Amongst 2200
students from 110 teams who competed in the 4th edition of Maruti
Suzuki SUPRA SAEINDIA, the team from Krishna Institute of Engineering and
Technology (KIET), Ghaziabad came out victorious.
The final
round was held at the Madras Motor Race Track in Chennai where all the 110
teams were put through a series of rigorous tests to make sure they are safe
and reliable. First, the cars were evaluated on safety and costing by scrutiny.
A technical inspection followed by an Angle Tilt where the cars were put on a
platform with the driver inside and tilted to a 45 degree angle to check for
any fluid leaks. Then the cars underwent a noise. The teams also had to present
a marketing presentation to the panel of judges.
After each
stage, the teams were filtered out and eliminated according to their
performance. One they passed all these test, the final test was on the track
where another series of tests were conducted. The first was an acceleration
test followed by a skid pad to see how the cars handle corners. The next test
was a timed autocross where the driver had to drive from the start to the
finish line as fast as possible. The final test was the endurance race around
the Madras Motor Race Track of a total distance 22kms. KIET, Ghaziabad was the
team that achieved this feat in the safest, cheapest, fastest, most reliable
and efficient manner and therefore was crowned the champions of SUPRA 2015.
C. V. Raman,
Executive Director - Engineering Research, Maruti Suzuki India Limited was the
Chief Guest at the Valedictory Function. Rashmi Urdhwareshe, Director, ARAI;
Dr. Aravind S. Bharadwaj, President, SAEINDIA & Senior Vice President –
Advanced Technology and Services, Automotive & Farm Equipment Sectors,
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.; Prashant K. Banerjee, Convener, SUPRA SAEINDIA
2015 & Head - Homologation and Product Evaluation, Tata Motors Ltd.; Sirish
Vissa, Technical Committee Chair, SUPRA SAEINDIA 2015 & Head - Volkswagen
Motorsport India; and other office bearers and members of SAEINDIA were present
on the occasion.
The final
stage was held over 4 days from July 16 - 19, 2015 at the Madras Motor Racing
Track (MMRT) in Chennai. A total of 167 teams had initially registered for the
event, out of which 110 teams qualified for the finals.
Prashant K.
Banerjee said, “It gives us great satisfaction to see that over the years teams
are maturing, which is now showing in some of the very impressive prototypes
that they have brought here. We hope this event will continue to enable these
bright young engineers to discover their passion for automotive engineering and
motivate them to choose it as their career.”
C. V. Raman said,
“We had first collaborated with SUPRA SAEINDIA in 2011 for this competition to
encourage budding talent in motorsports and engineering. To conceptualize,
design, fabricate and run a Formula prototype car from start to finish,
provides an immense amount of hands-on experience. Being the market leader,
Maruti Suzuki has always paid extra attention to engineering and we will
continue with our initiatives to provide students the right kind of exposure to
further polish their engineering skills. I believe that there is an abundance
of talent pool in our country so I hope to see more students participating and
gaining as much experience as possible from these events to develop their
abilities from the opportunities that lie ahead.”
SUPRA
SAEINDIA, organised annually by SAEINDIA (earlier known as Society of
Automotive Engineers India), is an event intended to inculcate and harness
applied engineering skills among students wherein teams design and construct a
Formula category vehicle as per defined performance and safety specifications.
SAEINDIA is India’s largest automotive engineering fraternity, and also the
largest affiliate of SAE International, USA.
Maruti Suzuki
India Limited is and has been the Title Sponsor of the event right from the
first edition. Other sponsors include BPCL, who have offered to exhibit these
vehicles at their network across the country, Altair, ANSYS, ARAI, Bosch,
Continental, Viper Hobbies, Roots & Canara Bank.