International student finds family in PSU Car Club

Video posted April 25, 2016 in Sports by Ian Palmeri

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Ahad Baig came to State College looking for a car club to supplement his passion for cars that began in the United Arab Emirates. During the winter, Baig slid into a curb and got two flat tires; within minutes, a group of Penn State Car Club members were there with tools, jacks, jack stands and even spare tires for Ahad to use until the next day when he could purchase new tires.

KEZyb20gZnJvbnQgdG8gYmFjaykgTWVtYmVycyBBaGFkIEJhaWcsIEdyZWcgTGVlLCBUYXlsb3IgUGFya3MsIFphY2ggTGFuZSwgRXJpYyBadW8gYW5kIEppbW15IERhZWhua2Ugd2FpdGluZyB0byBtZXJnZSBvbnRvIGk5OSBhZnRlciB0aGUgQ2FyIENsdWImIzAzOTtzIGRyYWcgcmFjZSBkYXkgb24gU3VuZGF5LCBBcHJpbCAyNHRoLCAyMDE2Lg==From front, Ahad Baig, Greg Lee, Taylor Parks, Zach Lane, Eric Zuo and Jimmy Daehnke waiting to merge onto I99 after the Car Club's April drag race day. Photo by Ian Palmeri

PSU Car Club members have had such a profound influence on Ahad, that he began to modify his 2008 Subaru Legacy GT after attending just two of Car Club's weekly meets; and has also begun collecting parts to install on his father's Toyota FJ Cruiser in the UAE. Baig says he thinks of the members of PSU Car Club more as a family than he does as friends 

PSU Car Club holds weekly meets during the school year every Friday at 5PM behind the law building. In the spring, club members participate in an annual “dyno day” - to measure how much power their vehicles produce - a drag race day, as well as racing in autocross events and attending a variety of car shows. Members have installed turbochargers, superchargers and even removed, rebuilt and reinstalled entire engines by themselves.

Video: PSU Car Club members set world record
 

On April 24, 2016, members of the Penn State University Car Club (PSUCC) attended a “test and tune” race at Numidia Dragway in Catissawa. Each driver that raced a car set a new personal record. Eric Zuo, a Senior majoring in energy business finance, set a new quarter-mile time world record for an individually owned B8 generation (model year 2008-2015) Audi A4. Sporting the vehicle number “409”, Eric set the record time of 12.39 seconds at 109mph.

 

Shortly after this, Zuo handed his keys to Tyler Daniels, a Junior Information Sciences and Technology major, who then piloted the Audi to a 12.35 at 110mph, setting the record once again.