It’s time to burn some rubber as the students of IIT Madras prepare to leave for Germany next month along with their indigenously produced Raftar Formula Racing (RFR) car. They will be competing in the Formula Student Germany (FSG) sporting event at the Hockenheim ring Formula One circuit. For this race, the car has undergone further tweaking in its design for enhanced efficiency. Right now in its testing phase, Raftar will soon be airlifted from Chennai for the occasion.

A dream project It is four years since the single seater formula car was designed and engineered by what is known as Team Raftar, students of the Auto Club at the Centre for Innovation, IIT Madras. After competing with 300 university teams in 28 countries, the students have successfully cleared the “Open World Registration Quiz” and are now ready for the 2014 student circuit.

Another 115 teams will be participating in the competition, some of the others too are from Indian institutions.

Hunger for excellence “Fitted with a single-cylinder Honda CBR250CC engine, we targeted excellent drivability and a competitive fuel economy. We worked to further enhance vehicle dynamics through a smaller wheelbase and a shift to 10” rims. Composite technology allowed us to use carbon fibre for an extremely ergonomic cockpit and a lighter streamlined bodyworks,” the team members explain.

Last year, too, the agile Raftar competed in the Formula Student Event at the same venue, clearing all scrutineering tests.

The test involves appointed scrutineers checking all aspects of a race car to ensure it fully complies with technical and safety regulations. RFR was also successful in the Auto Cross and Endurance events.

In 2012, RFR had represented its institution at the Silverstone Formula One circuit in the UK, but failed to clear scrutineering and participated only in the static events. At that time Raftar was just a year old and it was its first test. Even here the team received praise from the judges of Formula Student UK 2012, and that whetted its appetite to do better and go further.

“Today, we are a team of nearly 40 young engineers from UG and PG programmes seeking to apply and test our technical knowledge at the highest level. A group of 15 students and faculty adviser Prof A. Ramesh will go for the competition to be held from July 29 to August 4,” says team leader Rajat Tiwari revealing that funding for the activity comes from alumni and corporate sponsors who they collaborate with for design and technical assistance.

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