Iguana vs. Ferrari?

A new rival to Ferrari was born at one of Russia's major technical universities. Students have created the ultimate dream car.

Pablo Iturralde, car chief engineer, told RT: “We used brand new technological discoveries, our own ones. For instance, we used wood instead of aluminum for the front part; we only used one shock-absorber for both rear wheels. It's very hard to compete with the Europeans, but we'd like to create a decent car – and we've succeeded.”

Pablo has called this little monster "Iguana," after the speedy lizard of his native Ecuador. This is his first taste of success in car design, and unlikely to be his last. Pablo has already set up his own small production of racing cars in his homeland, and has his foot firmly on the gas.

“Ferrari is the best car ever, the true legend of the world's auto industry,” he said. “I'd like to make something like this car, something very special. And don't laugh – first "Iguana" was also something surreal, but look, here it is now!”

The international engineering competition "Formula Student," the event the "Iguana" was created for, is the world's biggest of its kind. Last year 94 universities representing more than 20 countries took part at Silverstone race circuit in England.

The Russian lizard was also on the track. It didn't take the Grand Prix this year, but the team believes that competing was even more important than a victory.

“It's a very hard project, hard to participate in it, but it's worth of it,” Vladimir Timonin, the head of the project, said. “It provides the students with a real-life exercise in design and manufacture and eventually raises talented engineers.”

Pablo Iturralde like many others, is putting his auto ability to good use today in order to shape the Russian car industry of tomorrow.