Balasore, July 13: Grumble no more over spiralling fuel prices and your petrol-guzzling vehicles.

Balasore boy Rahul Khandelwal and his friends promise to make your rides more enjoyable with their invention, Drona, a prototype of a car with an incredible mileage of 240 kms per litre.

Rahul, a mechanical engineering student at the Sir M. Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology in Bangalore, and 10 others from the institute had taken the wonder car to the Shell Eco Marathon at Sepang International Circuit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from July 4-7. The Rahul-led team was among the 124 participating teams from Asia at the annual event, which challenges students from around the world to design and build energy-efficient vehicles.

“Our innovation earned an encouraging response from the organisers. The best thing was that Drona, apart from delivering a mileage of 240 kms per litre, achieved the standard fixed for design and safety,” said 22-year old Rahul, adding that they received US$200 from the organisers, Shell, as a token of appreciation.

The single-seater, petrol car, which can run at 60 kms per hour, was put together at a cost of around Rs 2.5 lakh, the Balasore boy said. The team had also arranged for sponsorships to the tune of Rs 8 lakh from various companies in Bangalore, Delhi and Odisha.

Rahul and his friends hit upon the idea while discussing about the frequent petrol price hike burning a hole in the pockets of the common man.

“We brainstormed about designing a fuel-efficient vehicle and someone mentioned the Shell Eco Marathon event, which got us inspired,” he said.

The young techies then got their grey cells vrooming and came up with Drona. “We divided responsibilities among ourselves and completed the project in about nine months. Our college faculty advisor, M.C. Math guided us in every step,” he said.

Talking about the technicalities of Drona, Rahul said the chassis (internal framework) is made of aluminium and the outer shell is made of fibre-reinforced plastic.

“We fixed a 80cc electronic fuel injection-based engine to the car, which has high quality tyres with very low friction and hydraulic brakes. The fuel efficiency of the car can be enhanced further up to 500 km per litre by adjusting the electronic fuel injected mechanism,” he said.