Racing towards fuel efficiency

Secondand thirdyear engineering students of K J Somaiya College of Engineering Vidyavihar yesterday launched a fuelefficient car The car which its creators say can achieve 300 kilometres per litre was designed and built by a team of 30 students from various fields of engineeringThe team which is called Team ETA is the only team to be representing Maharashtra in the Shell Ecomarathon Asia race to be held from February 6 to 9 in Manila Philippines with a total of 150 teams competingTeam ETA consists of 30 students all from second and third year engineering PicEmmanual KarbhariTeam ETArsquos first car Jugaad13 was first built in 2013 to participate in the Shell Ecomarathon race 2013 to be held in Malaysia The race challenges students from around the world to build fuelefficient cars Due to haze in Malaysia the 2013 race was cancelled The students have now come up with a new and enhanced model of Jugaad13 calling it J14 with advanced use of technology for the 2014 shell Eco MarathonraceGoalThe main aim of the students participating in the competition was to build a fuelefficient car that would also meet the common manrsquos needs The students felt that the competition was a good platform to showcase the car where the criterion was to have the best possible mileage The eight students are self funding their trip The total cost of the car J14 is around Rs 4 00000 to Rs 5 00000ChangesTeam member Khoshrav Doctor 19 who studies Information Technology explains the major differences between Jugaad13 and J14 He says ldquoThe body of J14 is much lighter than that of Jugaad13 and because of this the car has better speed and balancing it by the driver is easier We have removed most of the metal elements that were in the car and the shape is more aerodynamic In Jugaad13 we had power transmission which was bulky and added weight This time we have used a planetary gearbox which is Lshaped and weighs only 400gm The J14 totally weighs 45 kgrdquoThird year electronics engineering student and team captain Kunal Jain 20 says he was left disappointed when the 2013 race was called off He says ldquoWe had worked so hard towards Jugaad2013 and itrsquos a shame we never got a chance to drive it on the F1 race track The track in Manila is a basic street track It probably wonrsquot be as exciting as the Malaysia trackrdquoThird year mechanical engineering student Hardik Bhutka 20 who will be travelling to the Philippines for the first time as a J14 driver is very excited He says ldquoCompeting with people from around the world is a onceinalifetime opportunity People feel that driving the car while practically lying down in it is hard but it is in fact very comfortablerdquoHow it worksTeam captain Kunal Jain says ldquoWe have used a 35cc engine for our prototype car which runs on petrol Considering the city road conditions the average speed of the car is only 2030 kmph So for our aerodynamic body design we used a lower cc engine to increase the mileage and reduce the weight of the carWith the decrease in weight the car isnrsquot slowed down and with adequate power of the engine we are able to achieve maximum mileage We have used a two stage transmission planetary gear box and chain and to control the fuel intake we have installed a fuel injection control where the amount of fuel supplied to the engine is determined by the amount of time the fuel injector stays openrdquo