The last weekend was not just another weekend for several auto-fanatic engineering students. It was rather a D-Day because the much awaited Maruti Suzuki Supra SAE INDIA kicked off with much excitement and enthusiasm amidst members of SAE, Maruti Suzuki along with over thousand engineering students at Sriperumbudur race track in Chennai. The formula SAE is an under graduate and post graduate student’s race car event organized across the globe. This event has been taking place from over 23 years now but ironically, it could never happen in India due to lack of support from manufacturers. Although, this time, Maruti Suzuki decided to team-up with SUPRASAE to facilitate this wonderful initiative in India. This project comes forward as another initiative by the company towards aligning itself with the overall Automotive Mission Plan (AMP 2016), a dream to make India an International Automotive Hub. Maruti Suzuki’s vision is to enhance its R&D capability that can work collaboratively with Suzuki to design cars for the global markets. Like SUPRA SAEINDIA Formula-1 car prototype designing, Maruti Suzuki has undertaken several initiatives in the recent past to connect with the youth such as holding guest lectures, offering sponsorships and providing engineering infrastructure support through engine, transmission and other vehicle systems.
This competition encourages all the under graduate and post graduate students to independently design, model and fabricate a formula type racing car. Nearly 1,000 students participated in this grand event as a team of 44 from various engineering colleges in India. These 44 teams then designed a formula type racing car that were later put into various tests by the team of judges (including Dr. V. Krishnamurthy, Former CMD of Maruti Udyog) to pick a winner. The winning car will be now displayed at the Asia Pacific Conference at Chennai in October 2011 and Auto Expo 2012 in January at New Delhi. Primarily, the selected criteria by jury to evaluate a car are to look after the performance in terms of acceleration, braking and handling, while affordable maintenance cost and reliability remains equally important.
Selection process commenced since a year ago to select the finalists, in which 85 teams appeared for the screening on June 2010. After Design review and evaluation, only 44 capable teams were able to make it up to finals. On the D-Day, 1st July 2011, not even the screeching hot summer was a reason to let down the thrill and high expectations which were seen in eyes of all participants. Indeed, it was a sheer pleasure to think about this event that too happened for the first time in India, in Chennai. Maruti Suzuki SUPRASAE India event has certainly paved way to emerging Indian motorsports and young hearts to listen that voice under the hood.
This competition encourages all the under graduate and post graduate students to independently design, model and fabricate a formula type racing car. Nearly 1,000 students participated in this grand event as a team of 44 from various engineering colleges in India. These 44 teams then designed a formula type racing car that were later put into various tests by the team of judges (including Dr. V. Krishnamurthy, Former CMD of Maruti Udyog) to pick a winner. The winning car will be now displayed at the Asia Pacific Conference at Chennai in October 2011 and Auto Expo 2012 in January at New Delhi. Primarily, the selected criteria by jury to evaluate a car are to look after the performance in terms of acceleration, braking and handling, while affordable maintenance cost and reliability remains equally important.
Selection process commenced since a year ago to select the finalists, in which 85 teams appeared for the screening on June 2010. After Design review and evaluation, only 44 capable teams were able to make it up to finals. On the D-Day, 1st July 2011, not even the screeching hot summer was a reason to let down the thrill and high expectations which were seen in eyes of all participants. Indeed, it was a sheer pleasure to think about this event that too happened for the first time in India, in Chennai. Maruti Suzuki SUPRASAE India event has certainly paved way to emerging Indian motorsports and young hearts to listen that voice under the hood.
In MMSC:
Noise of roaring engines was at extreme. Those 40 finalists were already ready with their race car setup. Everybody appeared very busy preparing for the final evaluation. The entire setup had nearly 40 sheds one after the other right from number 1 to 40. Looking at the cars will immediately make you think what kind of engines they have used and how much would be the cost involved?
