Formula Maruti was a single-seater,

open-wheel An open-wheel car is a car with the wheels outside the car's main body, and usually having only one seat. Open-wheel cars contrast with street cars, sports cars, stock cars, and touring cars, which have their wheels below the body or inside fend ...

class in

motorsport Motorsport or motor sport are sporting events, competitions and related activities that primarily involve the use of Car, automobiles, motorcycles, motorboats and Aircraft, powered aircraft. For each of these vehicle types, the more specific term ...

made and raced in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Many of the top teams in Indian motorsports have run in the series, including Team Lakshmi Mills Superspeeds, Team JK, Team MRF, Gabriel Racing, WSRF Racing, McDowell Racing, and Team Valvoline. Top Indian drivers have started their career racing in Formula Maruti, most notably

Narain Karthikeyan Kumar Ram Narain Karthikeyan (; born 14 January 1977) is an Indian former racing driver, who competed in Formula One between and . Early life and family background Karthikeyan was born on 14 January 1977 in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu to Sheela ...

Parthiva Sureshwaren Parthiva Sureshwaren (born 21 February 1981) is a former racing driver from India. Career A1 Grand Prix Sureshwaren drove in the 2006-07 A1 Grand Prix season for A1 Team India at the Australian round, replacing Narain Karthikeyan. He did so ...

Karun Chandhok Karun Chandhok (; born 19 January 1984) is an Indian former racing driver and broadcaster, who competed in Formula One at 11 Grands Prix from to . Chandhok also competed in Formula E for Mahindra Racing. Previously, Chandhok has competed fo ...

and other drivers who have had quite a successful outing in this form are Ajay Kini, Mohit Aryan, Goutham Parekh, Devang Shah, Narendhran, Sudarshan Rao, Kartik Shankar.

Design

The car was a brainchild of S. Karivardhan who wanted an affordable single seater that can be highly economical to run/own, as well as being a stepping stone to several new drivers. It made its debut in 1988 at the

Sholavaram Cholavaram, also spelled Sholavaram, is a suburb north of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is popular as Sholavaram and is also known for the Cholavaram lake. Adjoining the lake, there was a defunct Air Force Airfield which was used as a motor ...

races in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

. Young drivers in India often begin their competitive careers in Formula Maruti, or after a few years in Karting. Formula Maruti provides drivers with their first insights of a racecar, their first racecar experience, and this is where they cut their teeth in racecar set-up.

Engine

The engine and gearbox are from

Maruti 800 The Maruti Suzuki 800 is a city car that was manufactured by Maruti Suzuki in India from 1983 to 2014. The first generation (SS80) was based on the 1979 Suzuki Alto and had an 800 cc F8B engine, hence the moniker. Widely regarded as the ...

car, which is an 800 cc 3-cylinder engine. This series is a regular in the Indian motorsport scene ever since its launch in 1988. The chassis is a spaceframe monocoque with FRP body panels.

Teams

*WSRF *Rams Racing

Champions

External links

thehinduimages.com

References