Mumbai: Students from Sardar Patel college design a Formula One racing car

Thirty students of Sardar Patel College of Engineering believe that the "formula" for success is burning the midnight oil after a hard day at college and putting all your energy into creating so­mething unique. Unlike youths their age, these chemical engineering students don't rush home after college or hang out at happening places around the city to unwind.

But, Devansh Verma, 20, who has been toiling hard to build a Formula One racing car, along with 29 students from the second, third and fourth year of engineering, says they are not missing out on anything. Currently, the team is only driven by one aim: to participate in the Formula Bharat 2018, an engineering student design competition, to be held between January 25 and 28.

The team came 7th in overall and won the award for best fuel economy at the Supra SAE India, 2016

The project
While the team, which includes four girls, has a budget of Rs 10 lakh per year, they have started a crowd funding campaign on Impact Guru to raise R2 lakh to complete the project.

Speaking to mid-day, Devansh said, "Every day, after college, we work on this project until 11 pm. If we are at some crucial juncture in terms of designing, we stay over at each other's places to finish building the car. We somehow manage to rush to college for the 9 am classes. We are building a Formula One type racing car that meets the design and manufacturing challenges of the Formula Student world."

Elaborating about the project, the third year student says that they have manufactured almost every single part of the vehicle. "Only the engine, tyres, rims and a few other components have been procured. We are one of the rare teams to have designed our own brake caliper. We have designed the rack and pinion steering system. We are working on the in-house layout of the carbon fibre body works and have a custom ECU for the engine. We are working on an impact attenuator."

The kids building the car

Previous wins
At one of the biggest mechanical and automobile engineering competitions in the country, the Supra SAE India, this team ranked 7th in the overall category and won the award for best fuel economy. In the same event this year, the team ranked 12th overall and stood first in Mumbai.

"Sponsorships have covered the upgradations. Whatever money we raise through crowdfunding will help enhance this car. It will also allow us to design the new car we want to develop for the 2020 Germany Student Formula car racing," Devansh added.