UAB's Baja Car team, Blazer Motorsports, practice for next week's regional Baja SAE competition in Peoria, Ill. Baja SAE consists of three regional competitions that simulate real-world engineering design projects and their related challenges. Engineering students design and build an off-road vehicle that will survive the severe punishment of rough terrain. SAE International has more than 90,000 members - engineers, business executives, educators, and students from more than 97 countries - who share information and exchange ideas for advancing the engineering of mobility systems.  

UAB engineering students have worked on this project for several months for course credit or extracurricular activity. The object of the competition is to provide SAE student members with a challenging project that involves the planning and manufacturing tasks found when introducing a new product to the consumer industrial market. Teams compete against one another to have their design accepted for manufacture by a fictitious firm.

Students must function as a team to not only design, build, test, promote and race a vehicle within the limits of the rules, but also to generate financial support for their project and manage their educational priorities.

All vehicles are powered by a 10-horsepower Intek Model 20 engine donated by Briggs & Stratton Corporation.