For the past two years, a group of Laurentian University mechanical engineering students have been hard at work, designing and building their own small off-road vehicle that resembles a dune buggy.
The Laurentian University Voyageur Racing Team will put their creation to the test against entries from 93 other teams from around the world May 19-22 at the Baja SAE competition in Gorman, California.
Baja SAE is an intercollegiate design competition run by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). Teams design and build off-road vehicles.
The cars all have engines of the same specifications. The goal in Baja SAE racing is to design, build and race off-road vehicles that can withstand the harshest elements of rough terrain.
The competition involves a series of tests, including acceleration, hill climbing, maneuverability and endurance (this involves a four-hour-long race, in which participants complete as many laps of a course as possible).
Participants also need to make a technical presentation about the design of their buggy and go through a series of safety checks.
This is the third time Laurentian has participated. The last time was in 2014, when the university's entry wasn't fully assembled until the night before the students left for the competition. The LU team has previously placed about 60th out of the roughly 100 entries.
After the university's last experience, the team decided to build the vehicle over two years to allow more time for beta testing and fine-tuning.
The Laurentian team designed its buggy for endurance and not necessarily speed so it'll stand up well in the four-hour-long race, said Justin Weaver, the president of the Laurentian University Voyageur Racing Team.
Participating in the project has been a great experience, he said.
“It's been a lot of hours, working in the machine shop, working the mechanical engineering lab, with all of the guys basically designing everything from scratch,” Weaver said. “We've been bouncing ideas off for a long time. It's been an insane experience, but very worth it.”
Weaver, an engineering graduate this spring, spoke to Sudbury.com while driving to California, dune buggy in tow. He was part of a convoy of Laurentian students on the road trip.
“We're kind of turning it into a graduation and Baja trip all in one,” he said.
Participating in Baja SAE gives students a huge advantage when they graduate and enter the workforce, said Brent Lievers, an engineering professor at Laurentian, who, along with fellow prof Marc Arsenault, is the racing team's faculty adviser.
“Apart from it's a really fun competition and event to be involved in, it really gives our students some opportunity to have some hands-on experience,” he said.
The club is also a great recruitment tool for Laurentian, as many prospective engineering students want to participate, Lievers said.
