Formula Rolon, also known as Formula Rolon

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ) is an American automobile division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM). In North America, Chevrolet produces and sells a wide range of vehicles, from subcompact automobiles to medium-duty commercial trucks. Due to the promi ...

and later Formula Rolon 2010 is an

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 ...

single seater 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 ...

Formula Racing car made and raced in India. They run in the single make championships held in the tracks of

Coimbatore Coimbatore (Tamil: kōyamputtūr, ), also known as Kovai (), is one of the major Metropolitan cities of India, metropolitan cities in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Noyy ...

and

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 ...

. The car is similar to Formula Asia, and was powered by 1600cc

and later

Suzuki is a Japanese multinational mobility manufacturer headquartered in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, Shizuoka. It manufactures automobiles, motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), outboard motor, outboard marine engines, wheelchairs and a va ...

engines with a racing gear box. The car was launched in Mumbai December 2005 and made its debut in Coimbatore track in September 2006. The 2010 season was its last season as LG Sports announced that it will not enter Formula Rolon for the 2011 season.

Name

The name Rolon is the brand name of automotive chains and sprockets, owned by L.G.Balakrishnan Brothers Ltd.

. They are the also the main sponsor and

parent company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

Super Speeds Super Speeds is a company in India which designs and constructs open-wheeled Formula Cars for Indian National championship series. For more than three decades this outfit has been the only full-fledged Indian company entirely dedicated to indig ...

Design

The car is built around a

monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...

steel

space frame In architecture and structural engineering, a space frame or space structure (Three-dimensional space, 3D truss) is a rigid, lightweight, truss-like structure constructed from interlocking struts in a geometry, geometric pattern. Space frames can ...

and the body panels are of Composite Fire retardant GRP. Aerodynamic aides include adjustable front wing, and adjustable Flower type rear wing. The Racing Tyres are from JK tyres and the cars have a choice of grooved semi-slick and ungrooved slick version on the Race day. Formula Rolon car of Prime Racing

The car was entirely designed and constructed by Coimbatore-based

, the same company that designed the

Formula Maruti Formula Maruti was a single-seater, open-wheel class in motorsport made and raced in India. 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 Ra ...

in the mid 80's, which is now a division of L.G.Balakrishnan and Brothers. The Chief designer of the car is ex-racing driver B.Vijaykumar and aided by his team of engineers and designers. The car has a high indigenous content of over 97%.

Formula Rolon Chevrolet

The Formula Rolon Chevrolet (2006–2009) cars were powered by a

1.6 liter engine during the years 2006 till 2009 and the car was known as Formula Rolon Chevrolet, as supplied by

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

India for a three-year contract. Over 18 cars were manufactured of which 15 were supplied to various teams while three chassis were retained for development activities.

Formula Rolon 2010

For the 2010 season

launched a short wheelbase version and equipped with the in house race tuned 1.3 liter Suzuki engine with a race tuned EFI. The 2010 model was simply known as Formula Rolon 2010. The short wheelbase has a new exterior design and the car was made 100 kg lighter than the earlier model to improve the power to weight ratio.

Engine and Gearbox

Chevrolet 1600 engines

The 1.6 liter engine was supplied by

India for the Formula Rolon Chevrolet versions during the years 2006 till 2009. The

1600 cc engine produced in race trim as of 2006 with a re-chipped ECU; otherwise it was the same stock engine as used in

Chevrolet Optra The Chevrolet Optra is an automotive nameplate used by the Chevrolet marque for three different compact car models, in the following markets: *Daewoo Lacetti The Daewoo Lacetti is a compact car manufactured and marketed globally by GM Korea sin ...

model sold in India. Notable race modifications from the passenger car engine include a re-chipped ECU supplied by GM India, K&N Air filter and tuned Free flow Exhaust pipes while the Head, Block and Camshaft remained the same as in

Stock Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...

.This was also a first for

’s involvement in Racing outside United States.

Super Speeds Suzuki 1300 engines

For 2010 season, the short wheelbase version was called Formula Rolon 2010 and used a 1300cc 16 valve engines from

Suzuki Swift The is a supermini car (B-segment) produced by Suzuki. The vehicle is classified as a B-segment marque in the European single market, a segment referred to as a supermini in the British Isles. Prior to this, the "Swift" nameplate had been applie ...

