110 colleges vie for top honours in Supra SaeIndia 2015 finale in Chennai

Maruti Suzuki India today announced the finale of the Supra SaeIndia 2015 competition to be held between July 15-19 at the Chennai Motor Race Track.

This year about 2,200 engineering students representing 167 engineering colleges competed for the winner’s title. Of these, 110 colleges were shortlisted for the physical round that involves working on designing the vehicle, manufacturing, sourcing of parts, addressing costs and driving of the prototype Formula race car by students.

First introduced in 2011 by Maruti Suzuki and SaeIndia, the contest is in line with the Automotive Mission Plan 2016 to develop India as an international automotive hub. The competition offers engineering students a platform to test and demonstrate their talent in the field of automobile engineering and provides a platform for the country’s future engineers to display their automotive skills.

Participants are given a real-world engineering challenge of designing a Formula prototype car from scratch. Each college team has about 20-25 members on board and this is the fourth edition of the event.

RS Kalsi, executive director (sales and marketing), Maruti Suzuki India, said that earlier Maruti had been handholding the students and providing its 800cc engine and powertrain to power its race cars while the students worked on the sub-systems. Since 2013, SAE International of the USA, of which SaeIndia is an affiliate, had allowed fitment of a 610cc engine in the Supra SaeIndia competition. This enabled the engine and subsystems to be developed by young engineers under the guidance of professional mentors. 

“In this process, students learn to develop a design, understand the process of new product development, industrial procurement, manufacturing, assembly and prototyping. The selected prototypes are then tested in standard test conditions to measure parameters like maneuverability, technological innovation, endurance, fuel economy, performance and stability,” said Sirish Vissa, Technical Committee Chair, Supra SaeIndia 2015 and Head - Volkswagen Motorsport India.

“At the upcoming 4-day grand finale of the year-long event, student-designed vehicles will be subjected to critical evaluation by experts on a range of criteria. Over the last four editions, Supra SaeIndia has matured into a highly competitive event, bringing out the best of capabilities in the teams with respect to engineering, vehicle construction, teamwork, entrepreneurship, leadership and management skills of the students,” added Prashant K Banerjee, convener, Supra SaeIndia and Head - Homologation and Product Evaluation, Tata Motors.