The automobile club of Kookmin University KORA (Kookmin Racing) team earned the glorious victory for excellence, gold, bronze, and participation awards in the KSAE Baja & Formula 2014 held in the Saemangeum Gunsan Motor Racecourse for 3 days from the 12th to 14th by competing with 164 teams from 95 universities across the nation.

In this event that was the largest ever, the participating students had competed fiercely using their self-designed automobiles in 5 categories including Off-Road race ‘Baja,’ mini-F1 machine ‘On-Road Formula,’ technical competition that assessed innovative ideas and unique vehicle design, fuel efficiency for a vehicle with the best fuel efficiency, and EV for eco-friendly and high-efficiency electric car. From Kookmin University, KORA team participated in the formula while the Solarcar KUST team participated in the EV category.

In the On-Road Formula, total of 4 vehicles competed (2 teams from Kookmin University and 2 teams from the joint participants from Kookmin University and Dongduk Women’s University) and all KORA teams won the awards. Team manager Bong-geon Kim of KORA (class of 2009 in Automotive Engineering) said, “The team members worked hard amidst the scorching heat of the summer to participate in this event, even sacrificing their rest by sleeping only for 4 hours a day. It is like a dream as we were able to achieve good results with the vehicle that was planned, designed, and crafted by the team members. We will challenge towards another victory by making a vehicle with new and more advanced technology, performance, and design. We thank the president and academic advisors who actively helped and supported us.”

Academic advisor and professor Ung-cheol Choi and Seong-uk Yi of the School of Automotive Convergence expressed, “The passion of the KORA students that was shown through the dedicated efforts night and day deserves grand prix. Such passion made them consistently challenge towards new technology and design without being complacent with automobile planning and with this, they went through countless trials and errors and finally, they were able to secure the victory. As their academic advisors, we are very proud of them. We will all exert consistent efforts towards the victory in next year’s competition.”

Along with the winning the overall championship in the event held in 2012, the KORA team has continuously made excellent achievement by securing no. 1 in the speed category, and ‘autocross’ category, gold award in the ‘planning, production, and design’ category, and excellent academic advisor category.

The KSAE Baja & Formula is an event held by the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers and Korea Automobile Manufacturers Association and supported by the domestic and foreign automobile and automotive parts businesses of Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors, GM KOREA, Ssangyong Motor, and Renault Samsung Motors and related organizations. With the purpose of cultivating experts for the future automobile industry among university students by directly designing and producing a car, it has held the 8th event since its establishment in 2007. This is the most prestigious event for those who dream of becoming leaders of the future automobile industry.