Maruti ties up with SAE to help youth design F-1 style cars

Maruti Suzuki, India's top carmaker by sales, on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding with the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), a global representative body of the industry, to promote and help young automobile engineers in conceiving, designing and fabricating Formula-1 style sports cars. 

The agreement was signed by Maruti Suzuki's chief general manager (marketing), Shashank Srivastava and Supra SAE India's chairman, V Sumantran. 

"Maruti Suzuki has constantly acclimatised its products and services in tune with the changing needs and aspirations of our younger consumers, for whom we make youthful and energetic cars, while not compromising on the value of fuel efficiency. This initiative with SAE India helps Maruti Suzuki to reinforce its strong connect with the youth," Srivastava said at a conference in Mumbai. 

A total of 44 teams comprising 1,100 aspiring engineers across the country will participate in a 'Supra SAEIndia' contest originated through US-based SAE International to design Formula 1 cars. 

The contest will see 44 teams create their dream cars and test at the renowned Madras Motorsport Club race tracks near Chennai. The winning car will be displayed at Asia Pacific Automotive Conference at Chennai in October this year and at the Auto Expo 2012. 

Through this initiative Maruti Suzuki and SAE India are providing students an innovative, hands-on and out-of- classroom education and it will also enable the students to prove their capability in developing a car in real-life scenario. 

Maruti Suzuki's managing executive officer (engineering) I V Rao said, "As Maruti Suzuki expands and increases its product portfolio, we need in-house dedicated engineering capability. To our existing engineering strength of 1000 engineers, we plan to add around 500 more in next year." 

The company plans to expand its manufacturing capacity to 1.7-million cars annually, he said.