URI Baja Competition Team

Post Reply
User avatar
3rdgendennis
Posts: 297
Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2009 9:29 pm

URI Baja Competition Team

Post by 3rdgendennis »

Hey everyone, some may know that I'm on URI's Baja Competition Team for my senior design project. We will be going to competition at UTEP in April. The team has most of our design complete, and will be starting fabrication very soon. We have been fundraising, and have three days left in our online campaign:
http://www.rockethub.com/projects/34288 ... ition-team
I know it's kind of late to post here, but I was reluctant because I know we all have budgets planned for our own racing.

For more info, feel free to ask, and here is our team's website:
http://egr.uri.edu/minibaja/

Thanks for looking!
David M.
The youngest David Dennis
"If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space"
Dennis Motorsports
Chief Geek
Posts: 302
Joined: Sun Feb 07, 2010 2:36 pm
AntiSpam: No

Re: URI Baja Competition Team

Post by Chief Geek »

Congratulations and good luck.

I did both the NESEA Solar Powered Car competition (Montpelier to Boston) and MiniBaja in college. Learned more there than in many of my classes. Excellent training ground.
"Christina", New #13/#55x, '90 Miata: In progress
"Keiko", Old #13x/#55x, '96 Miata: R.I.P.
Daily Driver: '11 Mazda2 (small cars... some men have nothing to compensate for)
User avatar
3rdgendennis
Posts: 297
Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2009 9:29 pm

Re: URI Baja Competition Team

Post by 3rdgendennis »

For those interested who didn't get the updates on the Facebook, URI did as well as we could have hoped at the Baja SAE competition at UTEP! We were by far the smallest team with only 4 members. For comparison, UCLA had 35 team members onsite, with another 40 or so back at home...

We had a couple issues getting through tech...G-Force shipped a batch of arm-restraints that were not labeled with the date of manufacture (SFi confirmed that these are no good, and is not considering them approved), and our ancient brakes had a tough time passing the brake test (must lock all 4 wheels from close to top speed; had to scuff the rotors pretty good, and shine the hell out of the tires). Finally made it through tech by 2:30 on Saturday, leaving us 2.5 hours to run the acceleration test, Hill Climb, suspension test, and maneuverability events. Our acceleration results started us 57th of 109 entries for the endurance race Sunday.

Saturday night, we walked the endurance course. It took us an hour and a half to walk the 1.3 mile course and got lost at least once (to give you an idea of the terrain). I'm talking 60 degree slopes downhill over rocks three guys couldn't move.

I got the first stint Sunday, as I have the most experience of the team in dealing with racing traffic. Got less than 1/4 of the way around the track and lost the throttle cable...spent a half hour getting pulled back to the paddock and fixing the issue. Re-entered the race in 67th, and by the end of my stint, we were up to 45th. Couple of driver swaps, we continuously moved through the field. There were A LOT of broken cars. Before our last driver went in, we had moved up to 19th! Last driver tried to re-enter the race, but our battery had failed, so we had no brake or reverse lights-no good. Quick swap of the battery lost us another 20 minutes and we re-entered in 23rd. We moved back up to 19th at one point, before falling back a couple to finish 22nd! Fitting for the #22 car.

To give you an idea of how destructive the course was, only 74 of the 109 entries finished one lap in four hours. Only 60 or so finished more than 1. We are all quite proud of ourselves for the accomplishment of building a completely new car this year, and with virtually no testing (aside from a run across the quad before loading it up) finished with no real mechanical failures.

Some pictures can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/UriSAEMiniBaja
Keep an eye out for some up coming videos!
And most of all, THANKS to all those who supported us!
The youngest David Dennis
"If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space"
Dennis Motorsports
User avatar
walterclark
Posts: 1442
Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2009 12:57 pm
Location: Dover, MA.
Contact:

Re: URI Baja Competition Team

Post by walterclark »

SFI 3.2 and 3.3 DO specify that the manufacturer include a date of manufacture on each item, although there is no "Expiration" for either such as you find with belts. The DOM may be used as a way to decertify a limited portion of a manufacturers product should there be a safety concern.

I misread your Facebook post in this regard. I somehow read that the officials were looking for expired items although that is not what you wrote.
The older I get the better I was.
User avatar
3rdgendennis
Posts: 297
Joined: Sun Feb 08, 2009 9:29 pm

Re: URI Baja Competition Team

Post by 3rdgendennis »

walterclark wrote:SFI 3.2 and 3.3 DO specify that the manufacturer include a date of manufacture on each item, although there is no "Expiration" for either such as you find with belts. The DOM may be used as a way to decertify a limited portion of a manufacturers product should there be a safety concern.

I misread your Facebook post in this regard. I somehow read that the officials were looking for expired items although that is not what you wrote.
That makes sense. I was a little vague in the post... Wasn't too happy with G-Force, and struggling to figure out what to do, and trying to keep folks at home up to date. There were quite a few teams in the same boat as us, and the SAE actually ended up making an exception for this event only and allowed unlabeled restraints and neck supports (didn't end up mattering to us, as I sourced some that met the rules and had them overnighted). Big props to Summit for their customer service by the way; guy I spoke to pulled them off the shelf to double check the date was there, and re-processed shipping twice to make sure they would be delivered saturday morning.
The youngest David Dennis
"If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space"
Dennis Motorsports
Post Reply