BIT students and officials get ready for a test drive. A Telegraph picture

Ranchi, Feb. 26: Come July and the students of BIT, Mesra, will rub shoulders with world-class racers from across the globe at the Formula Students’ Race scheduled to be held at Silverstone in UK.

BIT students will enter the race with their specially designed cars, christened “Formula Srijan” (FS-07) and “Spowdy Cars”, which boast of superior quality.

The tyres of the cars can apparently tilt like a bike at lightening speeds.

In the competition, it is expected, student car racers from 140 universities would participate.

The students are now designing the cars, penultimate step in getting them ready.

Though the cars were fabricated earlier, the design and structure were not suitable for racing. So the students are now working on racing models for the cars.

At present, the team is working on the selection of engines, how to tune them for maximum performance and make them an intelligent controller for drivers’ safety. Sources said the designing of the cars will be complete by May.

The project was sponsored by the government of Jharkhand and BIT-Mesra. A team of final-year students designed the cars, which cost around Rs 7 lakh.

The students have got Rs 13 lakh from the government and they are looking for sponsors also. They need more money to cover the cost of equipment and the trip to the UK, which is estimated at Rs 28 lakh.

The students will also approach the Union government and private companies for technical and financial help. “In case, there are no sponsors, the institute will bear the cost,” said Ankur Agarwal, a final-year student of electronics and communications.

He said this was the first time in India that such a car was been designed by using new mechanisms. The student said they would use software to refine their designs before getting into the fabrication stage. “For the final product, we will be importing engines from Japan and other equipment — like the steering wheel, helmet, racing suit, fire protection system — from the USA. But all the parts will be sent from Bahrain and UAE,” Agarwal said.

The cars have been reviewed by European Design Centre, Tata motors, TVS Motors and Hindustan Motors.

Spowdy and FS-07, both red two-seaters, boast of characteristics that are effective, eco-friendly, fuel efficient and come with enhanced safety features. The technology used for designing the cars is called “Advance Steering Mechanism”.

The cost incurred in designing and fabricating Spowdy and FS-07 came to around Rs 90,000. It took four months of planning and designing and 20 days of fabrication to get the cars.