The product of an untiring effort by the group of students “GARUDA-RVCE SUPERMILEAGE CAR” was unveiled on Saturday August 2, 2008 at the RV College of Engineering, Bangalore by none other than Mr. Dilip Chhabria of DC fame, an internationally renowned authority on car design and concepts. After having evaluated the features of the car and understanding from the students the specific design details, Mr. Chhabria expressed his great sense of confidence and appreciation of the design and technological capability of students in achieving this fantastic mileage. He specially praised the team’s efforts considering the global relevance and highlighted the need for such innovations in light of current oil-crisis and the need for “green” technologies.

Nishant Sarawgi - Team Leader, had this to say “ The project not only gave us a chance to implement the concepts that we have learned in theory, but also helped each one of us in unleashing the inner potential to innovate and find implementable solutions to practical problems. The fusion of theory and practice has proved to be invaluable in reinforcing knowledge while also enabling us to think out of the box. The many innovative solutions that emerged during the whole process led us to sharpen our application skills. One very core objective which guided the process was also to help create awareness of the burning environmental issues like global warming, oil crisis and the need for green technologies and conservation of energy.”

The next steps, as Bharat, a team member explained is to improve the existing design and enhance the fuel efficiency to above 500 km/lit, and participate in the international competitions like SAE Supermileage-USA, Shell Eco Marathon-UK etc. next year.

The team were congratulated by Principal of RVCE Dr. S C Sharma for being amongst the first Indian Teams to design and develop a super fuel efficient vehicle and was proud that students from RVCE had taken this bold initiative. Dr. M.K. Panduranga Shetty, President of the Rashtreeya Sikshana Samithi Trust expressed his sense of pride on the achievement of the students and promised all support in the years to come in all such endeavours.

The Key features of the prototype include a HONDA GK 100 a 97 cc, 2 Hp air cooled engine; TAV 2 Torq_A-Verter and asymmetric CVT transmission systems; Tubular A1 6063 T6 Chassis; use of Glass Fibre for the shell; Bontrager, 16 inch Moulton sizes recumbent wheels; Twin Tie Road Steering system; Inteneidate freewheel design; variable jet carburetor and simple caliper cycle brakes. The fuel efficiency of the car was tested on the NICE corridor and under test conditions has demonstrated a mileage of 180 km/lit.

The team worked under the able guidance and support of Dr B Anand, HOD Mech Dept Patron and Dr R S Kulkarni as the Faculty Advisor. The team has spent countless hours on the project, in addition to the rigorous efforts their engineering course entailed. It makes their achievement all the more commendable.

Nishant expressed his deep sense of gratritude to Tantra Infosolutions (Total Outsource Group), CD Adapco, Chameleon Motors and Innoversant Solutions who willingly came forward to sponsor this initiative. Tantra Infosolutions provided strong engineering and financial support to the team. CD Adapco chipped in with the critical engineering design software and Chameleon Motors provided infrastructural support during the building of the car. The team also highlights help from Bimal Auto Agency for providing logistics support and Innoversant Solutions which provided strong support in Project Management, Marketing and PR for this project. The entire team acknowledges that without their support this project would not have been possible.

The team is committed to their core beliefs and are keen to make a difference by creating new and innovative technologies, which have a practical impact on our way of living. To take a peek into their continuing efforts, one can visit their blog http://www.supermileagervce.blogspot.com