Baja ETS Project

Presentation

Baja SAE is one of the numerous international engineering events organized by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). It is interesting to add that the Baja events were the first organized, making them the longest running competition organized by the SAE, The project itself consists in the development and design of a single seat, all-terrain vehicle. One of the main challenges is to achieve this goal on time, on a budget, and as a team. The prototype must be safe, fun to drive, easy to maintain and capable of being mass-produced. One of the interesting challenges is to obtain a high-performance vehicle, year after year, using only a 10 HP unmodified engine. There are several competitions organized every year; the most important for the 2019 season being noted below.

The competition

Each competition has its own unique and difficult challenges spread over three days. Static and dynamic events evaluate all aspects of the prototype making the Baja competition a very complete engineering competition. Each one ends with a grueling four-hour endurance race where more than a hundred Bajas participate. The race tests the cars and teams to their limits, leaving only the most perseverant teams and well-built vehicles at the finish line. Each competition consists of different events listed below.

Dynamic:

Brake Test, Acceleration, Maneuvrability, Hill Climb, Rock Crawl, Endurance, Sled Pull, Suspension & Traction

Static:

Design Presentation, Sales Presentation, Cost Report, Technical Inspection

Electronics

On our Baja car, we have a lot of custom electronics. We have been using PCBWay to print our boards for a few years now, but have recently discovered they offered sponsorships. We design many different parts that end up not being used because of a lack of budget. Having the ability to have quick prototype printed out and in the best case assembled, would allow us to design even more and get more electronics team members on board. Because at the moment we have only a few boards that actually get printed out.