B'lore boys first to qualify for Formula SAE competition

BANGALORE: Students of a local college here have become the first from the country to qualify for the last round of Formula SAE competition that has teams from across the globe vying for the top spot in designing and fabricating race cars.

The 14-member 'Ashwa Racing' student team from R V College of Engineering (RVCE) is the first in the country to qualify for Dynamic Events round of the 'Formula Student Germany 2007', S C Sharma, Principal of the college, told.
  
The Formula SAE competition, organised by Society for Automotive Engineers (SAE), was held in Hockenheim in Germany from August 8 to 12.

These competitions are held across the globe to give engineers of tomorrow a taste of challenges they will face.

The competition is for students to conceive, design, fabricate and compete with formula style open wheel race cars.

The team's guide R S Kulkarni of mechanical engineering department said the concept is that a manufacturing firm engages a design team to produce a prototype formula car for evaluation as a potential production item with the target market being the weekend autocross racer.
   
Vehicles are judged on design cost manufacturability, serviceability and performance on track, he said.
   
The total cost of the project, including the prototype and transport to Germany, came to about Rs 18 lakh, said Arun Raj, who headed the team.

"We are in R&D phase at present and are looking at bringing out a low cost racing car, costing around Rs 4 lakh in the market in two-three years," he said.

"Close interaction with renowned companies in Germany like FESTO (for pneumatic gears) and BBS, who manufacture alloy wheels for F1 racing teams, have provided us valuable hands-on experience," said Mudit Khanna, a member of the team.

Arun Raj said the team was in talks with Coimbatore-based company, LGB Roll-On, "to sell our concept". The company makes bike chains but is into the "hobby business" of manufacturing Formula style racing cars and is the pioneer in this field in the country.

Ashwa Racing team was sponsored by firms like Sun Microsystems, EFD Induction Ltd, Guhring, Lufthansa, BPCL, Prabha Engineering and Star Cements. This is the third time the team has participated in this competition. It took part in SAE Formula Racing competitions in Australia in 2005 and 2006.

Around 60 teams from all over the world including two from India participated in the competition this year.

"We are gearing ourselves to participate in the SAE Formula Racing competitions to be held in UK (May) and Germany (August), 2008," Raj said.