Pics: Umesh Marpalli
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (HB)
Udupi, Jul 4: A love for race cars and a passion to build them are what started it all for this group of enterprising mechanical engineering students from Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT).
Innovative Center at Manipal University on Friday July 4 presented a new formula car 'FMX4', which was inaugurated by H S Ballal, pro chancellor of Manipal Institute of Technology.
The Formula Manipal team has come a long way since it designed its first car. Teams of students have built stylish models every year. The hard work and dedication of 27 enthusiastic youngsters for the last two years finally bore fruition with the launch of their latest car.
Last season, FMX3 set the tracks ablaze at Hockenheimring, Germany and Czech Ring, Czech Republic. This year, the team has made the several changes to the previous car's design, with the major ones being – weight reduction, including the use of light weight composite materials and
use of rear wheel hub integrated stub axel, and inclusion of an electro-pneumatic clutch system, facilitating quicker clutch mechanism.
There are 10 events held globally by Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) International every year. The team, which has competed in Australia, Germany and Italy, say that they want to promote motorsport as it was yet to catch on in India. The team has bagged prizes at various student design competitions in Formula SAE (FSAE) and Formula Student. This time, they will participate in Formula Student Germany, which will be held from July 29 to August 3, and in Formula Student Czech Republic from August 7 to 10.
H S Ballal said that he felt proud to have such talented students in MIT. Wishing them all success, he said he would like to see them achieve great heights on world map.
G K Prabhu, registrar, Manipal University, Vinod V Thomas, director, MIT, Srikanth Rao, joint director of MIT, N Yajnesh Sharma, associate director (development), Divakara Shetty, HoD of mechanical and manufacturing and others were present on the occasion.