Sport

Days and nights locked up in the workshop at college, weekends, vacations and holidays spent on designing, building, and testing cars. This has been the routine of some 800 engineering students from 14 Brazilian states, the Federal District, from Venezuela and from Colombia, who accepted the challenge of developing off-road cars known as Baja SAE, for the 14th Baja SAE Brazil – Petrobras Competition. The competition will take place from March 13 to 16, at the Esporte Clube Piracicabano de Automobilismo (ECPA), in Piracicaba, in the interior of the State of São Paulo.

Divided into 70 teams, the future engineers are responsible for designing, securing sponsorship, building, and testing the cars. At the end of the competition, the two best teams will earn the right to represent Brazil in the Baja SAE Montreal, an international competition scheduled for June 11 to 14, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In the United States, Brazil is a three-time champion in this sport.

During the three-day testing period, the Baja SAE will be submitted to safety, acceleration, speed, maneuverability, and traction assessments and to a 4-hour long resistance endurance held on a dirt track that is full of obstacles. Additionally, as of this year, the teams will present the project to a board of judges who are industry specialists.