Manipal: Formula Manipal, a student project team of Manipal Institute of Technology, MAHE did well at the just concluded Formula Bharat, an Engineering Design Competition held at Kari Motor Speedway, Coimbatore with its Combustion Car FMX8. This year the competition also included an electric vehicle for the first time and MIT students took part in the event with their electric vehicle FMX8e.
The combustion car with a Honda CBR 600 engine and Electro-Pneumatic shifting and clutching, weighing only 210 kilogrammes came up with a brilliant performance among the 74 participating teams by finishing first in the dynamic event ‘Acceleration’ with an acceleration of 4.288 seconds and also first in the static event ‘Business Plan Presentation’. And overall, formula Manipal finished third.
The electric car, making its debut in this event, also did well securing the second position in the Design Event and was third overall. The electric vehicle has a 105hp motor powered by a 7.5kWh battery, packaged in just 195kgs. Fifty students with faculty advisors conceived, designed and fabricated the cars.
Team Leader Shivam Gupta had this to say about the good performance. “Work on the electric car started in 2016 and we made our debut with this car. The team has come a long way from building the concept three years back to win the 2nd prize in a national design event”.
“It is our passion that drives us to burn the midnight fuel and go the extra mile. The team worked incredibly hard on both the cars in the months leading up to the competition. We are glad to see our hard work pay off and have already started work on better designs for next year’s competition,” he said.
Team Manager Rithwik Srinivas said, “After the enormous hours and resources put on the car, the success was a dream come true for the team. Along with the awards, we come back with a number of lessons learnt and a great experience.” The faculty advisor for the electric car wasPramod Antony and for the combustion car Dr Dayananda Pai.
