On the Right Track

Chinmay Pandey,fourth year mechanical engineering student and the vice-captain of the team says that while the competition is an extension of the BAJA racing competition that is also held under the SAE,this one is more challenging as it is an endurance race. “The teams were shortlisted last year in August after submitting a design report that described the basic details about the car. We received an 800 cc engine and complete transmissions from Maruti Suzuki. However the entire chassis designing and fabrication,the suspension systems,the braking systems had to be designed by us.”

While most of the designing was done in-house,the students also took help from the college faculty for the same. Prof. V Kumar,who heads the Automobile Engineering department at the college and is also the vice-chairman of the SAE says,“The students had to make use of softwares such as ANSYS to calculate the stress and the design aspects of these components. Interestingly,while a lot of other teams made use of lighter composite materials for the external body including carbon fibre,sponsorship constrains ensured that our students could only use sheet metal,thereby reducing the aesthetic value. However the major designing and chassis fabrication was all done to the required specifications such that the car did not suffer any breakdowns during the race.”

Points were awarded from a total of 1000 for not just the actual race but also for the way in which the entire car was designed. A total of 46 teams participated in the competition from across the country. As far as the car costs were concerned the students completed the design in a total of R 3.5 lakhs.

“Our driver,Oshan Kothadiya,who has driven in the Volkswagen Polo Cup,was really good and played an instrumental part in the victory,” informs Tanmay Chopda,fourth year mechanical sandwich student and another team member. And while the race itself played out smoothly for the winners,they had to grapple with a series of problems prior to the race. Third year mechanical engineering student Moiyyad Vora who was one of the team’s designers says,“Prior to the race we had to complete a madatory testing of the four brakes on the four wheels such that they locked simultaneously. If we failed we would not have been allowed to make it to the race. It took us seven attempts to get that right. Also designing the fishbone suspension for the car was a challenge as we had to repeatedly go back from the manufacturing unit to the drawing board to ensure that costs were in place and we did not overshoot on the pecifications. At the end however it all turned out fine and we managed to win the race even though our wasn’t the most aesthetic looking machine.”

The team won a total prize money of R 4 lakh rupees,with three lakh being the overall prize money and one lakh from the endurance race that they won. “The students in fact have been invited to showcase the car at the Auto Expo 2011 in Delhi,” informs Prof. SV Chaitanya,HOD Mechanical Engineering Department.