It’s vacation time for most students. But at the Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay (IIT-B), 18 race enthusiasts are getting their hands dirty to build a Formula One racing car. Four months on, the IIT-B designed racing car will for the first time compete with 78 world-class teams at the UK-based Silverstone Racing Track at Formula Student.

The biggest competition in Europe, Formula Student aims at promoting careers and excellence in engineering. It challenges university students to design, build, develop, market and compete as a team with a small single-seat racing.

While racing cars in the US weigh about 220 kg, IIT-B car weighed 300 kg last year. This year, the team is constructing a lighter durable car, targeting 230 kg with a top speed of 120 km per hour.

“As students, we learn many concepts and conduct experiments in the laboratories. A competition like Formula Student gets us to implement all that we’ve learnt in our classrooms. It promotes students to build something in real life,” said Jaideep Bansal, marketing head of the IIT-B Racing Team.

Last year, the team participated in Formula SAE held in Michigan where they picked up a lot of nuances from the US teams — from technical aspects like electronic gear shifting to weight reduction of the car.

“We’ve implemented a lot of aspects that we learnt in the US. We’ve submitted design and cost reports, data analysis and are part of the elite class of participating universities,” said Bansal.

The car will be ready by April end followed by an extensive testing at the Ahmednagar test tracks. The racing team will be competing  in Class 1 against 78 universities wit fully constructed and running vehicles.