Tech from the race track to the highways

The race track can also be considered as the ultimate test bed for automobiles – and the technologies in them – that scorch them. Many of the technologies make their way to road-legal vehicles. And this is set to happen in the case of Tata Motors. 

Many engineering and technological developments for the Prima racing trucks are also set to help Tata improve its regular trucks. The inputs are mainly in the areas of lightweighting and suspension. For example, the Prima trucks that will race on March 20 at the Buddh International Circuit are nearly a whopping 1 tonne lighter than the ones in the first season in 2014! The trucks in season two were 300 kilograms lighter than the previous season. A stock Prima tractor weighs around 7 tonnes.

Components like alloy rims, diesel and air tanks made of aluminium and suspension systems developed for the race trucks will find way into production trucks soon. "There is a potential to implement some of these ideas straightaway on production trucks, if not for India at this moment, definitely for trucks going outside the country. Very soon they will be on vehicles in international markets. The suspension tweak is something we have done in a different way and it is also been addressed in international markets," says Ramakrishnan.

Also read: Racing starts bringing gains for Tata's heavy truck business