LEEPU LENIZA F-21: the first-ever automobile designed by a Bangladeshi was recently unveiled in Dhaka.
The F-21 analysis
Shahriar Robin
Leepu had almost no resources whatsoever apart from his unparalleled ingenuity to create the F-21. A blow torch, a few tin sheets, a table-fan (to test the car's aerodynamics) and some helping hands in the garage are all that he had to change the 28-year-old Toyota Celica into the news-making super-car.
The media has been quite excited about Leepu's work for a while now but it has always been putting more emphasis on Leepu's flashy car models rather than understanding them. As the hoo-hahs die down, it is time we looked at Leepu's F-21 from a more analytical point of view.
The F-21, it must be said, is unlike any other car that rolled out of Leepu's tiny garage at Jigatola. It is unique and hardly any resemblance to other cars in the world market can be found in it. Of course, the modified headlights come from a Toyota Windom, but everyone expects this sort of things from Leepu anyway.
Few people would understand the thoughts that went on the designer's mind before the car was even drawn. Leepu says he had drawn his first sketch of the car on February 21 last year--hence the name F-21--even though the project had been in his head since December 2004.
The design stresses the reduction of drag rather than good looks which one might not have assumed. All know drag is the killer of speed and the less drag you have the faster you go.
While designing the F-21, Leepu's primary concern was the air that goes through the radiator grills and onto what he calls the “firewall”, the wall on which the dashboard is mounted. This air produces a lot more drag than he would like. To go past this unwanted hurdle, Leepu designed the bonnet of the car in a way so that the air goes into the radiator, comes out through the bonnet and goes back into the bonnet through a vent, and finally exits through another vent behind the front fenders.
Leepu knew this would only work if he could somehow make a vacuum in the middle part of the car. And to create that vacuum, he widened the car in the front and rear ends by as much as eight inches. This means air passing through the car's sides will create a low pressure in the middle--next to the door--forcing the air to be sucked out from the duct on the front fenders.
Even after doing all this, however, Leepu was still unconvinced that he had done enough for the car to perform well in the corners.
The air going underneath the car was his next worry. Airflow beneath a car at high speed reduces the downforce (force that the air mounts on the car), compromising the amount of grip on the road available at high-speed corners. To keep the downforce on the rear end of the rear-wheel-drive car--lest it becomes airborne--Leepu drilled two three-inch holes on the sides beneath the doors as the vents for the air entering from the low-ground-clearance front end.
Most super-cars have their engines mounted in the mid-part of the car. It takes away most of the problems the front or rear-engine cars tend to generate. A mid-engine car shows greater balance while cornering and does not have high bonnet at the front. The balance is a lot harder to achieve when you have a huge engine at the front.
Leepu obviously knew this, and instead of putting the 1.8 litre Toyota Townace engine in the middle and virtually taking away all the room inside, he curved a small mid-spoiler on the roof of the 77 Celica chassis. The spoiler creates the downforce to give the driver the feeling that he is driving a mid-engine car.
If looked at carefully, one might find the small diffuser at the rear of the car. Leepu, however, claims this is ornamental, as the old Toyota Celica did not leave any room for improvement of the aerodynamics underneath the car.
Leepu suffers heavily due to lack of tools and resources, but investors may take a look at Ariel, the English car-making company.
With its nine part-time workers and a production capability of 99 cars a year, Ariel has managed to escape the safety and emission regulations and establish itself as a cottage industry.
May be, if the ones with the thick wallets are brave enough, we could have something like that in our land.
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