The who, what, where, when, why and how of the 2008 Baja SAE design competitions.  With the dates and locations recently disclosed for the Baja SAE 2008 design competition series, we figured we needed to discuss some of the details.

First off, the who.  Not the great rock band, the who of Baja SAE 2008. This year our team is the biggest and most committed team that the University of Arizona has ever seen in history.  Our team is looking for some new recruits along with the returning veterans from 2006-2007 for our 2008 memberships. Along with our University SAE expects around 150 other Universities to sign up their vehicles for the design competitions in 2008.

Say what? double-u tee eff is Baja SAE and why are we stoked for it?  If you are just joining us now I suggest you browse our archive of previous weekly updates to get savvy on Baja SAE.  In short, all the Universities that participate in Baja SAE design, build, and race a single seat off-road vehicle for the Baja SAE design competition series.  I haven't heard of any universities that include these projects in their curriculum, so on the whole I would vouch that 99.9% of Baja SAE teams are volunteers with their work.  It takes a whole lot of dedication to produce these vehicles.

Where and when in 2008? The 2008 Baja SAE competition locations were just disclosed to be held in the following three locations: Peoria, IL at the Caterpillar Proving Grounds (SAE Baja West) from May 29th through June 1st. Cookeville, TN hosted by Tennessee Tech University (SAE Baja East) water event from May 1st through May 4th. Montreal, Canada hosted by either ETS or the Montreal SAE division (SAE Midwest) from June 12th through the 15th. Our team is experiencing confusion in the geographical oddities of the hosting states. 

At this point we are unsure if SAE will continue to hold the titles West, Midwest, and East for the Baja SAE competitions.  It seems sort of redundant to call a competition clearly in the Midwest a "West" event and a competition in the far North East (Canada, eh?) Midwest.  Tennessee is now an Eastern state =).  We all paused a moment to think last year when the Baja SAE West event was disclosed to be held in South Dakota and the Midwest was to be hosted in Rochester, NY. Enter chaos.  Now I'm excited to receive an opportunity to visit the rest of the Country by truck and trailer, but can't our western states have a closer competition to attend =(. 

I am predicting a predicament in travel issues as competition dates get closer and closer.  From what I have read, passports will be required to re-enter the USA from both Canada and Mexico as of December.  With 95% of the teams competing in the 3 North American Competitions being from Universities in America, does that mean that we all need a passport for competition?  I suppose that will need clarifying.  I wonder how insurance will work for that...

Why choose Baja SAE? Because we know if we want to get the most out of our collegiate careers that it takes more than studying what's in the books.  All that knowledge doesn't count if you don't know how to apply it.

How? Good question.

How about funding? Without money we are like Ken Montaney without caffeine.  Low funding means robbing Peter to pay Paul.  Not literally robbing, but recycling old, used parts.  In 2007 that cost us the endurance race when a recycled spindle snapped.  We have ambitious goals for 2008 and they are only possible with adequate funding so if possible, help support our team with a tax-credit monetary donation. 

How about designing?  One of our team goals is to fully design and simulate a working vehicle in Autodesk Inventor before cutting any steel.  That will be tricky since our personal computers are not the greatest for top-end CAD.  If you can help us apprehend high-end workstations for design let us know! 

How about building?  We picked up that new Millermatic MIG welder last year, w00t, which will help expedite our build process with clean welds (no more ARC booyah!).  We are looking for a set of air tools and cordless power tools (drills mostly) for the shop.  We also want to build our 2008 roll-cage out of chromemoly tubing to increase strength and drop our weight. 

How about competition?  If all goes well we will have procured a racing trailer for our team to use during the competitions by the end of this week.  We will be towing that behind a truck to Illinois and then on through to Montreal.  It's going to be a long Baja trip come summer 2008.

Baja SAE will be one helluva ride this upcoming year. Two vehicles in two comps will be quite the feat for our team. Until next time...

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