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Hey qr20de,

Thanks for sharing your Formula Student experience! I can really relate to this thread since I'm currently a part of The Conrods Off-Road Racing, the Baja-SAE team of SRM University, Chennai. We recently finished 3rd Overall at the Baja-SAE India 2016. Here's the link to a thread started long back by one of our former team-member -

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motor-...m-conrods.html

I must say that being a part of a Baja-SAE or a Formula Student not only makes you a better engineer, it also develops you greatly as an individual. There is nothing that can beat this kind of an experience and exposure. I'm also sharing a link to an article I wrote recently on LinkedIn about our previous year.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-...spock-articles

Regards,
Garvit Agrawal

Shouldn't you be using a CNC to bend the roll hoop? Ideally you aren't supposed to have creases when you bend the pipe.

Good write-up qr20de

I work for a company that is one of the sponsors for the RVCE Bangalore's Ashwa team.

Because of this, I got to meet the vehicle and the team.
I must say, the energy in the team drives the car more than the horsepower in the engine.
The exposure that the students get these days when channelled in the right direction, leads to such good things.

Some of the team members after passing out of college and joined our company, also worked in my team. With such talent and experience, they are already going places!

I got a wonderful opportunity to participate in BAJA SAE in 2010, and since we'd done all the work by ourselves, we guys got to learn a LOT!! And that base has set me up very well, it has given me a major boost in my professional career (in terms of responsibility & decision making roles, even if not the pay).

I designed the car for FSAE, but we couldn't go forward with the competition.

I got lucky though, & got invited to be a Design Judge in SUPRA SAE 2011. Then, Technical Inspector since 2012 - I must say, it has been immense fun.

Students obviously learn a lot when they participate. But even industry professionals learn a lot - I've observed that the so-called "experienced professionals" hardly know what they're talking about, especially when we get into the details. I've had many such guys tell me that they learn much more in the 4 days of SUPRA than they do in the rest of the year, working in "global automotive companies"... go figure! :Shockked:

As a Tech Inspector, I'd like to emphasise that students will do well to stick to the basics, & REALLY have fun working - because, as best as I know, its an incredibly rare opportunity for a petrolhead to get to design, build & race his / her own car.

I got mine, and I'm yearning for an encore... :)

Good to see the Ashwa Racing car finally here on Team BHP - I was a member of the team for a short while in 2006-07 period - had the good fortune of being around Arun and the rest of the guys.

Some great work, and a great team. Many firsts in the Indian FSAE scene accomplished by this team over the years.

Good to see the legacy carries on :)

EDIT: I remember visiting some of our sponsors back in the day - now I'm no spokesperson for the team, but it's been of great support to have the companies sponsoring the team and provide much more than just the moolah - in my small way, thank you.
Please let me know your company name over PM, it'd be great to have a chat.

I have been following this thread since a few days now. I am presently in my first year of undergraduate studies of B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering) at Shiv Nadar University, Gautam Buddha Nagar.

I had recently built a Go Kart as a part of Team Atom which participated in Nirman - The Go Kart Challenge. I will be leading a team for the SAE NIS Efficycle this year and this thread gives me a lot of inspiration. Though the Efficycle is nowhere near as technical as compared to the FSAE, Supra and the BAJA, we are trying to incorporate a lot of innovation that would make it a bit technical. And yes, getting sponsors is always a challenge.

I am glad to see the great response that this thread has got and I now have so many experienced people to turn to as well, in case I need some help! stupid: This thread has given me the idea of starting one for my Efficycle as well. That would not just give me a place to keep a log of the journey but also allow me to ask my doubts and look for advice.

PS. I read someone talking about the weight of the BAJA vehicles. This year, the lightest vehicle weighed just 160 kilos! lol: Yup. We are getting there to the international standards.

Dear Batfreak - hello to you. The heaviest one was 400+ kg. This was in 2007. It barely moved! :D.

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

Sir, did you ask them the question you asked us in 2010? "What is your Design Vs Actual weight?" :-D

@ Behram Sir, Any remembrance to this particular Car, Our entry to BAJA SAE 2010

In party we even managed to get a pic along you, Happiness say's it all!

I till date remember your lines during the design scrutiny of Supra 2011 virtuals

I remember, you guys looked great in the night with those LED's.

You guys had issues with steering IIRC, could you explain more on the steering setup?

We had used a Hydraulic linkage steering system, two tandem master cylinders used on end to end with push and pull from one piston governing the other.
Sadly the liquid wanted to be out of system, and this is how one side of our Linkage failed.

Dear Sameey192 - of course I remember the hydraulic steering car. What is creditable is that your team thought out of the box and actually made the steering system, that itself deserves congratulations. If I remember correctly, our chief judge Mr.Vinay Mundada (ex-VP R&D of Force Motors) had given you some innovation award also, am I correct? By the way, are you in the photograph? If yes, where?

Dear S Tejaswi - good question I say! I was (and still am) used to getting "all sorts of" answers on the spur of the moment! I get more of such answers in the real world than I got in the Baja world, hahaha! :D. By the way, Padmesh Sewda was one of the Baja students of that "400 kg" team of 2007 from Kolkata! You remember Padmesh? He worked with me on the Thar project in M&M. The car number was 14 in 2007.

Wow, those were glorious days, I really miss Baja. Maybe next year!

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

[quote=DHABHAR.BEHRAM;3951321]Dear Sameey192 - of course I remember the hydraulic steering car. What is creditable is that your team thought out of the box and actually made the steering system, that itself deserves congratulations. If I remember correctly, our chief judge Mr.Vinay Mundada (ex-VP R&D of Force Motors) had given you some innovation award also, am I correct? By the way, are you in the photograph? If yes, where?


Yes Sir, Our team did get an Innovation award for the Steering By Mr. Mundada. But that was in BAJA 09.

You can find me just next to you on the left :D

We again won an Innovation award in SUPRA 11 Event, attaching Pic for same as well. This time we introduced a Suspension system

Dhabhar sir, Padmesh & me are good friends, although we meet only once a year. We're both on the Technical Inspection team for SUPRA. He heads straight for Brake Test, while I'm now a team leader of sorts in TI. You were absolutely right about one thing - we guys learn (& enjoy) more in the 4 days of SUPRA (you mentioned BAJA) than we do in the rest of the year working in office!! :-)