The COEP team also won the first prize in three different categories. Its vehicle completed the car race on the rugged track at the highest speed. Elated team leader Rahul Sarnobat told The Indian Express from Delhi: “It’s a great win. Our team slogged hard to design a good car and all our toils paid off. I am proud to win the national competition.” He said if everything went well, the team would participate in the Baja international competition to be held in the US or South Africa.

There was a lot of enthusiasm among the participants as the competition was held in India for the first time. Of the 25 participant colleges, six were from Maharashtra. The Modern Engineering College, run by the Progressive Education Society’s, had also been selected for Baja. Emitec Company sponsored the COEP vehicle named Nemesis.

Kapeesh Saraf, a team member, said: “We learnt a lot of things. We got an opportunity to meet top officials in the automobile industry and interact with them.”

Recounting how the team prepared the car model, he said: “Initially we were at sea on how to design the vehicle. We prepared ourselves through workshops, shared information and bridged the knowledge gap. March through April, we held brainstorming sessions. Thereafter, we plunged into the designing process, which took eight long months.”

The Baja competition is held in six countries — US, South Africa, South Korea, Mexico, Brazil and India. Until a few years ago, it was organised only in the US. The event in India was organised by the Society of Automotive Engineers India and Automotive Research Authority of India.