"Absolutely amazing. It was incredible."

That's how Andrew Lytheer, 21, describes his experience at the wheel of the car he helped design and build for Formula Student - an international car design competition for universities and colleges around the world.

Built from scratch, by a team from Birmingham University, it was the Billericay boy, from Noak Hill Road, who had the responsibility of putting his foot down when it came to testing the car's acceleration at the competition.

From 0-60 in 5.4 seconds Andrew - who is going on to his third year at university - pushed the car's engine to its 600cc limits to achieve eighth position.

The motor cycle-engined single seater car was built specifically to compete at Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre. During the competition it was tested for performance in accelerating, on a skid pan and on a special sprint track.

It was Andrew, a former Billericay School pupil, who was chosen to tackle the difficult, twisting sprint track.

Andrew said: "The only racing I have done in the past is go-karting with my mates. I was the second driver and the first one had gone off twice on the circuit, so we did not have a time and I was desperate just to get round and keep it on the track."

His careful approach, however, ended up raising the pressure on him.

He said: "I ended up with quite an embarrassing time on the first circuit, but with everyone cheering me on on the second lap I got a more respectable time."

The team had to design the car as if they were going to produce 1,000 vehicles and Andrew had to transform himself from track hero to salesman when he presented the car to the judges.

Andrew must have the gift of the gab as well as a talent for driving as the team gained a surprising third in the presentation section, ahead of several of the much fancied American teams. The car eventually finished up a very satisfactory eighth out of the 12 cars competing.

Now Andrew is looking to next year and improving the car with all the ideas gathered over the week as his final year project for his Mechanical Engineering Manufacture and Management degree.

Meanwhile he is pleased to be the subject of envious looks from friends and work mates. He said: "Some are a little bit jealous, particularly those I work with at Ford. Everyone is now wanting to get their universities involved."

TOP GEAR: Andrew Lytheer, 21, takes the hot seat surrounded by the Birm-ingham University team who helped him built and design the car.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.