← Back to portfolio Case study · Aug 2025 – Sept 2026

Formula Student car PR26

PR26 (team ID ICV-02) is Praheti Racing SAE CBIT’s combustion Formula Student car, built for SUPRA SAEINDIA 2026 at the Buddh International Circuit. As Captain & President I led five departments: Powertrain, Power Electronics, Design & Aerodynamics, Vehicle Dynamics and Team Management. I also did hands-on engineering on the frame, uprights, brakes, aero, intake, powertrain assembly and cost report, and co-authored the team’s 36-page Technical Vehicle System Documentation.

Vehicle specification

FrameTubular space frame, AISI 4130 chromoly (yield 460 MPa, UTS 560 MPa), normalised at 870 °C
Dimensions1575 mm wheelbase · 1250 mm track (F/R)
Mass target280 kg wet · 40:60 F:R · 300 mm CG height
EngineKTM RC 390, 373.4 cc single · 32 kW · 35.3 N·m · 20 mm intake restrictor
DrivetrainChain drive 14/42 · Drexler LSD V2
SuspensionDouble wishbone, pushrod and rocker, F & R · DNM RCP-2S dampers · 80 N/mm springs
UprightsAl 6061 front · Al 7075 rear · Al 7075-T6 rockers
SteeringRack and pinion, 6:1 · 5° caster, 15° KPI (front)
BrakesDual-circuit hydraulic, twin-piston calipers, grey cast iron discs (in-house design)
ToolsSolidWorks · SolidWorks Simulation · ANSYS Mechanical · ANSYS Fluent

What I did

Led & managed
  • Led five departments and coordinated the interfaces between them
  • Set and tracked deadlines through design, manufacturing and competition
  • Checked the design against the SUPRA 2026 rulebook, informed by the SUPRA technical workshop in Pune
  • Managed vendors end to end for raw material, machining, laser cutting and bought-out parts: quotations, negotiation, orders, delivery follow-ups and invoices
  • Taught juniors design and analysis, and learned from them in turn
Designed & analysed
  • Frame design and five-case structural FEA
  • FEA of front and rear knuckles and wheel hubs
  • Brake disc design and thermal analysis
  • Nosecone CFD for lift and drag
  • Intake manifold and restrictor CFD
  • Jack design
Built & documented
  • Powertrain assembly: engine, LSD, radiator cooling, wiring harness, dashboard, gear linkage
  • Suspension and steering assembly (geometry synthesised by the team)
  • Vehicle assembly, packaging, driver ergonomics and restraints
  • Co-authored the Technical Vehicle System Documentation
  • Cost report and presentation

Engineering work

Chassis · Design + FEA

Space frame

I designed the frame for low weight, driver ergonomics and node-to-node triangulation, with every load-carrying mount placed on a node. I chose AISI 4130 over AISI 1010, 1018, 1020 and 1080 for its strength-to-weight ratio and weldability.

  1. Sketched the suspension hardpoints from the wheelbase and track width to place the first members.
  2. Built around the cockpit and legroom templates and the 95th-percentile driver helmet clearance (rules T3–T4).
  3. Laid out the main hoop, front hoop and bulkhead planes, then sized the powertrain bay and closing plane.
  4. Triangulated and braced the frame to the rules, then ran five static load cases in SolidWorks Simulation.
  5. Generated DXF files for laser cutting and designed jigs for tube notching and frame alignment during welding.
Load basis

100 km/h to rest in 0.5 s gives 55.56 m/s², or 5.66 g. On a 320 kg loaded mass that is 320 × 9.81 × 5.66 = 17,767.87 N, applied over 4 nodes. Torsion cases use a 2 g couple: 320 × 9.81 × 2 = 6,278.4 N.

