SAE Baja Vehicle Design Team

During my sophomore and junior years at Kansas State University I was a member of the SAE Baja vehicle design team. This group makes a small, single passenger, off road recreational vehicle. There is an exhaustive list of requirements that must be followed for the car to be eligible for design competition. The competition consists of two main evaluations: static and dynamic tests. The static testing includes a design presentation, cost analysis, and regulation check. The dynamic testing consists of an acceleration, braking, maneuverability, and endurance test.

My task on the design team was to help in the development of the design and cost reports. Both of these documents play a major role in points at the design competition. The K-State team usually gets a big hit to points in the design part of the competition. This is due to the type of people that have been on the Baja team at K-State. Most of the veteran members of the team work best by trial and error. They have a good feel for what the regulations are and simply go with what works. This has paid off well in the dynamic section of the competitions but has hurt us in the static testing.

Baja gave me a good feel for how important both physical and theoretical design can be. It’s difficult to put a price on experience but it is equally important to have the calculations backing up the design so that people outside the project will trust the product.