Gossip mill tv on Instagram recently shared a photo of a car built as a final year project by some mechanical engineering students in University of Jos. In the photo the students can be seen standing beside a green sports car. 

While other people were picking out simpler innovations for their project, a student named Blessing convinced his team to take up building a sports car. 

When they presented their topic to their supervisor, he was skeptical about it; he felt they had the problem of timing as they might not finish in time for the submission. He also thought about the funding process which seemed challenging but they were able  to convince him that they could take up the challenge. The lecturer was aware that how to build a car was not in any of their textbooks because the processes are patented by automobile companies so he was somewhat doubtful.

When asked what his inspiration was, Blessing said that Jerry Mallo, owner of Bennie automobiles and the builder of the first Nigerian carbon fiber sports car called Bennie Purrie was his biggest inspiration. Blessing attended a conference hosted by Jerry Mallo in his 300 level and it planted a vision in him to either build an electric car or a solar powered car.

He named his car Aspirer Espoir; this is a french word that means strive for hope and their reason for doing so is that their striving for hope that Nigeria will look into the automobile technology section.

The body of the car was made from locally sourced materials like clay, fiber and pop plaster. The clay was soaked in a drum for 6 hours, brought out and kneaded to do away with the lumps and allowed to dry for 2 days.

Even though the body parts were sourced locally and built from scratch by them, they only used standard parts that were not made by them for the engine, braking system and head lamps.

They started their project in May and finished in January 2022.

When the car was unveiled, the people that witnessed it prompted them to move the car to see if it could move and to their surprise, the green Aspirer Espoir sped up a tarred road. When asked what their biggest challenge was, they talked about the funding aspect and getting of materials.

One of the lecturers of the department was asked how he felt when they unveiled a working car, to which he replied “we are not surprised because we know what we have given them theoretically”.