IIT Bombay to participate in Formula Student 2009 at the Silverstone Racing Circuit, UK

IIT Bombay Racing (IITBR), a group of around 40 students of IIT Bombay are currently preparing to participate in the international competition Formula Student (FS), which is held annually at the Silverstone Racing Track, UK.

Conducted at eight different venues across the globe, FS is a race-car design and manufacture competition organized by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). The FS challenge is to design, build and race a one man, open-wheeled race-car, and also requires the team to be engaged by a manufacturing firm to produce a prototype car for evaluation as a potential production item. The car must have very high performance in terms of its acceleration, braking, and handling qualities. There are also specific restrictions on the engine capacity and the car frame. In addition, factors like cost, maintenance, reliability and safety must also be taken care of. Such requirements necessarily require the students to come up with innovative ideas.

The current IITBR team comprises of students from various fields of engineering and sciences, including that of Industrial Design Centre. IITBR was formed last year prior to its participation in FSAE (Michigan) and won the SAE Perseverance Award in the debut year. IITBR has also participated in an all-terrain vehicle competition Bajaj SAE India 2009 (which had 60 Indian colleges as participants), where it won 5 awards including the best Engineering Design Award. With these achievements IITBR is well-poised to participate in the forthcoming FS at UK.

Agni - The IITB Formula Student Car

The IITBR designed car Agni was unveiled on Friday, 20th June (09) at 3 pm at P C Saxena Auditorium), IIT Bombay. The event's Chief Guest was Mr. Narain Karthikeyan, the pioneer of Formula Racing in India. The Director of IIT Bombay and Dean, Aston University, were the guests of honour on the occasion.