Team Kshatriya International -Young engineers ready for their off road experience!

A team of 18 young mechanical and automotive engineers from VIT university, Vellore called Team Kshatriya International is all set for their “off-road experience” with their All terrain vehicle(ATV) also called BAJA vehicle at Burlington Wisconsin, USA to be held on 7th – 10th june 2012.

Team Kshatriya International participated in the Illinois leg of the 2011 competition and it came out with flying colors, it was the first time an Indian team managed to clear the technical inspection and complete the very challenging vigorous of the 4 hour long endurance and set up a bench mark for all Indian teams who would be participating in the competitions in the coming future.

The competition is organised by Society of Automotive Engineers International (SAE) which is a global engineering society established to “further develop mobility on land, in air and in space” and has continued to do so since its inception in 1905. SAE is now an organization comprising of 84,000 members from 97 countries. SAE also sponsors many educational international competition programs, including 3 Aero Design events, a Clean Snowmobile Challenge, the Formula Series competitions, the Mini Baja Series competitions, a Super mileage competition and a Robot Systems Challenge annually.

The Baja is an international competition that challenges college students to design, fabricate, and race an off-road vehicle.Rule guidelines place restrictions on the engine and frame, testing the imagination, knowledge and creativity of the students.The vehicles are judged through both dynamic and static events.

Students design the Baja car as if it is a prototype for a company; so cost, appearance, reliability and performance all become key factors in judging.

The competition remains essentially the same throughout the 3 events offered in the United States, with Static and Dynamic Events taking up the first two days of the competition and an Endurance Race making up the third day.

Static Events involve students describing in detail the methods used to design the car and covers all car systems from chassis to safety. Points are awarded based on the judges’ comments, which contribute to the overall score for the competition. On the same day, safety/technical inspections occur, in which teams are either approved to run on the course or given extra time to bring their car to the necessary safety level.

Dynamic Events occur during the next day and involves dynamic tests such as acceleration, suspension/traction, hill climbing, land maneuverability and also, water maneuverability. Points are awarded based on the performance of teams’ cars, and also determine the starting order for the Endurance Race.

The Endurance Race, which typically lasts 4 hours or 100 miles, is the highlight of the competition. A track of 2-3 miles with a wide variety of natural and man-made obstacles is specially created for the size and speed of a typical Baja car. Most cars break down during this race, and only a handful finish without any hitches. Essentially, the Endurance Race is the ultimate test of a Baja car and only the best and strongest finish.

The team started working on their vehicle right after their competition ended. Ayush Sood, team captain feels that there is no time for rest as the level of competition is high and believes that team Kshatriya International will be a well known name among other competitors.

The vehicle which they fondly refer to as “Gladio”, has a dry weight of around 25o kg with 333cc single cylinder engine sponsored by Briggs and Stratton. Their vehicle is able to produce a power of 10HP with a torque of 18N-m. The team has been divided into different departments for better work quality and the work is divided between departments and not just members. It is currently comprises of 5 departments namely design, suspension, transmission, braking and steering, and marketing.

The biggest obstacle for the team was to get sponsorship to assist them with the hefty cost of making the vehicle. The team manager Gaurav Keswani says that the total budget of manufacturing and transportation of the project would be around 12 lakhs and the team was sponsored by companies like Amtek Groups, Kazstroy Services, Perfetti, Adani Power, Sona Groups, Torque, TVS and VIT University.

for more information go to www.kshatriyainternational.com

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