. The 1.3 liter Suzuki engines had modified cylinder heads, race tuned free flow exhausts and high lift cam shafts modified to race specifications producing over 40% more power than the factory stock versions. The engine management systems were supplied by Race Dynamics of Bangalore with a programmable Fuel Injection system. The

Gearbox A transmission (also called a gearbox) is a mechanical device invented by Louis Renault (who founded Renault) which uses a gear set—two or more gears working together—to change the speed, direction of rotation, or torque multiplication/r ...

was a

Racing In sports, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific g ...

gear box A transmission (also called a gearbox) is a mechanical device invented by Louis Renault (who founded Renault) which uses a gear set—two or more gears working together—to change the speed, direction of rotation, or torque multiplication/r ...

, with straight cut-dog ring gears and in-built LSD (Limited Slip Differential) manufactured in-house at

by Super Speeds similar to

Hewland Hewland is a British engineering company, founded in 1957 by Mike Hewland, which specialises in racing-car gearboxes. Hewland currently employ 130 people at their Maidenhead facility and have diversified into a variety of markets being particul ...

racing transmission. Formula Rolon Chevrolet Rear

Tyres

JK tyres of India makes and supplies the tyres specially designed for this car. JK Tyres also sponsor the National championship and few drivers in this series. The tyres are available in Wet and Slicks.

Costs

The drivers racing budget for a 12 race (6 Double races) annual season was costing one tenth compared to a full season in or

Formula Asia Formula Asia, also known as Asian Formula 2000, was a class of open wheel formula racing. The formula used an Argo chassis coupled with a 16-valve Ford Zetec 1,800cc engine. There was only one championship held in Asia from 1994 until 2002, org ...

in other South East Asian countries or

Formula Ford Formula Ford, also known as F1600 and Formula F, is an entry-level class of single-seater, open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held across the world have historically been an important step for many prospective Formula One dri ...

in UK in 2006. This series was considered to be the best way to select racers for the Formula Asia and Formula BMW series and was a stepping stone for graduating into higher series of international single seater racing championships.

Championship races

The cars were built for LG Sports, to run in the JK National Road racing championship, which is the breeding ground for young racers in India. The Cars are sold with the Engine on lease or the complete car leased with three different springs supplied per car. All engines are sealed by LG Sports with the maintenance of the engine by Super Speeds. The class in which the car races is a single make championship class, with the cars sold or leased to several teams, who in turn engage or hire drivers. The races are annual championship series held in

Kari Motor Speedway Kari Motor Speedway is a purpose-built Formula Three auto racing circuit or race track, located in Chettipalayam, Coimbatore, India. The long track was inaugurated in 2003. The circuit is named after S. Karivardhan. History Part of the ex ...

in Chettipalayam,

and in MMSC track in

Irungattukottai Irungattukottai is a fast emerging neighbourhood of 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 pop ...

in Chennai. The Drivers with most points accumulated from his wins and finishing positions becomes the Formula Rolon Chevrolet champion for the respective year.

Teams

* NK racing –

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 ...

’s team with Speed Petrol (

Bharat Petroleum Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited is an Indian public sector oil and gas company, headquartered in Mumbai. It is India's second-largest government-owned downstream oil producer, whose operations are overseen by the Ministry of Petroleum and ...

) as Team Sponsors. *Gemini Racing -

- Akkineni Anand Prasad's scholarship based ace driver outfit *Mars racings –

*Meco Racing –

*Rams Racing –

*Prime Racing –

*Red Rooster Racing –

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

* Team Amaron Pro Racing with MECO * VA Racing –

Drivers and tuners

Notable drivers who have taken part in the series and still involved include ex-Formula 3 champion Akbar Ibhrahim, ex-karting champion Ameya Walavalkar, Asia-Pacific Rally winner

Gaurav Gill Gaurav Gill is a professional rally driver and an Indian motorsports athlete who competes in the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship. In 2013, Gaurav Gill became the first Indian driver to win the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship and went on to w ...

, ex-

champion Gaurav Dalal, 2005 Formula LGB Champion Reo Banajee, 2006 Formula LGB Swift national champion Saran Vikram Tmars, Aswin Sunder and 2009

champion Vikash Anand.

Champions

External links

General Motors India SiteDonuts in Formula Rolon by Ameya Walawanker-VIDEO
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20071001044316/http://www.hindu.com/mp/2006/08/19/stories/2006081901520400.htm Article from The Hindubr>GM Insider NewsMy Chevrolet Article on Formula Rolon ChevroletMore Pictures
{{Indian motorsports Rolon Rolon Indian racing cars One-make series Auto racing series in India