BAJA 2009 @ Indore

                                                                                                    photo:www.overdrive.in/

The Second edition of BAJA SAE INDIA was held from Jan 30th to Feb 2nd 2009 at NATRAX (National Automobile Test Tracks) facility in Peethampur, Indore.

Though this was only the second edition in India, already the number of competing institutes has vaulted from 27 to fifty-eight teams from around the country consisting of One thousand two hundred students backed by fifteen sponsors.

The competition was maddening and after the immense success of the 2007 event, a mammoth 108 teams had applied for a spot for the 2009 event. The long list of teams had gone through a rigorous telephonic interview and Dr Karuppaiah and his team had filtered out only the best of the best and finally 58 teams were left in the field. .

For the 2009 event however, Lombardini has provided a bigger 340cc engine with 11hp The gearboxes are from Mahindra Alfa 3 wheeler. The petrol-engined buggies ran on fuel supplied by Bharat Petroleum, and since all these are provided free of cost to the students, it helps to keep costs in check.

This is as real an engineering challenge these budding engineers will probably face in their entire career, since the challenge is to design, build and finally race a ground-up design.

Only if the teams satisfy the judges in all the static and dynamic criteria, are they allowed to participate in the final race. This is the big one, and while speed is important, the focus is on reliability. The drivers have to negotiate an arduous course with a number of challenges, including a water trough, whoop-de-dos and a metal trap. The event was scheduled to run for three hours, but was shortened by 30 minutes for logistical reasons. Nevertheless, this was enough to gauge the capability of the buggies.

While IIT Mumbai led the early part of the race, it stopped with a broken drive shaft on the second lap, handing the lead to AISSMS from Pune, which lost out with a lengthy refuelling stop. Thus, the team from Sant Longewal College, near Patiala, shot into the lead. It was a case of strong reliability and a strong drive from the midfield. Equally impressive was the team from Punjab Engineering College, which started even further back but drove hard throughout to finish a close second.

With over Rs 31 lakh in prize money, there was indeed strong motivation for the teams, and the organizers have the right idea to encourage the teams to think innovatively and design fast and reliable buggies. Many sponsors had placement cells at the show. They conducted interviews and gave appointment letters to over 60 students.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uz8-TaRmn4o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yi2GmfOS_Y&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcJMPpa6Lnc&feature=related

BAJA 2007

Baja SAE India, an association of automotive majors organized the maiden BAJA 2007 contest from 21-23 December 2007 in NATRIP, Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh. The event is modeled on the globally popular student competition Mini BAJA which is held every year in five more countries across the globe. Kelinja Venkatagirish read about a participating team NITK, Surathkal in Hindu and sent me the hint.  

BAJA 2007 was sponsored by automotive majors like Mahindra and Mahindra, Ford, Lombardini, JK Tyres, Speed and various automotive bigshots. It involves engineering students to design and build an ALL TERRAIN VEHICLE that endures a severe punishment of rough terrain while competing against teams across the country.

Each team must start from scratch to design and fabricate an ATV based on specific dimensions, budget and other details provided by SAE India. The event provides selected teams a platform to showcase their engineering skills where their capabilities for team work, entrepreneurship, leadership and management will be gauged.

To maintain a level playing field, the teams have been provided with standard engines and gearboxes. The engines for the 2007 event were of 280cc type producing 9hp provided by Lombardini free of cost to the teams. The gearboxes are from Mahindra Alfa 3 wheeler, again provided free of cost.

The inaugural version saw participation from 27 Colleges from all over India with College of Engineering, Pune securing the top spot and was closely followed by NITK, Surathkal . All this was coordinated by Dr. K.C.Vora of ARAI, Pune.

The detailed commentary of the event is available at http://www.overdrive.in/story-articles-features/bajaj_sae_india_2007-3651-0.html
http://www.hindu.com/2007/12/02/stories/2007120259610300.htm
http://www.bajasaeindia.org/

ATV - Indian Scenerio

The ATV market in India is still in infancy. The market is scattered over vast countryside and the quantity is very low to support a proper service backup. By law, they are not permitted on public roads and by design, absence of differential makes it not advisable on tar roads. It is not a comfortable ride in hard black topped road  that I have tried in my village.  So the use is totally restricted to our private land.

There could be two application for ATVs. First is sort of wheel chair for handicapped people to go around. I have also been approached by people with heart problems. Other application is for sports & recreation.

I use ATV as a wheel chair to go around our farm. It is simply indispensable in long monsoon months when farm paths are wet and slippery.

To have an ATV, there seems to be two options. One is get it assembled in India and other is get it imported. Chinkara Motors in Mumbai custom build ATVs using kinetic scooter engines. Since they are made to order, they are much more expensive than mass produced goods. chinkaracars@rediffmail.com is their email ID

Polaris,  a  reputed American brand seems to have dealers in India and one of them is located in Bangalore. The Polaris is a premium brand & quality is supposed  to be great. Some of their models are assembled in Taiwan. They are also expensive and may be beyond the reach of average Indian.  http://www.sasconit.com/tranquil/

There are couple of importers doing business in big cities importing from China in small quantities. Here is Delhi based importer.
 http://www.adventurewheels.co.in/

There is another experienced supplier in the scene  based  in Bangalore.   Advertised in Google and so can be easily tracked. He  acts very slippery and claim stock what he sell are sourced from Taiwan. There is little service backup and spare parts inventory.

Many engineering college students do assemble go karts as part of their project work. There are some demonstration units in colleges. Most of them appear similar and are of very basic design. They are not ideal for daily use.

There are road legal ATVs which can be used in back roads in Western countries. The documentation needed to   make them  road legal   is very long and expensive process.    ARAI located in Pune    has to okay the design and certify they are roadworthy. The cerification process is another story. 

The sales may reach critical volume a few years from now & comprehensive service backup for ATVs becomes available. Hope that day will come soon.