When we feel the time is appropriate we will disclose simulation animations and design renders of our 2008 vehicle. I want to post what we have so far but with the 2008 competitions still [very] far away I think it is better that we hold off. As design progresses I feel more and more like we are creating a monster. The question in my mind is, will this monster devour the competition or die trying? To our knowledge, some of the concepts we are implementing have never been done before. I cannot figure out why, after all they make perfect sense (for undisclosed reasons =)).

After going to competition for the first time and looking at all the vehicles a lot seems to fall into place. You have the teams that are known for winning competitions that come with a solid, simple car every year. In fact, if you look back at the past vehicles of these teams you could swear that nothing changed. They know what works, they know what wins, and they stick with it. There is nothing wrong with that, but aren't we all striving to be the top engineers of tomorrow? I can't think of a better reason for a design competition than to try [mildly] insane concepts to further our mechanical knowledge. I was slightly dissapointed at how many vehicles looked the same at the SDSM competition. There were a few exceptions such as CSUS with their 4-link rock-crawler and USF with their simple swingarm and huge wing. Concepts like that get remembered because they are different and the teams behind the vehicle want to try something new. Innovation over immitation. We have our design near completion, all we have to do now is finish raising money!

A peek ahead...

Well, the Baja 1000 runs November 10-14th (or around then), and guess who has a long weekend? Oh yeah, get ready, UA Baja is going to the Baja 1000! While we don't have an uber cool Class 1 buggy to race we will still be plastered along the sidelines of the race taking footage and talking with the teams. If all goes well we will spend the long weekend hanging around the pits talking to the racers and learning as much as we can about starting a real race team. All the details still need to be ironed out, if the area permits maybe we can just camp out along the course. More on the 1000 later.

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