Members of the Wonders team pose after presenting their design in Bangalore in July

Sleek, sophisticated and highly manoeuvrable, the design of the all-terrain vehicle conceptualised by students of BIT-Sindri is making headlines at the BAJA SAE 2012, a premier auto engineering contest, hosted by the Society of Automotive Engineers (India unit).

The team of 25 undergraduates, fittingly called Wonders, incidentally are the only ones to have qualified for the final round of BAJA from across Bihar and Jharkhand this year, thanks to a dream machine able to withstand shocks and scale heights at around 60kmph.

The vehicle design has made it to the final round of the event, scheduled to be held in Madhya Pradesh from February 16-19, 2012. The team, which comprises 18 mechanical engineering students, five production engineering and two electronic and communication engineering students had first presented their ideas in the first round, known as virtual round, on July 19-20 in Bangalore. More than 244 teams from across India had participated in the first round, of which 100 qualified for the finals.

Giving details, team leader Vijay Kumar said the design of the vehicle was made using software such as Catia and Hypermesh, with another software Ansys for data analysis.

“We initially spent sleepless nights after enrolling for the event. However, we worked really hard on the design over the summer vacations,” Vijay said.

And now, after the design, the actual fabrication.

Expressing hope that the vehicle would trip its rivals at the final round of the contest, Vijay added that several new features including GPS and GSM navigation systems, photo sensors and shock absorbing bumpers, were included in the design.

“The weight of the vehicle has been significantly reduced from 580kg to 320kg for better mobility,” chipped in teammate Kailash Pandit of the mechanical engineering department.

He added that the weight reduction was made strictly in accordance with the rule book. “It’s light and sturdy — a perfect combination that will help the vehicle on inhospitable roads,” added the student.

Throwing more light on the proposed design, team vice-captain Abhay Kumar said the installation of the GPS and GSM navigation devices would help track the vehicle in adverse situations and be highly useful during military and mining operations.

“Apart from that, photo sensors will aid in detecting light intensity and help the vehicle glow in darkness. Shock-absorbing bumpers will lend stability to the vehicle on bumpy terrain,” Abhay said.

He added that adjustments in the cockpit area had also been proposed so as to give the driver a comfortable seat. The engine compartment space is also set to get larger.

“Steel and not the usual polycarbonate sheets will be used in the body panel. Hence, the vehicle will be lighter but will pack in more strength,” Abhay said.

The estimated cost of the vehicle has been pegged at Rs 4 lakh.

“We hope that college administration provide us with the requisite sum. The fabrication of the vehicle will be started by the first week of October, by which we hope to purchase the necessary materials,” Kailash said.

The team will sacrifice their Durga Puja break to work on the project. “A technical team of SAE India is scheduled to visit the campus sometime in December. So we want to get things up and running by then,” he said.

This is not the only dream-on-wheels that the young auto enthusiasts are busy with. The team is planning to develop a vehicle for the prestigious Formula-1 race scheduled to be held in Chennai next year.