Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology

The day of the Race

The front seats of the stadium that were designed for VIP viewing were completely occupied by the guests Pritam had invited. In front of the anticipating crowd on the racetrack, with a simple one-line marking, five cars were standing up neck to neck. The race should have begun by now, but Ravindu Silva and his car were still missing. Pritam was anxious; he did not know what had gone wrong. At the last moment, he decided in his heart that if Ravindu did not show up in the next 10 minutes, he would start the race anyway.

" Oh, thank God I made it, "

Everyone's attention was immediately attracted by the person who ran onto the racetrack, breathless.

Pritam, who saw Ravindu, was immediately relieved, but thinking about how he made everyone wait and how irresponsibly he behaved, he was angry and was about to blame this new friend of his for stalling the event. But just when he was about to act on his decision, he was at a loss for words. Vedangam and a few people who were pushing a car were pushing a completely different car. It was definitely not the same car Ravindu drove the first time he met him.

" Is this a Vishwakarma V-1 ? "

There was a hint of questioning in his tone because the car looked completely different. To be fair, he could still identify some major parts like the chassis and body, which remained unchanged, but everything else had undergone drastic changes. The tyres were different; they looked completely smooth, with no threading at all. The engine was exposed, and so were many other components; a lot had been taken out of the car.

If the Vishwakarma V-1 was already a bare-bones version of what one would call a car, then what he was looking at now was its internal skeleton.

Moreover, there were modifications at the midsection too, new parts added whose purpose he couldn't quite understand. He was left scratching his head, wondering whether he should allow the car. It was a dilemma; while the car didn't technically violate any of his regulations, it was far from what he had imagined. Yet he didn't have the heart to disqualify it, partly because he was curious to see how it would perform. In the end, he decided to allow it and even helped the others push the car to the starting line to speed things up.

People in the audience all had interesting reactions. Rajendra and a few smart people had smiles on their faces as they keenly noticed the ingenuity in Ravindu's design.

Discussions immediately broke out, and even the person representing an investment firm leaned forward and adjusted his spectacles with interest.

" What is so ingenious about it? Didn't he just remove a lot of parts? " a young man asked after he listened to some adults praise the design.

Hearing the comment, a middle-aged man who was the father of Pritam's friend and was involved in the scientific field explained, " What is ingenious is simply not the way he took apart everything; it was taking out things to make the car faster. Taking out some of the weight makes it easier for the engine to move the car, and it improves the weight-to-thrust ratio. Not only that, did you see those wheels? They have no threadings at all; it must be a custom wheel. I don't know how he managed to get such a wheel. "

" Usually, the threadings are there so that any vehicle does not slip in the rain, but this inevitably sacrifices some traction, as not all of the wheel's surface is touching the ground, therefore reducing the efficiency of power transfer from the engine to the ground. But, with no threadings, that problem no longer exists; the entire power the engine sends to the crankshaft is completely transferred to the wheels, apart from some friction, heat, and mechanical loss. "

His eyes brightened as he pointed at the back of the car.

" And you see those fin-like things, if I'm not mistaken, they should be there to push the air up so that the car can stay down. They should make the car much more attached to the ground. "

The young man who asked the question and a few people who listened to it all looked at the car, which looked like it would fall apart any moment, with a look of amazement.

Soon, as all the cars were in line, Pritam himself took out the white flag and started the race.

" Ready, three, two, one, go!! "

The race started, and the cars whose engines were already boiling set off, with a loud screech of steam whirling through the chimneys.

At first, all the cars were neck and neck; there was no difference, but as time went on, Ravindu, with his lighter car and better grip, quickly pulled ahead. While all the other cars were already at their top speed, his speed kept increasing and increasing. Although he eventually had to brake during the turns, even that was a little quicker than the other cars due to the tail fins he decided to attach at the last moment.

The audience had no idea what was happening since the cars had already left their line of sight. They all started to chat with one another, almost like they were bored. Pritam's heart dropped, and he immediately realised the problem: he had to attract the attention of the people for long enough, so he had to somehow let the people know what was happening at the race all the time. An idea slowly took shape in his mind, but that had to be implemented in the future, after he either invested in the company himself or got some investment from outside.

Also, while he waited, he realised one more thing: he needed to cut down the number of laps. At the time he had made the decision, 20 laps had seemed optimal. Maybe it is still fine, but these were important people here to see if investing in his company was worthwhile. He didn't want to waste their time, and honestly, waiting that long was too boring. So, he decided to shorten the race to just five laps.

Pritam's thoughts were interrupted by the faint sound of a steam engine from the left, and everyone's attention snapped to the perfectly straight line of sight. There it was, the lone Vishwakarma V-1, chugging ahead all by itself.

"ZZZZZZZZZ!"

The car ran past them in a split second, sending the wind hurling at their faces as if it were a tight slap.

" Oh! Shiva, how can it be so fast? "

One of the guys who was also a racer exclaimed.

" It should be at least 60 kilometres per hour, right? "

" Maybe, or maybe more. "

" It has to be closer to the 70 kilometres per hour mark. "

" God, does that make him the fastest guy in the world? "

Even Rajendra was influenced by the shocks of the people around him and stood up to look at the steam bullet that cut through the competition.

