The TMR or Team Racing Manipal of the Manipal School of Technology has recently introduced their off road vehicle TMR V3 which is about to participate in the off road track competition in the tracks of Burlington, U.S.A. This would not be the first time for the Team Manipal to go abroad to showcase their cars. They have successfully displayed their formidable innovative cars on the tracks of Europe and US till now in the international student’s car race events. This particular off road racing event is to be held in Wisconsin that is being managed by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). Competing against the other best 115 teams from around the world, the TMR V3 will be under a lot of pressure to perform.
Launched by the Chancellor of Manipal University, Mr. Ramdas M Pai, this all terrain car is the third vehicle from the Manipal College to compete in an off-road event in the international arena. These events provide a perfect platform for the budding engineering students to apply their skills and expertise in whatever they have learnt in their classrooms to the environment of real world. In 2009 TMR made its debut at Wisconsin where the team ended up at the 97th position out of the competing 115, however it did grab the 14th position for its design. At the competition of Rochester in the year 2012 the team got hold of the 62nd position out of the competing 94 teams. This is also an important factor to notice that at both these events the team TMR was the best Indian team. Participation in these events has assisted them a lot in enhancing their vehicle of present venture in many different manners.
Loaded with various and new attributes of technical inputs, the TMR V3 is one step ahead than its predecessors. It is the lightest BAJA vehicle of India that has an enhanced electronics system with additional attributes like multiple instrumental plug-ins that enable real-time monitoring of different kind of performance parameters of the vehicle by the crew in the pit. Onboard speedometer is the latest addition. Through the incorporation of LSD or the Limited Slip Differential, the stability of the vehicle and the turning performance is improved to a very commendable extent.
The TMR team consists of 36 students who are then divided under six technical and three managerial departments. The technical departments look after the steering, chassis, suspension, transmission, brakes and electronics. The management team looks after the issues related to the public relations, finance and logistics. For all of this, preparations commenced much before in the year 2010 when the team decided not to take part in the 2011 event of Illinois, USA. This extra time was used in the improvement and designing of a much better vehicle. The final design was approved by the middle of 2011 and the development on the design began in the early month of October 2011.
