About the Competition
Baja SAE Racing at Cornell is an engineering project team which annually designs, builds and races an off-road vehicle to compete in the SAE Collegiate Baja Design Series. By encouraging hands-on engineering and project-based learning, Baja Racing at Cornell takes engineering out of the classroom (and onto the track) for 50+ students annually. Each year, our research moves through 3 stages of review before our design is finalized: Preliminary Review, Critical Review, and Final Review. During this time, we’re also modifying our older cars, so we can test new designs on prior years’ vehicles. Following our final review, we move to our build phase. Each year, we continue to innovate and improve—redesigning even the smallest components. We balance hard work with a passion for our car, and we think that passion really makes the difference. The competition requires students to balance design and cost with dynamic performance while following a strict set of safety guidelines and standardized rules. There are three North American competitions annually, each with over 100 competing teams. The competition is broken down into static and dynamic events.
Static Events
Static events include our design presentation, cost report, sales presentation, and technical inspection. On the first day of competition, we compete in our sales presentation, where teams compete by creating hypothetical scenarios of entering a commercial market, pitching the hypothetical scenario to a series of industry judges. On the first day, our car also undergoes judging via cost, and our car must also pass our technical inspection, where judges scrutinize every inch of the car to make sure that it meets all of the competition rules and specifications. The second day of competition is dedicated to the design aspect of competition, where teams are given the chance to explain to judges what separates their car from the rest, what testing was done to drive decisions, and to point out any other innovations.
Dynamic Events
Dynamic events take place on the third and fourth days of competition. The third day is exclusively for time trials, where each car competes individually. Each team races their car through a number of events including a maneuverability course, an acceleration track, a hill climb or tractor pull event, and a special event specified for each competition (often suspension and traction or rock crawl). The fourth day of competition is reserved for a four-hour endurance race, in which all participating teams are on the same track at once, racing wheel-to-wheel. The endurance race is the event worth the most points and makes designing and fabrication for durability paramount to success.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Baja SAE?
Baja SAE is the SAE Collegiate Baja Design Series, in which university teams design, build, and race a single-seat off-road vehicle. There are three North American competitions each year, each with over 100 competing teams. Baja Racing at Cornell has competed in the series since 2005.
What events make up a Baja SAE competition?
Competitions run over four days and combine static and dynamic events. The static events are the design presentation, cost report, sales presentation, and technical inspection. The dynamic events are a maneuverability course, acceleration, a hill climb or tractor pull, a special event specific to each competition, and a four-hour endurance race.
How long is the endurance race, and why does it matter?
The endurance race is four hours long, with every participating team on the track at once racing wheel-to-wheel. It is worth more points than any other event, which makes designing and fabricating for durability paramount to success.
How does the team design a new car each year?
Each year's design moves through three stages of review — Preliminary Review, Critical Review, and Final Review — before it is finalized. During that time the team also modifies older cars so new designs can be tested on prior years' vehicles. After Final Review, the team moves into its build phase.
How has Cornell performed in Baja SAE?
Baja Racing at Cornell has 10 first-place overall finishes and 30 top-five finishes since first competing in 2005. In 2025 the team won all three competitions outright — in Marana, Arizona; Mechanicsville, Maryland; and Gray Court, South Carolina — earning Iron Team status for the first time since 2014.