To answer that, all the 40 finalists were provided a brand new 37bhp Maruti 800 engine and gear box. Total of 1.5 crore rupees have been invested by Maruti in order to successfully organize this event. All the remaining designs, modifications, chassis builds and stuffs are done from the students’ side. One should see it to believe it because the entire modification done by the engineering students in incredibly good. Apart from engine, the teams of students have spent approx. Rs. 1.5 to 2.0 Lakhs to get the job done. Where some managed to build the body using ultra-light fibers, the others preferred to stick with traditional metal sheets. Also, in order to mark safety as the first criteria, rules hold fire extinguisher as the foremost point. Each SAE Car carried fire extinguishers and first aid kits along. In fact, fuel containers were also stored inside a wooden casing to prevent havoc.
So many things one can capture when the stuff comes into a picture. Exhausts, filters, bling-bling alloys, cool stickers and mods are the one to talk about. As we marched towards the final contestants one after the other we were able to get a clear view of the eager teams. Students lifted the engine manually kept it on the chassis. That shows how hard they might have worked. You easily look at the rest in the pictures below.
Noise of roaring engines was at extreme. Those 40 finalists were already ready with their race car setup. Everybody appeared very busy preparing for the final evaluation. The entire setup had nearly 40 sheds one after the other right from number 1 to 40. Looking at the cars will immediately make you think what kind of engines they have used and how much would be the cost involved?
To answer that, all the 40 finalists were provided a brand new 37bhp Maruti 800 engine and gear box. Total of 1.5 crore rupees have been invested by Maruti in order to successfully organize this event. All the remaining designs, modifications, chassis builds and stuffs are done from the students’ side. One should see it to believe it because the entire modification done by the engineering students in incredibly good. Apart from engine, the teams of students have spent approx. Rs. 1.5 to 2.0 Lakhs to get the job done. Where some managed to build the body using ultra-light fibers, the others preferred to stick with traditional metal sheets. Also, in order to mark safety as the first criteria, rules hold fire extinguisher as the foremost point. Each SAE Car carried fire extinguishers and first aid kits along. In fact, fuel containers were also stored inside a wooden casing to prevent havoc.
So many things one can capture when the stuff comes into a picture. Exhausts, filters, bling-bling alloys, cool stickers and mods are the one to talk about. As we marched towards the final contestants one after the other we were able to get a clear view of the eager teams. Students lifted the engine manually kept it on the chassis. That shows how hard they might have worked. You easily look at the rest in the pictures below.
The Evaluation Process:
The evaluation process took place in several stages. They are as follows:
Noise Test: All the prototypes are first put into noise test. It does a lot for the next level.
Leakage Test: No leaks and nothing. All the prototypes are lifted to 45 Degrees and kept for 2 minutes to check if there is any leakage. No leaks will get you to the next level.
After static tests, the dynamic tests begin. The braking test is a 100m run where you press hard to attain the speed. After crossing 100m the brakes must be immediately applied which should lock all the wheels. If it fails, the team fails. As for the handling test, this picture says it all.
Rally: A normal rally of 22 Kilometers is done as the final part of this grand event's evaluation process. This rally is not about who finishes first, this rally is all about how reliable the prototype is in the long run.
And The Award Goes To…
After three action packed days, All India Shri Sivaji Memorial Society’s Polytechnic from Pune bagged the first position in the 1st Maruti Suzuki Supra SAE 2011 competition. Team Pegasus from PSG College of Technology,Coimbatore and SPCE Racing of Sardar Patel College from New Delhi bagged the second and thirds position respectively. In a closely fought competition, after a rigorous evaluation 33 of the 38 teams could reach the ‘endurance event on the final day. Veteran automobile experts’ shortlisted 33 teams on parameters like safety, robustness, design, cost, performance and marketability at Madras Motorsports Club, Sriperumbudur.
The evaluation process took place in several stages. They are as follows:
- Static Events
- Engineering Design
- Dynamic Events
- Prototype Acceleration
- Prototype Braking
- Prototype Handling
- Prototype Durability
- Prototype Fuel economy
Noise Test: All the prototypes are first put into noise test. It does a lot for the next level.
