A €30,000 racing car built by a group of university students will feature at a special event in Italy later this month.

The 15-strong group spent two years working on the project in their free time and at weekends. They had to wade through a staggering 150 pages of rules and regulations to complete the vehicle.

The car they designed, powered by a 600cc Honda motorcycle engine, can go from zero to 60 miles an hour in just three seconds.

Team member Dennis Dalli said the students from the faculties of communications and engineering got together to build the open-wheel race car from scratch.

They will be going to Parma to compete in the Formula ATA 2014 competition.

The car, which he said cost about €30,000, was funded through sponsorships by Transport Malta and a number of private companies. The majority of parts were manufactured in-house at the university and by local firms.

At the unveiling of the car yesterday, Education Minister Evarist Bartolo and Transport Minister Joe Mizzi praised the students for their initiative and wished them success.

About 80 universities from all over the world take part in Formula ATA every year.

This will be the second time a team from the University of Malta will participate, the first having taken part in 2007.

UOM Racing, as the Maltese team is called, hoped to encourage more students to come forward, improve upon this year’s model and build new cars to participate in Formula ATA and similar competitions in the future, Mr Dalli said.

The event consists of races and static events, including design and business presentations, focusing on key technical and engineering aspects of the car as well as the presentation of a business proposal to a panel of judges acting as potential investors.

The idea is to build a car at a sensible cost with the potential of profits if it is produced and sold commercially.