Would-be engineers chase dream of building F1 car

In a first of its kind effort, engineering students are burning the midnight oil to fulfil their dream of developing a racing car to participate in a Formula One racing competition that’s going to be held next year in India.

Thirty chemical engineer students, aged between 19-21years, who are studying in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th academic year are sweating it out to build a Formula One car. “The main aim of this group of students is to participate in the Formula Bharat 2018, an engineering student design competition, to be held between January 25 and 28. They have also started crowd funding for their project,” said a professor at the college.

“After college, we are working on our project so that it does not impact our studies. We all have a common aim to build a racing car similar to the Formula One race car that meets the design and manufacturing challenges of the Formula student world,” said 20year-old Devansh Verma, one of the students who is part of the project.

One of the students said they are currently working on self-designed impact attenuator. “Except the engine, tyres, rims and a few other components, almost every part of the vehicle is self-designed by us. Other than that we have a self-made rack and pinion steering system, we do inhouse layup of carbon fibre body works and have a custom ECU for the engine,” said Devansh.

Last year at Supra SAE India, the team stood 7th overall and won the award for best fuel economy. At Supra SAE India, 2017, they stood 12th overall and 1st in Mumbai. Now, these students are gearing up to participate in Formula Bharat 2018 which is tougher. They are redeveloping the model, analysing their mistakes and technical glitches they noticed in the previous competitions.

The team has a budget of around Rs 10 lakh per year. They get most of the material and machining done under sponsorship from various firms. They have also started a crowdfunding campaign on Impact Guru to raise the remaining money. “We have started a crowdfunding to raise remaining Rs 2 lakh for the project,” added Devansh.

Unlike F! car, this car will only run at an average speed of 90km and a student will drive it in the competition.