In an unremarkable industrial shed on the outskirts of Coimbatore, a small team is quietly attempting something the Indian motorsport establishment has never managed: to design, build and race a prototype capable of one day lining up at Le Mans.

The man behind it left a comfortable career in Formula feeder categories to come home and start from nothing. His workshop has more ambition than air conditioning.

From Coimbatore to Le Mans: The Engineer Building India's Endurance Dream
Photo: AngMoKio / CC BY-SA 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons

Building from scratch

The prototype is being developed almost entirely in-house, from the carbon tub to the suspension geometry, with a small crew of engineers who could earn more abroad and have chosen not to.

Funding is the constant enemy. Every component is a negotiation, every test day a small financial event. And yet the car exists, runs, and is getting quicker.

Everyone told me to do this in Europe. I wanted to prove it could start here.

— The team’s founder

The long road

Le Mans is years away, if it happens at all — the regulations, the budgets and the qualifying ladder are all formidable. The founder knows this better than anyone.

But India’s motorsport story has always needed a dreamer willing to build the first car. In a shed in Coimbatore, someone finally is.