These students make & drive Formula race cars all by themselves? 🤯
Episode Summary
We are here with a new version of the Best Place to Build Podcast. We have spent two seasons interviewing faculty and the entrepreneurs who have built in IITM. This time, we interview the students who are building right now and take a peek inside their models and their thought process. And what better way to do that than get a peer to talk to them? Presenting The Better Place to Build Podcast: Student edition.
In this episode, Vidhi Das, a fifth year student of Electrical Design meets the Raftar Team and gets a walkthrough of the race car, the history behind Raftar, the competitions the team has participated in and their current ambition - a driverless car by 2027 - the first in India. Watch the episode to learn more about the Raftar race car. Stay tuned until the end for an exciting demo of the race car.
Key Highlights
[00:01:01] Testing the Car: The morning after testing
[00:02:29] Electric Race Car: The history and the competitions
[00:06:28] The Raftar Team: The people behind the race car
[00:07:34] Guiding Principle for Raftar: The vision for the Raftar team
[00:09:57] A Car Tour: A look at the Raftar race car
[00:20:29] Meet the Driver: The racer behind the steering wheel
[00:23:25] The Car in Action: The student formula race car demonstration
Institutions mentioned
[00:00:20] IIT Madras
People mentioned
[00:20:29] Divyaratna Joshi (DJ) is the driver of the Raftar race car.
Companies mentioned
[00:02:17] Aditya compares the Raftar race car to a Porsche 911.
[00:02:21] Aditya also mentions modern electric cars like the Tesla Cybertrucks can run faster
[00:13:46] The Raftar team has friendly relationships with companies like AMZ Racing and Monash Motorsport
[00:12:01] MRF designed a tyre called MRF ZTD1 which was designed based on feedback from the Raftar team who approached them to design tyres for them instead of importing them.
Concepts & Models
[00:01:59] The Raftar race car is designed to reach a top speed of 154 km/hr. The team has hit a maximum speed of 90 - 100 km/hr on the race track.
[00:02:56] The Raftar team finished third in the Formula Bharat race in 2023.
[00:03:00] The Raftar team has competed in Formula Student Germany and won two consecutive Engineering Design Awards at Formula Bharat.
[00:10:04] A decoupled suspension design refers to a system where the various vehicle dynamic modes - such as heave, roll, pitch, and warp - can be controlled independently rather than being mechanically linked together. This provides targeted tuning for ride comfort and handling, commonly used in race car and high-performance vehicle engineering.The Raftar team is the only team in India to have a decoupled suspension.
[00:12:58] Egress refers to how quickly and safely a driver can get out of their car, especially in emergencies such as crashes or fires. There are strict safety regulations: drivers must be able to exit their cockpit within 5 seconds without removing more than one piece of equipment, and sometimes complete egress tests to prove they meet this requirement.
[00:17:28] A Differential is a mechanical device in a vehicle’s drivetrain that splits engine power between the left and right wheels, allowing them to rotate at different speeds. This is essential for smooth turning: the outside wheel travels farther than the inside wheel during a turn.
[00:18:10] The Raftar team has implemented a DRS in the rear wing of the race car. Drag Reduction System [DRS] in Formula 1 is a driver-activated device that opens a flap on the car’s rear wing, reducing aerodynamic drag and increasing straight-line speed to aid overtaking.
[00:19:36] The Raftar team participated in Formula Student India in 2016.
Aditya Kishore is a fourth year student of Electrical Engineering at IIT Madras. He has been working with the Raftar team for more than two years being part of the design. He joins the podcast today as our guest to walk Vidhi and the audience through the Raftar race car, it’s history and share incidents from races with the audience.
An IIT Madras initiative
