Thursday, February 4, 2010

my mate Alex

My best mate Alex Revel

Alex was tops he is the one in the car.
I just lost my mate to cancer he was a fantastic bloke and was a Professor  Doctor and God of engineering at the University of Technology Sydney and at times was the Dean of the university.  Some might not think so but this is my blog and he can have the highest honors I can bestow on him. He was a great statesman and ambassador for his country of birth and an Australian of great qualities. He will be sadly missed by ex students from all over the globe as well by friends and colleagues. He did great work in the Solomon Islands and New Guinea giving hydro electric power to some villages. He worked not from nine to five but nine to nine on many occasions helping students with Shell Mileage Marathon and the solar boat race in Canberra and the triple AAA fuel challenge with over night stays and into the next day stints. He helped me in the Energy Challenge to beat some of the biggest players in the country with this car, producing the lower green house gas emissions that was required.The car had a wing on it so as to be seen on Sydney streets, It was and still is the only ever street registered Shell Mileage Marathon car in the world.  We also did work on water injection into the fuel system with mixed results. More can be read on the first blog.  He worked on wind tunnel tests after making the wind tunnel and did work on whirlybirds to test there effectiveness.
His most famous sayings were:-
'There are one's who must never know" This was to be used when the workers made a shitter.
Then there was the saying "There are one's who must be told". This was to be used when the bosses made a shitter.
If he agreed then his hands would go up and he would say "Why not!"
"See you in the never never Alex".

Strik cycle car Shell Milage marathon car

This is an older version of the following car taken on Ameroo park raceway in the west of Sydney, the car survives and the track doesn't.

I made this car out of sheet metal. It was beaten out of flat sheet it took about twelve months to make at Wollongong tafe college. It ran in the Shell Mileage Marathon at Ameroo park race way in Sydney's outer west. Won the transmission award with a hydraulic drive. It also entered the Energy Challenge and got first place in the experimental section beating some large corporations in its wake :) if I can find more photos I will display them in later post. Cheers Stewart