Leakage Test: No leaks and nothing. All the prototypes are lifted to 45 Degrees and kept for 2 minutes to check if there is any leakage. No leaks will get you to the next level.
After static tests, the dynamic tests begin. The braking test is a 100m run where you press hard to attain the speed. After crossing 100m the brakes must be immediately applied which should lock all the wheels. If it fails, the team fails. As for the handling test, this picture says it all.
Rally: A normal rally of 22 Kilometers is done as the final part of this grand event's evaluation process. This rally is not about who finishes first, this rally is all about how reliable the prototype is in the long run.
And The Award Goes To…
After three action packed days, All India Shri Sivaji Memorial Society’s Polytechnic from Pune bagged the first position in the 1st Maruti Suzuki Supra SAE 2011 competition. Team Pegasus from PSG College of Technology,Coimbatore and SPCE Racing of Sardar Patel College from New Delhi bagged the second and thirds position respectively. In a closely fought competition, after a rigorous evaluation 33 of the 38 teams could reach the ‘endurance event on the final day. Veteran automobile experts’ shortlisted 33 teams on parameters like safety, robustness, design, cost, performance and marketability at Madras Motorsports Club, Sriperumbudur.
Finally all hard-work pays off. These students had no limit of joy after they were officially announced as the winners.
Notes About Maruti SUPRA SAE Event:
Note of Thanks:
Maruti Suzuki SAEINDIA 2011 will turn out to be a history in the Indian automotive industry. I really enjoyed attending this special event and would like to thank The Automotive India for wholeheartedly offering me this great opportunity.
- To encourage participation, the company has provided 44 units of Maruti 800 engines and transmission systems to the teams, for use in the prototypes.
- Incidentally, it is the same trusted, reliable and fuel efficient F8 engine which powers the best seller M-800. It is the smallest engine in MSIL stable responsive and peppy engine is best suited for a racing prototype. The engine delivers superb power and returns high fuel efficiency even on a racing prototype.
- 4 Maruti Suzuki engineers are part of the technical inspection team of the SUPRA SAEINDIA judges’ panel. In all there are 30 inspectors (SAE, Maruti Suzuki and other automobile companies).
- In addition, 4 Maruti Suzuki engineers are part of the Cost evaluation panel.
- Maruti Suzuki engineers on regular intervals have visited and mentored the teams from ITM Gurgaon, Manav Rachna International University, PEC Chandigarh and UPES (University of Petroleum and Energy Studies) from Dehradun.
- As a market leader, MSIL has to constantly update its products and services in tune with the changing needs and aspirations of the younger consumer. Just in the past five years the average age of its car buyers has seen a sharp drop of 10 years. For these younger customers MSIL makes youthful and energetic cars, while not compromising on the value of fuel efficiency. These initiatives with SAEINDIA helps to reinforce Maruti Suzuki’s strong connect with the youth.
- More than 50% of India’s population is 25 years of age and are the future customers. With such initiatives Maruti Suzuki is building its brand and aims to capture a mind share of these future customers.
Note of Thanks:
Maruti Suzuki SAEINDIA 2011 will turn out to be a history in the Indian automotive industry. I really enjoyed attending this special event and would like to thank The Automotive India for wholeheartedly offering me this great opportunity.
Most of the teams installed K&N Airfilters in their hand-made cars.
To prevent the heat accumulated from exhaust pipe, the teams wrapped it up with metal sheets, ropes and piece of clothes.
Some students used metal sheets to make the entire body that being quiet cheap. Some students said they used fiber material to reduce the weight to a bit more extent. Looking at the radiator makes me mad about the way these people think and design. Hope this is what has been evaluated all these months for them to come up to this level.
Even though cost factor is a main thing in consideration, many people preferred alloys rather than steel rims. Some students said that gives their prototype a cool formula car look.
