MADRID, 26 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish driver and co-driver Mónica Plaza presented at the Madrid-Princesa Campus of the Nebrija University the BV2 vehicle with which she will compete with her father, Manolo Plaza, in the next edition of the Dakar Rally, which will be held in Saudi Arabia from December 31, a project developed by various engineers from the university and the company Sodicars.
“We feel very lucky to feel so supported. The pre-Dakar is sometimes more difficult than the Dakar itself. I hope you feel part of the Nebrija to Dakar project,” said Mónica Plaza, who will participate for the fourth time in the most demanding rally in the world. world, while his father faces his sixteenth edition.
Both will try to make up for what happened in the 2022 Dakar edition, when they had to leave on the fourth day after a truck hit them. After that experience, they discovered that Nebrija University was working on a project for the Dakar Rally, and this Friday Mónica -Manolo was in Morocco- presented the new vehicle together with a team of 15 university student engineers and the academic managers of the project and of the Sodicars company.
Sodicars, a vehicle manufacturer and sports structure with more than 11 years of experience in competition and in the world of Motorsport, and Nebrija University have formed an alliance that has allowed university engineering students to redesign and improve the vehicle that will participate in the almost 5,000 timed kilometers of the Dakar 2023.
The agreement focuses especially on the redesign and technological improvements that will be applied to the BV2 vehicle of the Sodicars brand. Nebrija University leads the technological development and technical management part of the project with a team made up of undergraduate and master’s students from Nebrija Polytechnic, while Sodicars is in charge of the operational management of the team and makes all its experience and infrastructure available to the project. sporty.
Sergio Corbera, director of the Automobile and Mechanics Area at Nebrija University, and Ángel Pascual, explained that the main improvements to the car have focused on aerodynamics, component redistribution and weight loss, motivated by changes in materials , to carbon fiber, and in the geometries of the pieces. “This year 1 of a project that has seen more years is characterized by courage and confidence; we have to internalize that this is not normal and that this car has been developed by students. This reality must be compared with big brands that have a team of 200 engineers”, affirmed Sergio Corbera.
After the words of José González, one of the managers of Sodicars, who was pleased to work with young people, the students Borja Díez (double degree in Mechanical Engineering and Automotive Engineering from the Nebrija University), Santiago López (degree in Engineering from the Automobile), Miguel Benito (Master in Racing Vehicle Engineering) took the floor. While Díez spoke of unforeseen events, efforts and many hours dedicated, his two colleagues alluded to the “redesign loop” in which they fell for months so that the vehicle could improve performance and reliability.
In the presentation led by Paula Narros, Juan Carlos Arroyo, dean of the Nebrija Polytechnic, a school with more than 1,000 students and 200 professors, recalled that “the vocation of Nebrija University is the learning process of its students, who learn by doing at get excited about projects like Nebrija to Dakar”.