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

We're actually comparable to a Porsche 911 in terms of our acceleration time. Uh, but if you look at the modern electric cars, like Teslas and, uh, Cybertrucks and stuff, they can do much faster than this. The driver should get out of the car within five seconds from a fully harnessed position.

Hi, guys. Welcome to The Best Place To Build: Student Edition. I'm Vidhi, a fifth-year student in IIT Madras. Today, we're at the Center for Innovation, CFI, with the Raftar Student Formula racing team. Today, they're about to test their car, so let's go find out more. [upbeat music] I'm here with Aditya, the team captain. He's a fourth-year student from electrical engineering. So Aditya, what's happening here in the background right now as we stand?

Uh, so we tested the car yesterday. All the tasks that have been found out yesterday, all the issues with the car, the team members tried to fix it by 9:00 PM, so that post, uh, all the daily meetings, we can complete all the tasks and check if the car is running, and then aim for a rollout at 12:00 AM. That's what we're doing right now.

And typically, how long do you guys spend working on the car every day? And is it different during testing periods?

Uh-

Does it get more hectic?

So yeah, obviously. Uh, I mean, during testing periods, it's just that, uh, you have to spend an extra three hours after 12:00 AM because you're running the car. Otherwise, on a week night, it's usually... uh, we have daily meetings at 9:00 PM, and then the team, uh, team members just work on whatever task they're allotted, and they typically go back around 1:00 AM, 12:00 AM, around that time.

Sounds a little rough, but [chuckles] yeah, everyone seems to be driven-

I mean, it's their passion, so.

When I think of, like, a race car team, the first question that pops in my head, and I think in a lot of people's heads, is, like, what's the top speed?

Okay.

What's the fastest that the car can go?

It's designed to reach a top speed of 154 kilometers per hour.

Wow.

But on track, we've only hit around 90 to 100. Uh, the track has a maximum straight line of only 75 meters, so it's more about the acceleration. So our zero to 100 acceleration time is under four seconds on this car. We're actually comparable to a Porsche 911 in terms of our acceleration time. Uh, but if you look at the modern electric cars, like Teslas and, uh, Cybertrucks and stuff, they can do much faster than this.

And you mentioned going electric, so was this a recent change for you guys, or since when have you been switching?

Um, so this team started off in 2012 as a combustion team. In 2020, after the lockdown, uh, we noticed that, okay, the world's shifting now, and we decided that now is the time, let's shift to electric.