What is Baja SAE?
Baja SAE is a part of SAE International's Collegiate Design Series. In Baja SAE, teams are challenged to design, build, and race a small single seater off-road racecar that must be both fast and reliable, as the competition includes a 4 hour endurance race. In addition to the engineering aspects, Baja SAE also includes a design presentation and sales presentation.
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Baja SAE Car
Baja SAE competition cars have several defining characteristics. In general, each car is a miniature off-road buggy purpose built to spend four hours racing at full speed over jumps, rocks, and logs, through mud and puddles, and up steep hills. Each car must have a Briggs & Stratton, 10-horsepower engine with accompanying fuel tank, but the rest is up to the team's discretion - provided the car is in line with the Baja SAE competition rules.
The most commonly seen car format seen at competition involves trailing arm suspension with coil-overs, a continuously variable transmission (CVT), rear-wheel drive, and rear-mounted drivetrain. In the past, some teams have branched out with side and front-mounted engines and four-wheel drive. At Virginia Motorsports, we have begun an initiative to push the boundaries and pursue groundbreaking innovation rather than settling for the "tried and true" approach. As such, for our 2018 season, we developed a custom sequential manual transmission with a hydraulic clutch and electronic shifting, a pushrod suspension system with anodized components, and a carbon fiber steering wheel. We are hoping to improve on this design for the 2019 season and come out on top.
The most commonly seen car format seen at competition involves trailing arm suspension with coil-overs, a continuously variable transmission (CVT), rear-wheel drive, and rear-mounted drivetrain. In the past, some teams have branched out with side and front-mounted engines and four-wheel drive. At Virginia Motorsports, we have begun an initiative to push the boundaries and pursue groundbreaking innovation rather than settling for the "tried and true" approach. As such, for our 2018 season, we developed a custom sequential manual transmission with a hydraulic clutch and electronic shifting, a pushrod suspension system with anodized components, and a carbon fiber steering wheel. We are hoping to improve on this design for the 2019 season and come out on top.