SAE Miniature Baja [PICTURE HEAVY]

TheFauxFox

Titan Swapped / SAS'd
Founding Member
Location
Huntsville, AL
The old thread got deleted/archived.

This thread brought to you by these kids.
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So here is my spiel I give to potentials. (Skip if you just want da pix)
Baja SAE is a collegiate design competition where university teams design, build, fund and race off-road buggies/karts. Everything seen is completely designed and built by students for one of 3 events nationally and over 7 worldwide. Teams consist of 4-30 members, mostly consuming mechanical engineers, but also include electrical, aerospace, manufacturing engineering and various business majors. Every year, teams will build or rebuild cars to compete in a variety of static and dynamic events. Static events consist of a design and sales presentation; dynamic events can include suspension/rock-crawl, hill-climb/towing, maneuverability, and acceleration. The event is concluded with a 4 hour endurance race where teams race head-to-head on a 2~mile track designed to break your designs.

Baja SAE is a valuable program where students... blah blah blah


Anyway, here are the pics my teammate and I took. There are 140+ pictures, but I've condensed a this post to just enough to justify the topic.

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Finishing touch.

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One of our favorite cars/teams, École de Technologie Supérieure (ETS). They were across the lot from us and were very friendly and helpful when we needed to borrow their scratch-start TIG welder. <3 Canadian teams.

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we9o9

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International team from India. They ship their car in pieces to the event. Also, have you ever seen a bigger advertisement for FOX Shocks?

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One of our favorite cars with excellent bodywork. The tow-of-shame in the background.

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Our little rascal with "hey, we need to do the body still" panels. Just prior to starting the dynamic events.

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After running all 4 dynamic events twice, someone pointed out around 8pm that our CV shaft "doesn't look right."

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Because we had to extend our CV shafts, the joint began to fatigue from our little (slow) torque monster. To remedy the problem, we cut out the bent section (2.5" total) and re-sleeved 90% of the entire shaft. This fix took about 3.5 hours since we had to wait to borrow ETS' (mentioned above) tiny TIG welder. No trust in the MIG we bring to do this kind of work. Ever wonder what the place looks like around 1 AM?

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Sunday at 9 AM marks the dropping of the green flag for the 4 hour endurance. I have 1.5 hours of video that I've condensed to 30min of my stint that will be posted later (still putting the finishing touches on). The track was extremely muddy, which rendered 30min of my camera's footage useless and almost 100% of the front camera's.

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All in all, we completed 14 laps (could have been 15 if my co-captain and I made a different executive decision; oops). We broke down a total of 4 times, but only got towed twice.
1) We had to add some tube members along the bottom side of our car. This caused an interference dealing with the driver side steering bolt that got caught on the tube and prevented me from turning right. I fixed it on the track (with the grace of an endurance official; not supposed to do work on the track) and finished the lap before coming into the pits.
2) I sheared a bolt that connected the driver side steering knuckle to the two A-arms. This event is seen in the final seconds of footage in the video to be posted later. Pardon the language. I also bend our lower A-arm, but didn't realize it til after the race. I'll have to find that picture later.
3) With driver 2 at the helm, the steering column got sheared from the tube members holding it in. The driver was able to limp it back to the pits without a tow. Imagine holding the steering wheel against the top of the steering column and trying to turn left and right without power steering. Props to him for finishing the lap.
4) After the steering fix, there was about 15 min left in the race. We decided that 1/4 of a tank was enough to do the lap or two. We were surprised when the car came back on a flat-tow dolly 10 minutes later. Somehow, we lost 1/4 a tank of gas in .5mi of a lap. It doesn't make sense since I ran 3 laps on just under half a tank earlier. Whatever, back to the pix.

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Can you tell who our passenger is?

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Thanks for viewing!

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TheFauxFox

Titan Swapped / SAS'd
Founding Member
Location
Huntsville, AL
Truth. I credit most of what I know to this program.