Load caseTotal loadPer node (×4)Min FOS
Front impact17,767.87 N4,441.96 N1.4
Side impact17,779.20 N4,444.80 N2.1
Rear impact17,767.87 N4,441.96 N2.6
Front torsion6,278.40 N1,569.60 N4.0
Rear torsion6,278.40 N1,569.60 N5.3
Suspension · FEA

Front & rear knuckles, wheel hubs

I ran static structural FEA on the front knuckle (Al 6061), the rear knuckle (Al 7075) and the wheel hub in ANSYS Mechanical to confirm they could carry wheel loads before machining.

  1. Prepared the knuckle and hub geometry from the front and rear wheel assemblies.
  2. Applied wheel loads and constraints at the mounting points.
  3. Solved for von Mises stress and total deformation.
  4. Reviewed high-stress regions against the material limits.
Front knuckle · Al 6061227.86 MPa0.065 mm max deformation
Rear knuckle · Al 707562.52 MPa0.080 mm max deformation
Wheel hub149.25 MPa0.140 mm max deformation

Peak von Mises stress from ANSYS Mechanical static structural runs.

Brakes · Design + thermal FEA

Brake disc

I designed the brake disc in grey cast iron for the car’s dual-circuit hydraulic system with twin-piston calipers, and had it laser cut by a vendor to my drawings.

  1. Designed the disc profile and cut-out pattern in SolidWorks to fit the front wheel assembly.
  2. Ran a steady-state thermal analysis in ANSYS for temperature distribution and heat flux.
  3. Released DXF drawings to the vendor for laser cutting.
Aerodynamics · CFD

Nosecone

I compared several nosecone designs in ANSYS Fluent to keep drag and lift low while keeping the part light, cheap and easy to build. The final shape uses an uplifted nose for lower drag.

  1. Modelled candidate nosecone shapes and placed each in a flow enclosure.
  2. Simulated external flow in ANSYS Fluent and tracked the lift and drag coefficients to convergence.
  3. Compared pressure, velocity and streamline fields across designs.
  4. Chose the design with the best balance of drag, lift, weight and ease of manufacture.
Powertrain · CFD

Intake manifold & restrictor

I designed the intake around the mandatory 20 mm restrictor: a 14° / 6° venturi chosen from an angle sweep, a 0.75 L plenum and a 325 mm runner, printed in PETG. I then simulated it in ANSYS Fluent.

Lesson learned

The flow hit about Mach 0.7 at the throat, so my incompressible setup wasn’t valid. Next time I would run a compressible case limited to the choked mass flow.

Integration · Hands-on

Powertrain & vehicle assembly

I worked on the car itself and put the systems together. The drivetrain runs from the KTM RC 390 through a 2.8 primary reduction and 14/42 chain sprockets to a Drexler LSD. That gives a 22.3:1 overall ratio in first gear and about 3.1 kN of calculated tractive force.

Powertrain
  • Mounted the engine and the Drexler LSD V2
  • Built the radiator cooling circuit
  • Routed the wiring harness and installed the dashboard
  • Set up the gear-shift linkage and the 60-link chain drive
Chassis systems
  • Assembled suspension and steering to the team’s geometry
  • Packaged components within the frame
  • Set up driver ergonomics and the restraint system
  • Designed the jack
Static event · Documentation

Cost report & presentation

I prepared the cost report and presented it at the competition. It documents every component on the car, from fasteners to the engine, with costs backed by tax invoices and supporting documents.

  1. Built a full bill of materials, organised by system and assembly.
  2. Traced each part to its purchase invoice or a costed manufacturing process.
  3. Compiled the report and presented the costing to the judges.

Cost event score57 / 100

Post-season review

What I’d carry into the next car

The team’s post-season review set out what to change. These are the points I would push for as captain on the next car:

Compliance matrix

Check the car against the rulebook clause by clause, with independent design reviews and a pre-inspection checklist well before the event.

Freeze interfaces early

Freeze suspension hardpoints and subsystem interfaces in one master assembly before fabrication starts, to avoid rework.

Validate every simulation

Document assumptions, check mesh convergence and compare results with hand calculations or physical tests.

Document control

Assign an owner to every report, drawing and calculation, track them centrally, and keep BOM and cost records live all season.