THE FORMULA

"This article is for those who dared to go against the flow living their dream, igniting a new culture and leaving a legacy behind."

After months of waging war against countless entrance exams, you are finally here at Manipal University. you are imagining what your life will going to be throughout and after four years. You risk out from the crowd with high hopes but the passion gradually disappears as you learn to fall flat. That's when you waste time in getting frustrated and cursing the college.

But somewhere behind those close doors and massively heavy books were 15 focused undergrads; keen to cross the line and start a project. A project, analogous to calling you infant son Jesus; you had to be thoroughly sure that he would grow up to some one special and not a "Burglar ".

You could be forgiven to assume that they would have settled for cushy MNC jobs and swirled around the campus for rest of their college life but the fact is though; they didn't.


With their dream as the sole inspiration, they risked themselves for a project that demanded numerous man hours, strict time limits and team work. Lack of funds and resources posed yet another challenge as sponsors weren't easy to convince. The only solutions was to manufacture the parts themselves to save cost. Manufacturing and related processes were done miles away from Manipal and travelling was as tedious as climbing the Everest with your slippers on. At college, they battled sleepless nights, attendance shortage and academic pressure. For them, it was now or never.


In September 2007, the team rolled out FM08, Manipal University's first Formula Student car, slamming away all the critics and paving way for future laurels. Formula Manipal gave a new dimension to education at Manipal and soon became the trademark of the University.

Building it was difficult , but driving it was manic. The driver could almost punch through the cockpit and the car had its own tantrums  which were thrown at regular intervals. Besides all this, it had enough power to blow off the marshals off the track and therefore i can't even contemplate how it would have felt to tame it. i can surely try:


" Sweat dripping from the balaclava onto his forehead as the heat from the monster sitting behind him radiates through the firewall. His mind is a jumble of flashbacks and thoughts. It really should be, he was after all sitting  in a light weight single seat racing machine that powers upto 12000 RPM ,just like that. His eyes fixed on the marshals cuz its not a regular hatchback.
He's scared because there are around 150 nuts and bolts screwed in close by people who never repaired a bicycle, his legs always on the brakes. No one wants to get hurt.

But inside the helmet, he is calm wearing the biggest smile since he had taken this attempt to go beyond the limits and do the impossible. It's been a long journey, but they were there on the tracks for their first ever FSAE event.

 This was their day, this was their car

Formula Manipal was awarded " the farthest traveled team award" at FS Italy 2008,  for a brilliant first year performance.