Interview with the Malaysian engineer who invented the McLaren Senna's speaker grille!

Ruslin Tamsir is a Kuala Lumpur native who, through his expertise and fervent hardwork, has brought a Malaysian touch to the wild McLaren Senna.

He recently went viral over his patented, fastener-less speaker enclosure for the hypercar - which is the focal point of this article.

From humble beginnings...

Ruslin is a man of many interests and for him, cars sit right at the top. So much so that it even influenced where he would study. “The reason why I choose to go to Germany is because I like cars, and everyone knows [they make] most of the best cars in the world,” he told me in our recent online interview. 

Upon graduation with a Mechanical Engineering degree (majoring in Automotive Mechatronics) from the quaint Ravensburg-Weingarten University of Applied Sciences in 2010, he returned to Malaysia to serve his part of the Public Service Department (JPA) scholarship bond. 

His first stop was Penang, starting his career with Continental Automotive System as a Mechanical Design Engineer, where he helped with the design and development of head-up display technologies (HUD), among others.

Still staying on the island, he moved on to Motorola in 2012 (designing and developing walkie-talkie battery packs) and then to Bosch in 2013, where he assisted with the development works of in-car infotainment and navigation systems.

And then somewhere in March 2014, he got what would be a fateful phone call. “I saw a German number and I wondered who was calling me in the middle of the night,” he recalled. The caller mentioned that they’d like to forward Ruslin’s resume to their client. Now, if you were Ruslin - who has just started a family - what would you do?

He said yes, and within the next couple of weeks started his career in Harman International, a company that designs and engineers in-car connectivity and audio systems.

Putting Malaysia on the map, one Senna at a time

There, Ruslin took on the role of engineering speaker systems for premium cars. When McLaren needed a new speaker enclosure design, they put Harman to the task. 

Except this wasn’t any ordinary speaker enclosure. “The concept of the speaker itself is very unique,” said Ruslin. “I’ve thought of the concept and normal speakers have their mounting points where you can screw [the speaker in], because the speaker is circular. But how are we going to mount it if there’s a glass there, which means no mounting points at all?”

What he refers to is the reinforced Gorilla Glass see-through panels on the McLaren Senna’s dihedral doors. Which are also incidentally where McLaren wanted to place their speakers.

Therein lies the challenge - most cars will have their speaker grille as part of the door card, with the speaker itself attached to a mounting point via screws. The Senna can't have those.

Although the enclosure was made by Harman, the Senna utilised a Bowers and Wilkins audio system. As such, both companies shared these two requirements: the enclosures needed to be aesthetically pleasing, and it cannot have any visible fasteners - which are precisely what his ‘invisible’ locking-feature speaker grille design achieves. 

The patent for the design was filed in 2019 through the company and was published by the European Patent Office (EPO) on 21-October 2020. 

Not an easy road

But of course, coming up with it wasn't the easiest of tasks - in his viral Facebook post, Ruslin mentioned he even wanted to give up and return to a conventional design at one point.

And then there's the sheer demand the project took too. When asked about other challenges, Ruslin mentioned that it did get stressful at times. Still, he maintains that he had fun with the project. 

As Engineering Project Leader (EPL), he was pretty much in-charge of almost every aspect of the task, including even designing the wiring and electrical components to go with the speaker.

Meanwhile, one of the bigger challenges was timeline. “The project was only [for] one year, which was almost impossible,” recalls Ruslin. “Typically, projects in the automotive industry take 2-3 years, but this project was very compressed, so I needed to be very dynamic and creative in order to make this happen,” he said.

What's next for Ruslin?

While the patent is a definite highlight, Ruslin’s quest for the next best thing doesn’t stop there. He left Harman in 2019, and is now focusing on his own enterprise, MQ Finique Sdn. Bhd. 

“I am always looking forward for ideas in innovation and creativity,” he says. Among the products his company works on include carbon fibre and composite material automotive components. MQ Finique currently is also the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for a renowned automaker.

Meanwhile, the company’s ongoing project is building an electric bus that they plan to mass produce come 2022. 

Words of advice

As we wound down our conversation, Ruslin had some words to share to those who might be reading this article. “Please don’t give up, keep upskilling yourself, and please do explore new things."

"You cannot only stay in your comfort zone - please learn about IoT [Internet of Things] and communication - that is what I feel is still lacking generally in Malaysia. Upskill yourself and never give up,” he advised.

Wise words indeed. Thank you for your contribution, and we're all proud of you, Ruslin!