An Israeli Formula race car built by students of Bezalel Academy and Ben-Gurion University (BGU) has passed its test drive and is now on its way to Italy.

The single-seat race car is being entered into in the international “Formula SAE” race, a student competition, in Varano de' Melegari in Northern Italy next week.

This is the second year running in which Israel will participate in the event, but the first year in which BGU’s mechanical engineering department has partnered with Belazel’s industrial design department. BGU students are in charge of the engineering side of the project, while Belazel’s are responsible for the style and design of the car.

After the test race, BGU team leader Ben Levitan said: “This is the first time I’m seeing the car painted with some of the logos and I’m really impressed. We started working on this project a year ago and it feels like a wonderful achievement to be here now.”