Team Stealth, a team of 12 inquisitive engineers from Chitkara Institute of Engineering & Technology, Rajpura, Punjab (35 km from Chandigarh) bagged the First Place in “Perseverance in the Face of Adversity”, a trophy and US$ 500 from Shell Oil Company at Shell Eco-marathon Americas 2009 held at Auto Club Speedway, Fontana, California from 15 April 2009 to 18 April 2009 in United States of America.
The Shell Eco-marathon began in 1939 at a Shell research laboratory in the United States as a friendly wager between scientists to see who could get the most miles per gallon from their vehicles and now takes place in US, UK and Europe. An annual event, Shell Eco-marathon aims at bringing together brilliant young minds from across the globe to scratch their grey matter and come out with a vehicle which aims at getting the maximum fuel efficiency.
All the great inventions need tremendous hard work and this was no different. According to Team Stealth, right from adjusting within the budget they had, arranging the raw material, putting up all together to attending college during daytime and working in workshop at night made this whole invention possible. Their hard work does not end here, even while taking their wonder car named Stealth to US, their car got stuck in US Customs and then in the EPA (Environment Pollution Act) and it got them 3 days to get everything clear which without the help of Shell was not possible. After their car came to the Auto Club Speedway, they had even less than 24 hours to tune the car and make all the necessary changes to make it to the track.
The team worked from evening to whole night till early morning to tune up their car, but before Stealth could go on the track, the car had to go through 15 Safety and Security tests, which was indeed a challenge again. Team Stealth finally cleared all the Safety and Security tests and the vehicle was ready to go on the track.
What made Stealth so fuel efficient:
• Shell made of Fiberglass
• Aluminum alloy chassis weighing only 7.2kgs
• Aerodynamic shape to reduce the air drag to maximum extent
• Self-designed steering mechanism
• Iridium tip spark plug
• Customized 125cc 4-stroke engine
For the entire job, team was divided into various departments and each individual was given a specific task. With the guidance and motivation from faculty members Gautam Malik, Anoop Kumar Singh and Ravinder Pal Singh, Tea Stealth was able to manufacture the car in 70 days for which the research and final designs took more than an year. The designs of Stealth were made in Catia V5 by the students available in the institute’s PLM Lab.
The team got Cargo cost for Stealth worth Rs 3.5 lakhs from the institute and Rs 2 lakhs from their sponsor Bharat Petroleum.
Team Members:
Abhimanyu Sharma, AmitJamwal, Samaksh Chadha, Manish, Ankit Khurana, Siddharth Bahuja, Anirudh Jethi, Ayush Nijhawan, Raghav Thapar, Sahil Sohal, Kuljeet Singh, Jubin Singh Bhagra
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Stealth at Auto Club Speedway, California with the Award
Delhi Auto Expo 2010
Team Stealth was present at Delhi Auto Expo 2010 held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. They even got a chance to interact with Mr. Ratan Tata and were congratulated by him for their achievement at International Level.
Shell Eco-marathon Asia 2010
This year Shell Eco-marathon Asia 2010 will be held for the first time in Asia at Sepang International Circuit, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 08 July 2010 to 10 July 2010. Team Stealth with a new design and new team with a mix of experienced members and new members is participating under name Stealth 2 with vehicle name being same as Stealth.
The fabrication of new car is in its final stage. Chassis has been made, engine mounting almost done, shell manufacturing going on. According to members, they are trying to implement all the techniques and technologies they saw in SEM Americas 2009 to make the vehicle more light weight, more aerodynamic and more fuel efficient than previous car.
For further enquiries and sponsorships, contact:
Abhimanyu Sharma +91-9988176781
Siddhartha Arora +91-9915420844
Siddharth Bahuja +91-9914834500
Or mail us at india.stealth@gmail.com