surat narain karthikeyan may not have set the race tracks of the world on fire but he has certainly fired the imagination of indian youngsters one such bunch of young enthusiasts from surat are headed for chennai to participate in the formula one competition for college students from june 30these students of sardar vallabhbhai national institute of technology svnit have designed their formula one car phoenix using a maruti 800 engine a modern formula one car is a singleseat open cockpit open wheel racing car with the engine positioned behind the driver the formula one regulations specify that cars must be constructed by the racing teams themselvesthe group of 30 students from the mechanical engineering department of svnit spent rs 6 lakh and 18 months to develop the car which weighs 350 kg and has a top speed of 120 kmph they will be pitted against 45 teams from engineering colleges across india in the competition organized by the society of automotive engineers sae which has organized supra sae racing for the first time in indiacars will be judged on the basis of design acceleration manoeuvrability and a final race on track said taher cementwala team captain driver kavan desai said the final race will be the threelap race of the madras motor sports race track in chennai here each lap is 27 km and the best timing of a lap will be taken in to consideration for the final resultsabhishek kumar vice captain of the team said the driver will have all the safety equipments and will don everything from helmets neck restraints safety unit driving gloves arm restraints and shoes we have equipped the car with specially designed impact attenuator which smashes itself at the time of crash to absorb the energy and make crash safer the chassis is designed in such a way that the driver is not injured in a crashthe other members of the team include mehtab ali and nihar desai as drivers along with other 25 students who have contributed in the making of the vehicle