Apologies for the late update, it’s been a busy few days!

Our last two days in India were pretty packed too. After a short morning enjoying the last of the sun before returning home, we met with most of the team and the project leaders. We discussed our success during the trip and possible improvements.

The visit has definitely been a success with both teams learning a lot. Not only have we been able to share ideas for both design aspects and running of the team, but having met prior to the competition, the teams should be able to integrate easily for their time over here in July. One suggestion was that a visit earlier in the year may have been even more beneficial as our experience could be better utilised during the design stages of the project. In addition, an early introduction should enable better collaboration throughout the year.

After the meeting and a bite to eat, we headed back to the workshop during the early evening to prepare the chassis and wishbones for welding this weekend. All tubes have now been profiled and just need to be jigged in place. We finished for the night around 9pm to get ready for an overnight trip to the beach Siddartha and Ganesh had organised.

At 9:30pm the taxi arrived for the 3 hour trip to the sea. Once again this was highly eventful. The driver, clearly seeing the bumpy winding roads as an opportunity test his skills drove at crazy speeds the whole way. After around 2 hours, just as we were getting used to his unorthodox driving style, the car suddenly veered off onto the side of the road. Somehow the driver had dosed off behind the wheel! Apart from a police roadblock checking for communist extremists in the area, the rest of the journey ran a little smoother.

We arrived at the beach around 1am. It really was amazing. Completely empty with perfect sand and sea still warm despite the time. We set up by a nearby light and had a great time joking around and shared a few drinks until the sun started to rise. At around 5:30am, a few more people started to arrive so we organised a game of football in the morning light. After a couple of hours it was already getting hot. Perfect time for a swim! Finally, after such an awesome night we left at 8am for a surprisingly seamless drive home.