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Baja SAE Competition


wfritts911

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I am a mechanical engineering student at the University of Arkansas where we do the Baja SAE program. For those that have never heard of it, pretty much you build an offroad buggy that's strapped with a wimpy 10hp briggs and straton engine. Anyways, this past week we went to the competition in Cookeville, TN. The car did really well in the acceleration test, 10th out of ~90 cars. Unfortunately almost no suspension tuning was done on the car because there was not enough time for testing. I raced the maneuverability event with all of about 10 minutes seat time before hand. I was the only one who has raced cars or AutoX'd before so I got picked for the cone racing event. I didn't realize how bad the suspension was for handling until I raced the event. Also didn't realize that the car was WAY too stiff until I watched the videos of my runs. Keep an eye out for the car going up on two wheels multiple times.

 

Round 1

 

Round 2

 

Pretty sure my fastest time was the first run, although I am ashamed to say I think I hit 12 cones and missed 10 gates lol. The car just plowed the front end. Couldn't even turn around a hay bail.

 

-Will

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And one of the other team members racing the suspension event. This video is much more entertaining than the events I ran. If there would have been an award for best parkour over the table top I think we might have won it. Unfortunately when you roll over they have to re-inspect the roll cage so we couldn't continue the suspension course. Even though our score was terrible, it sure is entertaining to watch!

 

 

-Will

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Out of curiosity was the University of Tennessee team there? I was participating in the program last fall, up until I took a 6 month Coop in January. I didn't really keep in touch with the team after I left, I'm curious if they competed/ how they did.

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Out of curiosity was the University of Tennessee team there? I was participating in the program last fall, up until I took a 6 month Coop in January. I didn't really keep in touch with the team after I left, I'm curious if they competed/ how they did.

http://students.sae.org/competitions/bajasae/results/2013_Tennessee_Scores1.xlsx

 

If its the University of Tennessee - Chattanooga it looks like they did really well, 10th overall

 

-Will

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Huh?? How in the world did they only have a womens team? Its 99% Mechanical Engineers, and if you hung out in the mechanical engineering building at my school...its not exactly overflowing with women lol.

 

-Will

 

Ha, I was wondering the same! Back when I was in school, there might have been 1 girl in Baha and a handful in FSAE.

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