10  Engineering students from CUT recently entered and won the Sasol Baja SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) 2014 competition, a two-day national competition and partnership between Sasol, Gerotek, technical competition specialists ESTEQ and engine suppliers, Briggs and Stratton, that takes place in October each year. This year, the competition was held in Gerotek, Pretoria.

Sasol Baja Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) 2014 named 10 CUT students as 2014 winners of its competition for their outstanding conceptualisation of a real world engineering project, which equipped them with the required skills for the industry. The SAE Baja competition originates from University of South Carolina in the United States since 1976, under the supervision of Dr. J.F. Stevens. In 1996, Mr Barry Grobbelaar and Francois Naude from the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Pretoria (Tuks) initiated the SASOL SAE Baja local competition that is still running to date. The objective of the competition is to expose South African tertiary students to planning, design, and manufacture of a engineering project, which will equip them with the required skills necessary for the real world of engineering. The aim of the competition is to use given specifications in the design and build of a working prototype, four-wheeled, single-seat off-road recreational vehicle, called a baja. 

The vehicle had to meet the following minimum requirements: safety, easy to transport and service, fun to drive, be able to handle rough terrains and aesthetically pleasing. In this year’s competition, CUTs team dominated the participants, beating top teams like Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) and Tuks with a comfortable lead. 2014 was the 14^th year of participation for CUT and the institution entered two bajas on  race day. The first baja CUT8 was the product of hard work and innovation by BTech students (fourth-year), and CUT10 was built by first-years with mentorship from senior students. Both bajas passed the technical inspection and design evaluation test, scoring them points that was later added to their total score. During the endurance race, Car10 - that took six months to build and driven by Chris Visser - completed 28 laps in the four-hour race, (a major improvement from 2013’s performance) to finish in an overall sixth position. When asked about the challenges faced and future plans, William Kinnear who is both a student (BTech) and an assistant lecturer, said that the teams did their best to get to the required standard with tight time and budgetary limits, two bajas were build. “Unfortunately, Car10 did not complete the endurance race due to a broken gearbox but for CUT8 to beat TUT and Tuks was a huge moment for us. Next year we plan to come up with a better strategy of winning the endurance race.” The BTech CUT8 took only two months to build and won the top speed and handling performance tests, with close second places in the hill climb and acceleration performance tests and a 3^rd place in the sled pull test. It also outshined the rest at the design evaluation. During the endurance race, the baja driver of CUT8, Eric Newby, experienced a few nervous moments when the driver ahead of him was stuck in a mud pit, but Eric managed to manoeuvre around his opponent and finished second with 51 laps, 4 laps behind TUT1. 

Although TUT’s vehicle crossed the finishing line first, it was CUT8 that took the glory because they managed to score the best overall points during the  two-day inspection that included, braking tests, performance events, a design evaluation, the endurance race, hill climb, acceleration performance tests, and weight pulling. CUT led the pack with the overall score of 788.041 points making them champions. Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University took the first runner-up title with a total of 733.57 points while Tuks 2 settled for the second runner-up title at 712.201 final score.  

This is the first time in CUT’s history that we walked away overall winners! CUT8 won the following trophies:

• Overall winner
• Most exciting car (handling and acceleration )
• 1^st place performance test
• 2^nd place endurance race