Udupi: Manipal Students' Formula Race Car Ready to Compete at Intl Race in Italy
Report from Divvy Kant Upadhyay
Pics: Hemanath Padubidri & Divvy Kant Upadhyay
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (SP)
Udupi, Sep 4: 'Formula Manipal', a team of young engineering students from the Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT), blessed with financial and technical support from the Manipal University (MU) and professional expertise of the likes of B Vijaykumar from LGB, Coimbatore, have realized their dream of developing a Formula Race car.
The car with a Honda CBR 600cc engine and data systems from National Instruments, was developed from scratch by the second and third year UG students of the Mechanical Engineering department of MIT. The 15-member team also includes a driver who will take part in the race to be held at the race track at Maranello in Italy, considered home to the world famous Ferrari Team.
The Manipal team is the only team from the whole of Asia this year, to compete with 35 other teams at the international FSAE competition, generally referred to as the student edition of the popular Formula 1 race.
The car was unveiled at a ceremony held at the Manipal University by the president and chancellor of MU Dr Ramdas M Pai, who after congratulating the students, cautioned them to take all possible safety measures. Kaushik Mani, team leader, on behalf of the team, expressed the pride and honour experienced in representing the country at an international-level with the help and support of their teachers and university administration. He confirmed that latest safety norms have been adhered to while making this marvelous car. He thanked the university authorities for making it possible for the team to make the dream car, by spending nearly Rs 30 lac in the bargain.
The upbeat team, which spent almost two years working to realize this dream, said they wanted to ignite a passion among the youth to reach for their dreams. The team feels that India is at the economic crossroads, where major players in the world are depending on Indian research and development activities. The students were thrilled to have practically experienced the procedures that they used to read in their textbooks.
Travelling all over India to cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Coimbatore, the team got most of the components custom made according to the design they developed. The team will travel to Italy to take part in the competition to be held from September 20 to 23. The team members, most of whom are not even 20 years of age, are ready to take on the world, after toiling for about two years.
MIT director Dr Pabla said, he was proud of the team members, who had put in hard work and achieved what they desired. He wished the team every success in the race at Italy.
The Team comprises of Kaushik Mani (team leader), Vineet Jain, Shelav Jain, Ankit Banka, Arjun Samara Divakera, DN Siddhartha Jain, Ratnesh Kumar, Srikant T, Nishant Jain, Sagnik Niyogi, Eklavya Singh, Aditya Raghunandan, Rachit Mathur, Aayush Gupta, Dhawal Bavishi. The team has a official website-
www.formulamanipal.com