Indian students design, build car for global championship

CHANDIGARH: With the 600 cc car they have designed and fabricated, a bunch of engineering students from Punjab are all geared up to take part in

the prestigious Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) competition in the US next month.

This car is made by a group of 10 students of engineering (nine from mechanical and one from electrical stream) of Rayat Institute of Engineering and INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, near Ropar town in Punjab, around 50 km from here. They will participate in the Formula SAE International Competition at Fontana, California in the US, June 17-20.

"We are determined to give a tough fight to all other universities. Our concept is based on speed and our car can easily go up to a speed of 260 km per hour in normal conditions. We have tested it on different kinds of roads," vice-captain of the group Kenneth Dean told reporters Saturday.

"The cost of this car is nearly Rs.650,000 but the overall cost of this project is Rs.35 lakh (Rs. 3.5 million). All the members of our team have contributed Rs.200,000 each and rest is borne by our college," added Dean.

He said the group has been working on this project for the last six months. The car has a five speed gear and it can reach 110 km per hour within only 4.4 seconds.

"Its weight is 300 kg with aerodynamic design and it's equipped with advanced safety equipment. We have used various hi-tech technologies in the car and it has been designed and finally analysed using SOFTWARE like Pro-E and AN-SYS," pointed out Dean.

SAE is a 29-year-old annual competition and this year only one college from India is competing among 81 universities from across the world. Other participating countries include the US, BRITIAN, Italy, Japan, Brazil, Germany and Australia. In June 2008, students of the same college went to the SAE competition in Michigan in the US with their super-mileage car and won accolades for the country.

"Our super-mileage car bagged first place in Asia and 13th position in the world. It could easily give a mileage of 250 km in one litre. That time our focus was on mileage but this time, we zeroed only on speed," said Gurvinder Singh Bahra, vice-chairman of educational group Rayat-Bahra.