This racing car can go from 0 to 100 km per hour in 3.9 seconds! It runs on electric power and has been built completely by students at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras. Members of team Raftaar Formula Racing presented the prototype of their car at the IIT Madras’ flagship innovation and start up expo, Delta Expo 2026, which began on Saturday.
The car weighs 200 kg, much lighter than a combustible engine vehicle of same specifications and can reach up to a speed of 130 km/hour. The team was working on fitting sensors to the car to be able to operate it without the driver, said M. Reza, team head and third year Chemical Engineering student.
The team would soon be entering an international competition for this line of vehicles in Germany, said Adithya Muthukumaran, co-team leader and third year student of B.Tech in Metallurgy.
Team Abhyuday had an interesting prototype – a rocket that uses paraffin wax as solid fuel and nitrous oxide as the oxidiser to propel it to a distance of 10,000 feet (three kilometres) where it would be able to deliver a payload containing a device that is capable of carrying out experiments on intelligent reflecting surfaces, an advanced communication technology that can enhance wireless communication performance by improving signal strength and coverage.
What’s more, the entire rocket was recoverable and fitted with parachutes to land safely back on earth, said Shaurya Gupta, a second-year student of Aerospace Engineering, and Rohan S.A., team leader and final year student of Chemical Engineering.
Team Avishkar’s model was the prototype of a hyperloop pod built by a 70-strong team of IIT Madras students belonging to different disciplines. M. Mohammed, the team lead, said they were concentrating on developing the prototype of the pod to be presented in various domestic and international competitions.
Delta Expo 2026 had many more engineering prototypes, live demonstrations of cutting-edge technology, and emerging ventures across domains like robotics, AI, biotechnology, aerospace, electronics, product design, and sustainability. It was inaugurated on Saturday by Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar.
IIT Madras also entered into an agreement with IIM Ahmedabad Ventures, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms, Bengaluru, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, and Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) for ‘translation endeavours’, an acceleration-cum-studio structure to help startups mature, said Satyanarayanan Seshadri, Head, School of Innovation (SIE) and Entrepreneurship, IIT Madras. The SIE’s incubation centre had about 450 startups at a mature stage while 250 startups were being mentored at the pre-incubation stage, Prof. Seshadri added.
Published – March 15, 2026 12:15 am IST