I forgot that I uploaded the video. The first complete lap (on camera) begins at 4min.
[video=youtube;86kc0gFV7Kw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86kc0gFV7Kw[/video]
 

bottobro

I'm a pretty girl!
Supporting Member
Location
Long Island NY
I'm just going to place these righttttttt heree......... When I went to RIT Sponsor day and represented my Dads company

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DATS ME
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The one picture my brother and I have together that we werent forced to take
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I think these events are awesome and I'm actually jealous my school doesn't have a team.
 
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mtnzuk

Bought an X
Those look like a boatload of fun. What is the drivetrain in them? I used to think about building one of those edge racers with a sportybike engine in them. I imagine it would be a blast to ride in but I wonder about where you could ride it?

Pete
 

TheFauxFox

Titan Swapped / SAS'd
Founding Member
Location
Huntsville, AL
Those look like a boatload of fun. What is the drivetrain in them? I used to think about building one of those edge racers with a sportybike engine in them. I imagine it would be a blast to ride in but I wonder about where you could ride it?

Pete

Engines are all "10hp" Briggs & Stratton racing engines.

Drivetrains vary heavily. A few opt for Yamaha 6-speeds. More commonly are Polaris, Gage, and CVTech CVTs coupled to a Dana H12 FNR or custom machined gear/chainbox. Drivetrains are the second most unique parts of these.

For you, you mentioned you were in east TN. Windrock, which is very local to you, will allow them. Basically, if its an OHV park, they'll allow it.
 

TheFauxFox

Titan Swapped / SAS'd
Founding Member
Location
Huntsville, AL
Uploading video from the first event of the Baja season, Tennessee Tech.
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In the meantime, here's a slo-mo video of me being over ambitious. Don't worry, you don't need the Facebooks to be able to watch it.
[video]https://www.facebook.com/putnam.rescue568/videos/10208437398067484/[/video]
 
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TheFauxFox

Titan Swapped / SAS'd
Founding Member
Location
Huntsville, AL
Dang, that front flip tho...

How did you and the buggy fair after that?

The car is just fine. We build it and have it in soected for a reason. The only minor problem is that our CV is separating from our drivetrain flange on the left side. I have a bruise on my shoulder and my neck was a little sore.

I have the GoPro video on youtube. I'll have to link it later when I'm not on my phone.
 

TheFauxFox

Titan Swapped / SAS'd
Founding Member
Location
Huntsville, AL
Were you DQ'd for the flip, or did you still finish?

There are a number of reasons to get DQ'd.
3 black flags (for being overaggressive, parts falling off, etc)
3 tows for breaking, getting stuck, or otherwise
3 rollovers or flops

When you rollover, you are required to shut the car down off the track as soon as possible. An inspector will come by and go over your frame for any breaks or bends. While they check, they radio to a scorekeeper to check the satatus on all possible infractions.

Our first driver rolled twice in 5 laps, the second being more of a crash-avoidance flop. I was driver 3 and got ambitious on that little jump. Where we test here in Tuscaloosa, we have a jump nearly identicle to that. We have never rolled.

I rolled with about 20min left in the endurance race. I was more frustrated that I took us out of the race (and the berating I was about to get) than anything.
 

Muadeeb

Nissan al Gaib
Admin
Location
Dallas
Our first driver rolled twice in 5 laps, the second being more of a crash-avoidance flop. I was driver 3 and got ambitious on that little jump. Where we test here in Tuscaloosa, we have a jump nearly identicle to that. We have never rolled.

I rolled with about 20min left in the endurance race. I was more frustrated that I took us out of the race (and the berating I was about to get) than anything.
That sucks dude. The 2nd one sounds like it should've been forgivable, but it still sucks.
 

TheFauxFox

Titan Swapped / SAS'd
Founding Member
Location
Huntsville, AL
His first rollover was surprising. There was a section of logs that were staggered at an angle. The gap between logs 2 and 3 featured a deeper hole than the previous, which was designed to slam the nose of cars into the 3rd at speed... Which is sorta what happened.

A roll is a roll. Still fun.

I actually need to change my sig now. I relinquished my reigns as captain last week, seeing as I only have a semester left. Its bittersweet since this program has been my college career.
 
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