The Mid-West Mini-Baja Design Competition challenges college students to design, fabricate, and race a miniature Baja style off-road vehicle. Rule guidelines place restrictions on the engine and frame, testing the imagination, knowledge, and creativity of the students. The competition is judged on several categories, including dynamic and static events. Students design the Mini-Baja car as if it is a prototype for a company, so cost, appearance, reliability, and performance all become key factors in judging. This competition, like all other SAE competitions, brings students together from across the country and even around the world.
Baja SAE
2009 Baja Team
2009-2010 Season
In being motivated to build an even more competitive car, we have already started planning and implementing plans for next year’s competition in the summer. The main goals for next year include focusing on maneuverability through further analysis into the steering and vehicle weight distribution, reducing the overall weight of the vehicle even further by analyzing every component to determine where it is safe to remove material, and refining the drive-train from last year’s design to create the best combination of torque and speed. We believe by making these changes and integrating the characteristics of the 2009 car that were the most successful in next year’s car, we will be able to construct the car more rapidly and have more time for testing and tuning the vehicle before competition. With this plan in mind, we sincerely believe we are going to have another very successful year, and continue to improve both our competition rank and team abilities.
2008-2009 season
2008-2009 was an extremely successful year, placing 35th out of 120 collegiate teams from around the world at the international competition. The 2009 international competition was held in Burlington WI at the MGA Automotive Research Facility. As a result of effective team work, efficient planning and organizing, and utilization of engineering knowledge from our coarse work, a very competitive Mini Baja car was able to be designed and produced. Some specific aspects of this year’s car that were major contributors to its success was a light and effective chassis that was heavily analyzed before production using solid modeling and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software, an efficient planetary gear reduction that connected the Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) and the rear housing, and a completely custom suspension that allowed the vehicle to withstand many different types of off-road terrain effectively and comfortably. Competition this year has already motivated us to build an even more competitive car next year. We have set a goal of placing within the top fifteen teams at the international competition that will take place in 2010.
Meeting and Event Times
Meetings
First and Third Thursday of Every Month (September-May)
Time: 6:00-7:00pm
Place: Engineering Hall Room 107
Work Times
Every Friday (September-May)
Time: 3:00pm-however late people want to work
Place: SAE Work Area in the Engineering Hall
Stout Baja Invitational
Date: October 24, 2009
Location: Arkansaw Cycle Park, Arkansaw, WI
Michigan Tech Invitational
Dates: February 13, 2010
Location: Michigan Technological University