Best Place To Build

These students make & drive Formula race cars all by themselves? 🤯 | BP2B: Student Edition! Ep.01

Welcome to The Best Place to Build: Student Edition! A podcast about the students, brought to you by the students of IIT Madras. This series captures stories of curiosity, creativity, and courage from the campus that’s home to India’s brightest minds. Here, every idea has a place to grow from dorm-room discussions to prototypes that take on the world. In this first episode, join Vidhi as she takes you on a tour of Team Raftar Formula Racing, IIT Madras’ Formula Student team that has been designing, building, and racing high-performance electric vehicles (EVs) for over a decade. These students are not just car enthusiasts. They are engineers, designers, and innovators working together to redefine automotive engineering and sustainable mobility. From battery systems and motor design to aerodynamics and performance testing, every aspect of the electric race car is built on campus. A true testament to what student-led innovation can achieve. You’ll hear what it takes to be part of a Formula Student competition, the challenges of building a prototype car, and how a shared passion for engineering turns into national and global recognition. ✨ Topics Covered: * How students build electric cars from scratch * Inside IIT Madras’ Formula Racing garage * Engineering design and team dynamics * Challenges of building a Formula Student car in India * The making of Raftar’s electric vehicle prototype * Student-led innovation at IIT Madras Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 00:17 Welcome to the Best Place to Build: Student Edition 01:15 Introducing Team Raftar, IIT Madras 03:33 Testing for Formula racing competitions 05:20 Team Raftar’s driverless ambition 06:45 The people behind the best student formula team 07:54 Team Raftar’s guiding principles 10:10 Raftar car tour 20:30 Interview with the racer behind the steering wheel 23:35 Best student formula race car demonstration!

VIVidhihost

Oct 24, 2025·24m·Watch on YouTube ↗

📖 CHAPTERS

1. 1

   Setting the scene at IIT Madras CFI: a midnight test session

   Host Vidhi introduces the "Best Place To Build: Student Edition" and visits IIT Madras’ Center for Innovation to meet Team Raftar right as they’re preparing to test their Formula Student race car. The episode opens with the intensity of late-night fixes and rollouts that stretch past midnight.

2. 2

   How the team operates during testing: schedules, fixes, and rollouts

   Team captain Aditya explains what’s happening in the background: issues found in prior runs are fixed quickly so the car can be back on track the same night. The conversation highlights the team’s daily cadence and how testing weeks escalate the workload.

3. 3

   Performance targets: top speed vs. real track reality (and Porsche-level acceleration)

   Vidhi asks the obvious race-car question—top speed—and Aditya explains the difference between design targets and what the short course allows. The real focus is acceleration, with the car posting sub-4-second 0–100 km/h performance, comparable to a Porsche 911.

4. 4

   From combustion to electric: Raftar’s shift and competition results

   Aditya walks through Raftar’s evolution from a combustion team (founded 2012) to an electric program after 2020. He outlines the team’s milestones—first electric rollout, podium finishes, and design awards—leading to the latest car they aim to win with.

5. 5

   Why testing early matters: moving from “making it run” to optimization

   With the car ready earlier than usual, the team plans months of tuning rather than scrambling just to get operational. Aditya describes the shift in mindset—from survival mode to true motorsports iteration and performance refinement.

6. 6

   The next frontier: driverless ambitions and the 1/3-scale autonomous test car

   Vidhi learns that European Formula Student events are increasingly electric + driverless, pushing Raftar to plan autonomy. Aditya describes a pragmatic strategy: prototype autonomy on a one-third scale car using readily available components, then scale up.

7. 7

   Controls and reliability roadblocks: launch control, regen, and advanced controllers

   The team has baseline control loops working, but performance features require repeated, reliable testing. Aditya explains why launch control is difficult with a new battery pack and limited tire grip, and mentions exploring fuzzy logic and sliding mode control.

8. 8

   People and structure: how 45 students divide manufacturing, design, and leadership

   Aditya breaks down the team’s 45-person structure by academic year, showing how skills and responsibility grow over time. The system turns juniors into manufacturers and learners, mid-years into designers, and seniors into managers aligning subsystems to team vision.

9. 9

   Guiding principles and learning from global teams: weight, strength, reliability

   Vidhi probes how the team makes tough trade-offs, and Aditya shares their guiding principles: minimize weight, ensure part strength, and prioritize EV reliability. Competition exposure provides benchmarks and collaboration—leading to major changes like a dramatically lighter battery pack.

10. 10

    Full car walkaround: suspension, cockpit electronics, tires, aero, and chassis safety

    A detailed tour covers the most important systems and why they’re engineered that way—from a patented decoupled suspension to in-house carbon aero. The segment also emphasizes safety and inspection realities: quick driver egress, high pedal forces, redundancy in HV systems, and robust structural margins.

11. 11

    Driver perspective and the on-track run: training, shakedowns, and clutch moments

    Raftar driver DJ shares what it feels like to drive a student-built electric formula car and how drivers are selected via go-karting sessions. The episode builds to the demonstration run, while DJ recounts a high-stress deadline moment where a dying battery nearly cost them competition eligibility.