From Thursday, May 7 to Sunday, May 10, Seattle Pacific University’s Baja Society of Automotive Engineers team competed in the annual Baja SAE competition in Washougal, Washington, where teams raced an off-roading buggy built almost entirely from scratch against other schools from across the country.
Matise Mulch, a fourth-year electrical and mechanical engineering major and director of operations for the Seattle Pacific Baja SAE team, discussed the work that went into the car.
“We made a ton of changes to the car this year, so just getting to be here and compete is pretty cool, and we made a ton of custom components, more than we’ve ever even attempted to in the past. So that’s pretty exciting,” Mulch said.
Isabel Braskamp, a second year student majoring in mechanical engineering and art, explained that one of the main design philosophies for the car was to reduce its weight.
“This year[‘s goal] was to have the weight reduced, which means a much smaller car, so we have reduced it by 140, 160 pounds, I don’t know the exact number,” Braskamp said.
In addition to the car, a business plan was presented. Merrick Whitson is a junior business administration major and a member of the SPU Baja SAE business team. Whitson discussed the work that the business team was responsible for.
“I work on securing sponsorships with companies, working on contracts, donor contracts, doing the decals, the shirts, any marketing material, any legal material, posters, all that good stuff,” Whitson said.
One of the main focuses of the Baja SAE competition was the endurance race. If a team’s car broke down, it was towed back to the pit where the team could fix it and return it to the track. Towards the end of the endurance race, Meg Whitt, a freshman mechanical and biomedical engineering major and member of the drivetrain team, commented on the performance of the car.
“We’ve had our hinge joints break three times now, and now both of them are broken. So, many, many times it’s broken, so we are definitely experiencing some problems in that region, and I feel like that’s been our only problem,” Whitt said.
While the official scores have not been released yet, the car performed considerably better than in previous years, according to the team. According to sophomore mechanical engineering major Brooke Williams, plans are already underway to improve the car for next competition.
“I think we are going to leave a lot of the same overall structure. We already do have a notes list of stuff we want to make improvements to,” Williams said.
