Best Place To BuildThese students make & drive Formula race cars all by themselves? 🤯 | BP2B: Student Edition! Ep.01
CHAPTERS
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.
- •Vidhi sets the location: IITM Center for Innovation (CFI)
- •Team Raftar is in the middle of a test-and-fix cycle
- •Testing days mean late rollouts and longer work hours
- •Framing: students build and run a full race program themselves
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.
- •Post-test issues are assigned and fixed same day
- •Daily team meetings around 9 PM, work continues until 12–1 AM
- •Testing adds extra hours because the car must be run and verified
- •Emphasis on passion-driven, high-commitment student work culture
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.
- •Designed top speed: ~154 km/h; typical test speeds lower due to track length
- •Short straights shift the goal from top speed to acceleration
- •0–100 km/h in under 4 seconds
- •Benchmarking against sports cars and modern EVs for context
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.
- •Team origin: combustion (2012) → decision to go electric (post-2020)
- •Early EV decisions: motor + controller choices still paying off years later
- •First electric car in 2023; 3rd at Formula Bharat
- •International push: Formula Student Germany + consecutive engineering design awards
- •Current car: RFR 26, built to target wins in India and Germany
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.
- •Early readiness enables deep testing and tuning cycles
- •Goal changes from basic reliability to subsystem optimization
- •Opportunity to behave like a professional motorsports team
- •Four-month runway for improvements before Formula Bharat
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.
- •Europe trend: combustion phased out; electric + driverless emphasized
- •Raftar building a 1/3-scale platform to test autonomy safely and cheaply
- •Autonomy stack mentioned: perception, SLAM, mapping, path planning
- •Garage-built approach using welded tubes, webcams, borrowed parts
- •Ambition: be among the first in India to bring driverless to Formula Bharat (target 2027)
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.
- •Need a highly reliable car to iterate: change code → test → repeat
- •Planned features: launch control, regenerative braking, refined vehicle controls
- •Battery pack power may overwhelm tire grip—torque must be shaped at launch
- •Exploring control approaches: fuzzy logic, sliding mode control
- •Research-driven implementation using papers plus in-house ideas
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.
- •Team size: ~45 members
- •Second years: manufacturing/procurement + learning the full car
- •Third years: design and integration responsibilities
- •Fourth years: core team handling management, finances, and alignment
- •Focus on subsystem goals matching overall vision and timelines
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.
- •Decision framework: weight + strength + reliability (especially for EVs)
- •Every part designed to meet weight targets
- •Battery pack improvement: ~75 kg → ~40 kg after learning from top teams
- •Formula Student culture described as collaborative and open knowledge-sharing
- •Ongoing relationships with leading teams (e.g., AMZ, Monash Motorsport)
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.
- •Decoupled (pitch/roll) suspension to protect aero performance during braking/turn-in
- •Driver display + diagnostics tailored to driver preferences and failure identification
- •Tire development partnership: Raftar-driven MRF ZTD 1 used by teams across India
- •Quick-release steering + 5-second egress rule; carbon fiber aero built in-house
- •Chassis fabrication precision; high safety factors for fatigue and critical parts
- •EV powertrain overview: battery pack (384 cells), BMS, aviation-grade motor (~100kW, ~230 Nm)
- •Electrical safety: redundant checks, HV disconnect for crash scenarios
- •Drivetrain and thermal management: differential, chain drive, liquid cooling for motor/controller
- •Aero features: rear wing redesign + DRS-style flap; tuft testing to visualize airflow
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.
- •DJ has ~1.5 years of driving experience; trust in the team, fear of crashing the car
- •Driver selection/training uses go-karting to mimic rear-wheel-drive behavior
- •Each year’s new chassis means drivers must relearn feel (steering, throttle, braking)
- •Initial test speeds kept conservative (~50 km/h) before ramping up
- •Clutch story: submission video deadline nearly missed due to battery dying; quick charge for one run
- •Segment tees up and culminates in the car demonstration run (per episode chapter marker)
