Summer continues to fly by. Before we know all know it fall semester will be starting up. Some mystic endeavors occurred this week including, but not limited to… the birth of a blog, an addiction to rally, and genius witnessed as it was in progress. Last but not least I competed in a rock climbing competition... hence the semi-late Friday entry.

We are proud to announce the start of a new web log (blog... I believe... is the term in internet jargon) for the 2008 race season! It gets updated rather frequently and you might find some rather entertaining media hosted there. Not everything is SAE Baja related, but most of the entries tend to adhere to our off-road origins. Visit whenever you can, leave us comments! It's great to hear from our readers. You can find the UA Baja Racing blog at http://uabajaracing.blogspot.com.

I continued some design work on our front suspension and steering for the 2008 vehicle. Right now I have a lot of drawings on napkins and crumpled up pieces of paper. Some ideas are good, some are weird, and some are insane. The best of the ideas make their way into Autodesk Inventor for functionality testing, stress testing, and spiffy renderings. When the time is right, we will release some renders of our 2008 design.

If you ever were into off-road racing games you probably heard of Rallisport Challenge II for Xbox. In my own opinion, that game rocked and I was really disappointed when they didn't back it compatible with Xbox 360. Since then nobody has really picked up the challenge of an off-road racing game. A few games try or touch on the subject, but none come close to a true rally experience, until now. DiRT for Xbox 360 was just released this past week after keeping a lot of racing fanatics on their toes for a new definition of an off-road racing game. I'll admit, I called no less than six stores on the release date to see if it was in stock. The last place I called (and the last game store in the phonebook) had a few copies left in store. Most places were backordered for over a month! Needless to say I was up fairly late playing and it is fair to say that I am addicted. The coolest facet of DiRT is the CORR (Championship Off Road Racing) series in the game. In CORR you race Class 1 Buggies and Trophy Trucks (insert Dust to Glory music here). The vehicles are modeled in stunning detail and the physics are remarkably correct. Nothing makes an automotive engineer happier than to see correct suspension geometry actually work and move correctly under the right forces in a simulated environment (whoa geek moment). In everyday lingo, the trucks look real as they move through the course, body roll and all. There is more discussion of DiRT on our blog, head over and check it out.

It's almost July, design is progressing, sponsorship and fundraising is in progress, and I can't wait to start building the 2008. Have a good weekend!

Copyright 2008 UA Baja Racing :: University of Arizona :: Tucson, AZ 85719