WO: How long has RSME’19 been in the works?

Captain: After formula green 2017, we decided to do much more than we had done in that competition. We decided to have more powerful motors and organise our systems. We introduced rollbar and suspension, a power drain system and eccentric mounts. We changed the motor and many other parts. We worked on new type of steering systems. We organised all our thoughts and began designing around July 2017. The designing process took about an year. By the end of Spring 2018, our design was ready and we were awarded the required budget for the project. The first part of the budget, given in June was the basis of chassis manufacturing, suspension manufacturing, steering manufacturing, basically the mechanical part of the car, along with motors and batteries. The second part of the budget was used in the production of electrical parts of the car.

WO: Are all the members of the team part of the project initially still working on it?

Captain: No, the project has been going on for about three years, so two batches have passed out since then.

WO: What are the difficulties you’ve faced as a team while working on this project?

Captain: The major challenge is the management of two teams, the Electrical and Mechanical team. We have to ensure proper communication between both. The departments like marketing and design also have to be managed. To recruit skilled members into the teamz as a group of students is a very challenging task. We also have to follow the guidelines, keeping the work on track and meeting all deadlines.

WO: How is the budget divided between that provided by the sponsors and by the institute?

Captain: The budget provided by the institute is based on the design that we give them. It amounts for the components required for manufacturing thr car. However during production, we face many other expenses, like damage of a part or parts that cannot be manufactured, or manufacturing expenses. The total cost of this car is around 42 lakhs.

WO: Calling onboard a famous personality like Garima Avtar for the unveiling event must’ve been quite a task. How did you decide to call her and what went into making this happen?

Captain: We wanted to make the unveiling event an innovative one. Our basic idea was that none of us know what a racing car is. We thought that it would be good if we could call someone who had racing as their area of expertise drive our car, and tell us about it. Later on, this combined with our plan of unveiling. We contacted Garima Avtar ma’am on Facebook, and through that we set up the event today. Ma’am was very cooperative with our plan and helped us make the event successful.

WO: What are your future plans with the car?

Captain: Our first objective is to participate in Formula Green 2020. We plan to retain the same electrical systems in the subsequent cars. We also plan to participate in as many competitions in one year, as a particular chassis is valid for one year only. If at all possible, we would like to participate in another international competition. At present, we lack expertise in our vehicle. If we gain expertise in a national competition, we can put our skills to test in an international event.