Timothy Chapman
04/24/2023
This summer from May 31 – June 3, UTRGV’s RGV Baja Racing Team will be competing in the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) race in Oregon.
According to sae.org, Baja SAE consists of competitions that simulate real-world engineering design projects and their related challenges. Engineering students are tasked to design and build an off-road vehicle that will survive the severe punishment of rough terrain.
Each team’s goal is to design and build a single-seat, all-terrain, sporting vehicle whose structure contains the driver. The vehicle is to be a prototype for a reliable, maintainable, ergonomic, and economic production vehicle which serves a recreational user market.
President and Treasurer of the RGV Baja Racing Team Carlos Rodriguez said something new for this season, is the team is making the switch from a two wheel drive vehicle to a four wheel drive vehicle.
“We design for a good portion of the year to get it [baja vehicle] within the rules of the competition, we do get inspiration from our past renditions of the baja. This year however we did get it ready so that it could be capable of four wheel drive,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said there is a lot more to being a part of the team than most people understand.
“We are not just a team that is full on building, we’re also a team of keeping up a budget, making ourselves look good for the public and then building it is part of it as well,” Rodriguez said.
Vice President and Co Capt. Aaron Blanton said the current vehicle being used by the team was built by team members who most of which have since graduated.
“So most of the roll cage right here, it was made in 2019, it was just tacked on, nothing was solid yet. And then covid hit, everything was shut down, we came back in the fall of ‘21 so that’s when he [Carlos Rodriguez] and I both joined and we’ve taken off since then,” Blanton said.
Blanton said the main objective is making a car that lasts and he thinks the team is doing pretty good for what they have when they compare themselves to other university teams that have more funding.
“The main challenge of baja is optimizing your car so making it as lite as possible, optimizing the gear train and all the suspension just to make it durable and fast essentially, because that’s the main objective you want to make a car that lasts,” Blanton said.
Graduate student in Mechanical Engineering Sergio Martinez said the Baja vehicle that will be used to compete in Oregon is currently sitting stripped away from all of its parts because the team is making sure everything is working properly to race in top condition.
“We’ve let it sit for a bit, so we’re gonna have to grind down some of the rust parts and then coat it and actually protect it, it’s optimal to do it right before the competition starts, so that’s why we wanted to have it off so we can go ahead and do that,” Martinez said.
Martinez said he learned a lot about team management and time management ever since he joined the team back in 2019, and said there are essential things that he has learned from working hands on in Baja that he hasn’t been able to learn in his mechanical engineering classes.
“You’re taught a lot of introductory things, even the classes are named as such right like intro to finite elements, but then when it comes down to apply it there’s a lot of things that you weren’t taught to consider so you have to go and then refine your knowing of it and I’m sure even the professors who taught the course, they’re able to help us with it, but it’s not something you get just from the classroom,” Martinez said.
To see the scores and results following the conclusion of the SAE race in Oregon visit bajasae.net