A few seconds later, the other five cars arrived, but no one was excited about it anymore. After they had seen a car break through speeds of 60 or even 70, looking at cars that barely went at 40 was not exciting.

Rajendra began to imagine in his mind what would happen if all the cars were modified and all the cars could go 60 kilometres an hour, matching the Vishwakarma V-1 that had just left. Imagining five others identical to it fighting for the top spot gave him a rush of adrenaline. At first, he came only because his friend, who had never contacted him, finally contacted him and asked him for something. He was not expecting much from his friend, but now this, this is amazing.

The person from the investment firm had similar thoughts in his mind, already calculating how much could be invested and how to defeat the competition if there was any.

Away from all the noise and distraction, Ravindu was like an emotionless machine. He kept chugging coal into the boiler and operated the car at the same time.

Maybe he was pushing the engine too hard; the compartment where he sat was getting hotter than ever, but the speed he was currently experiencing was so thrilling that he never wanted it to stop.

It was as if he was one with the car: the hot air hitting his face, the vibrations he felt in the soles of his feet, the smell of soot and sulphur, and the taste of iron in his mouth made him feel alive.

" Bzzzzz! "

It was the second lap, and it was his favourite straight line. Without hesitation and with a firm press of the accelerator, he unleashed the beast, and the engine roared with all the power it could, sending him flying forward at speeds never achieved before.

He saw the board, but the laps reducing from 20 to five made him a little disappointed.

Ravindu was seriously running low on coal, so he had to pit stop the next round. Technically, for the capacity of Vishwakarma V-1, the fuel should have lasted for all five laps, but in order to cut down the weight, he had removed the old coal container and replaced it with a new one, which had less capacity. This was where he saved the largest amount of weight, cutting it down by at least 20 kilogrammes.

In the middle of the third lap, he suddenly heard a few creaking sounds from the engine. His heart began to beat quickly, and he realised that he had to let the engine rest for a few minutes, which made him annoyed, but he was not suicidal. As Ravindu came around after the last turn and into the straights at the third lap, he did not push the engine too much and stopped it at the pit lane.

"Whoa, brother, you are awesome"

'' ya, you rock!!"

The shouts of the friends he had just made immediately caught his attention. Looking at the stands, everyone was looking at him with admiration and amazement. Ravindu immediately became very happy and waved his hands, but he did not have the chance to celebrate since even driving the car for three laps took a little toll on him, so he immediately asked Vedangam to fill up the fuel and cool down the engine as quickly as possible, even if he had to pour some boiling water on top of it.

Although this reduced the life cycle of the engine, it didn't matter if he only had to go for two laps to try to push the engine to the absolute limits this time.

He stayed in the pit stop for around ten minutes, as he not only had to cool down the engine but also to do some minor repairs to the wheels. The way he got the wheel surface flat was not by custom-making a wheel, since that was impossible in the current situation. He simply filled up the threads with molten rubber, solidified it, and sanded down a small layer to make it all flush. But now some of the rubber was coming out, so he had to reheat some of those and cool them down.

By the time he was ready, the five cars, which he had gained a one-lap lead over, finally crossed their second lap and were onto the third. In a few minutes, the lead he has might disappear as well. So the people in the stands were a little doubtful as to what had happened. The racers on the track were feeling very happy, seeing that the unusual car did not rejoin the race, but unfortunately, their happiness was only short-lived, since, as soon as Ravindu started the car, they already lost; there was no stopping him anymore.

At the fourth lap, he completely unleashed the power, and he reached the speeds he was reaching at the second lap straight. He knew he could do better; he could feel it.

When he lapped around for the last time at the cross and went into the straight, his eyes went bloodshot, and without thinking, he poured kerosene into the coal, threw aside the almost empty coal container, and with a deep breath, he pushed the full throttle.

" Grrrrr "

A deep, unfamiliar grumble rose from the engine, unlike anything he had heard before. A visible jerk ran through the car as its speed surged instantly. He wasn't sure if adding kerosene to the burning coal could really accelerate combustion; he knew it should work in theory, but whether it would in practice was another matter. Yet, judging by the sudden burst of speed, it seemed he had succeeded.

" Whoooooo! "

He screamed at the top of his lungs, and due to this action, the warm steam went into his mouth, but he did not care, because he, Ravindu Silva, was the fastest man in the world. The speeds easily hit the 80s, the body was creaking, the engine was making weird sounds, but he did not care. The finish line was right there. And it was all that mattered.

What the audience saw was a blur, what they felt was a gust of wind, yet no one was in their seats; everyone was on their feet, mesmerised. It was not something one witnessed on an ordinary day.

"Zoom!"

As the car sped past at unimaginable velocity, their bodies were pushed by the wind, the engine's rumble vibrating through their soles, and a raw surge of excitement flooded their hearts. The young boys screamed at the top of their lungs, adults clenched their fists with flushed faces, and even Rajendra set aside his princely composure to join in the shouting and applause.

Pritam Paoli was completely silent. He could tell after looking at the look of admiration on his brother and the look of affirmation on his uncle. He could also tell by the look of excitement on the people's faces, especially Rajendra's, that he had made it. He felt like he had to do something.

He got up on the compound; he didn't know what he was doing, but he felt it was right.

" Gentlemen, I present to you, The Formula One. "