What started as a collaboration between Maruti Suzuki India Limited and Society of Automotive Engineers India (SAEINDIA) 7 years ago, today has turned into a full-fledged nation-wide wide engineering college competition.
The 2018 edition saw one of the highest ever participants, volunteers and judges from the automotive industry. Throughout the event, experienced industry professionals from Maruti Suzuki India Limited guide college kids, in case they get stuck or need help with any aspect of building their car. Maruti Suzuki, the leading car maker in the country, wants to make sure that our nation’s future engineers have all necessary qualities required once they pass out from college and start working.
2018 Maruti Suzuki SAEINDIA was a week long event which took place from 11thto 16thJune 2018, held at India’s only Formula 1 race track. During the week, the place is filled with over 3,000 aspiring engineers, which had come to compete with other college teams in the country.
Each team started working on their own cars back in September 2017, which is also when registrations opened (registration cost per team is Rs 65,000). A team consists from 8 to 25 members, depending on the college.
Right from procuring parts, designing, fabricating, etc, the team has to create their very own Formula car as per the guidelines book. The competition brings their intrinsic engineering skills to the fore and allows them to create a prototype using their young minds and talent while working in a team of likeminded individuals.
Cost of car could range from Rs 2 lakhs to Rs 15 lakhs. But it does not mean that the costlier your car is, the higher its chance is to win the competition. No, its the engineering of your car which will get you more points.
Each prototype thus created, is based on predefined rules and regulations and be upto design standards of SAEInternational. The finished products of each team then arrive at the week long final event, which took place last week.
It is here that each and every participating cars were judged by a team of experts on the basis of Technical Inspection (scrutiny, tilt test, noise and brake test), Static Events (cost, marketing and design presentations), Dynamic events (acceleration, skid pad, autocross and endurance). Only after passing all these three tests, a team is qualified for the final endurance run, which takes place on the BIC race track.
In no way this is an easy task. Of the 112 teams from 100+ colleges across India, who arrived at BIC, only 27 teams passed, and managed to enter the final endurance run on the BIC race track.
Here, all 27 teams are required to drive their respective cars for 22 kms. Each team has 2 drivers, so each driver of the team is required to drive 11 kms. The team which completes the 22 kms in least time, wins this round. After this, a tally is made of all the points acquired by respective teams over the two days of tests and competition, and finally a winner is chosen.
For the 2018 edition, Team “Kratos Racing” from Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering have emerged the winners ahead of Team “GTU Motorsports” from Gujarat Technological University and Team “Veloce Racing” from Vishwakarma Institute of Technology.
Not only the winners are given prize money, they are also noticed by industry experts, who could offer them job as well. Thanks to the persistent efforts from Maruti Suzuki India Limited, who have guided lakhs of engineering students year after year, today, the competition is considered as a world class event. Students from here, go on and compete further in SAEInternational events.
Not only Maruti Suzuki is providing a platform to nurture talent, they are also promoting a culture of innovation among engineering students. In addition to this, another core focus point is safety. At every stage, students are taught to keep themselves safe. Thanks to these efforts, all Maruti Suzuki SAEINDIA competition has been without any accidents.
