that he is the reincarnation of Dexter's archenemy Mandark. Some say...that he failed all his papers and still got a 4.01 for GPA...

All we know is that he is NOT the Stig. He is the Stig's Pakistani cousin.

Meet Comrade Stig Von Sohaib

The tireless worker who's got an ass the size of the moon. Oh sorry...its slightly smaller than that. The stupid oaf and a...

With Bekaar, he likes to Chassis Chassis, and he likes to Engine Engine. He would be Team Manager of 'Still Bekaar'...the team for next year. Weighing so-many-pounds-you-can't-even-count, from some-place-you-would-rather-forget, Ossama Ahmad!

Master Politician. The guy-who-can-find-loopholes-in-any-system, but otherwise quite...oh crap, I have already used the word oaf...whatever.

Does the finances. The Marketing. The Moral Support...Malik Basharat of Great Talagang.

Senor Mujahid Ali. Don't know much about him but he has a car :-) Works hard. Got the wooden thing ready on time. The fiberglass body would be ready in two days thanks to his persistence. Etc Etc...

Yeah...the first choice driver for the team
Senor Raheel Ahmed. Otherwise Genius. Did the body design and aerodynamics, and those bloody analyses in Fluent or whatever.

Again etc etc
Ahsan Kamal Mir...Kamal ka banda hai. Marketing Guy. But the tension has got to him, so helping the Mechanical guys in whatever way he can. Including spying on other team :-D

All we know about senor Anas bin Aqeel is that he has got a passport!

He does nothing!

But that may be because he has played his part. Did the analyses on the Chassis. Also, safety manager of the team, and gives advice on all aspects regarding safety.

And before this post spirals into a boring pill of extreme boredom...

Stupid Exams

!@#!%! Exams! :-(

Update and other animals

A MUTINY!!!!!?????!!!!!!!

Hang on...no one knows who's part of the group, so how can you **** the mutineers?

Hmmm...I must find time to profile all those bekaar enough to...

So, the updates...

Chassis is coming along nicely. Except that it gets tilt-y-ish and all as the pipes are supposedly too thin. Advice for next time: use thicker pipes.

The body...pattern is ready...hold up due to finances, or the lack thereof (there you go, my favorite phrase 'the lack thereof' again :-) )

Everything else...is well...everything else, for now.

Kaar: the peoples' car?

Where do I start?

IBA (forgot what it meant, but it's one of the top business schools of the country) is organizing an entrepreneurial competition by the name of INVENT.

In short, the competition is about coming up with an idea, forming a team, and a business/entrepreneurial proposal sort of thing regarding that idea. So, with the motto I once had 'har cheez main taang arao' (stick your leg into everything), I (and Malik Basharat) decided to take part. All good, but what about the idea?

hmm...hmm...

Damn Man, its Kaar!

Kaar, marketable? It is something we (I guess all the team) have our doubts on. (I think I have written on that earlier). But I was totally shocked (in a good way) that many of the people here quite liked the idea.

In fact, on the first day of the workshop on Saturday, Kaar took the event by storm (well, almost). Pity I wasn't there to witness what actually had happened as I was away on welding duties for the Kaar, but from what I learnt, Kaar invoked controversy...lots of it.

...which was good, as it brought it to the limelight. One of the guys, who was supposed to join the marketing and finance team for Kaar, raised the question whether something like this, as opposed to wavering and meek ideas of empowering women or a cookie store, would be too costly for even INVENT (they had been handing out free teas and lunches for the last two days) to encapsulate. Apparently it wasn't. On Malik Basharat's interjection, one of the main organizers Azhar Rizvi promised he would buy the first commercial Kaar!

Anyway, from the response we got at the event, the bottom-line is that Kaar is marketable, even if the application of the start-stop strategy is too cumbersome for consumers to be offered.

The catch?

A two-seater (the envisaged commercial version) at less than one-third of the cost of the cheapest available car today, at least 3-4 times as efficient and twice as compact (half as big) as the common car today.

Utility of the two-seater?

A keen observation (to be backed up by a proper survey) that almost half our (4-5 seater) gas guzzling vehicles have just one person as the passenger.

Moreover, this sleek and compact green car would be more maneuverable in the slender streets of the country (of Urban areas to begin with).

And the thing that really makes it seems worthwhile is the utility, or mobility, it offers to those hardest hit by traffic congestion in the form of ubiquitous traffic jams and the lack of parking spaces in civic centers.

The Market?

Young executives and students, who drive alone.

Senior Executive, who have multiple mechanical steeds, one for family use and Kaar for commuting.

The working middle class, who...well need the mobility of a motorbike and the luxury of a car.

Young people, who see Kaar as a fashion statement :-)

Women...or girls to be more apt, who always wanted to ride the Scooty the India girls do...(the Jeremy-Clarkson-shocked-and-speechless-expression). Yeah this, as put by one of the marketing people on 'our' team put, comes in 99 colors!

People conscious of reducing their carbon-footprint.

And well, everyone else!

The Marketing?

If we had worked this out, we wouldn't have been engineers...right? And those marketing people in our team are idiots!

But they did the Elevator Pitch all fine...

The Elevator Pitch?

Ok, the idea supposedly comes from squeezing into an elevator with an otherwise busy CEO and prospective investor, and giving him a 30-60 second presentation while the elevator reaches his destination.

So, the NBS girl (one of the marketing people as I call) gave the Elevator Pitch on Saturday about the idea (that being Kaar in case you have forgotten). It was one of the 6 best (among 23) idea/elevator pitches to be given at the workshop!

In short, she took off (I THINK she took off from there) with our traffic problems, fuel consumption issues (The stupid girl drives a 1.6L car alone to college everyday) and the cost of smaller and 'cheaper' cars. She mentioned maneuverability, the idea of going green and some other things (I wouldn't be an engineering student had I remembered all that shit). She recognized the market as well (I THINK). She ended up asking everyone to buy a Kaar (Ok, she didn't).

Anyway, by the end of the day, 3 persons had promised us that they would buy Kaar!

On Sunday (today) we, the 3 marketing idiots didn't turn up, made the executive summary for the project. Again it was among the best 6 at the event!

We let ourselves down in the presentation...and I am running out of time now...we would pull up our socks and kick some marketing ass in one month's time when the competition really starts.

Stay in Malaysia

I know we are getting slightly carried away here, but here are 'excerpts' from a meeting of the College teams with the HOD...

'What of your stay in Malaysia?'

'Sir, obviously that is something that we might have to manage ourselves...'

'Why don't you consider staying in some mosque?'

A minute later...

'You people should contact families in Malaysia, and ask them to be your hosts...'

'Sir, two of our teams are special in a sense that there are girls in there'

'Thats even better!'

Full Steam

We are moving...full steam!

The Material Conspiracy

!%^#*! ##!

First the Turks, now stupid material!

The material we had purchased to fabricate our frame couldn't simply take the heat at Heavy Industries Taxila.

The welding equipment at HIT simply melt our pipes!!!!!

The Turkish Conspiracy

Ok, so a large chunk of the fabrication of our frame was put off today, thanks to the Turks. In fact, President Abdullah Gul came all the way from Turkey just to put Kaar off schedule!

With the material stuck at the factory of our suppliers, and the traffic almost at a standstill, due to the VIP movement of the Turks, the supply of the aluminum was delayed by about 4 hours, basically the whole of the working day.

Anyhow, down, but not out. Hang on you Turks, it'll be vengeance time in Malaysia! :-D