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SAE’s Number 48 Baja racer made it through three and a half hours of the four-hour enduranc

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Greg Glenn, left, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student and Scott Wright, a third-year ele

For the fourth year in a row, UCLA’s chapter of the Society of Automotive Engineers has designed and built a race car to compete in the Mini Baja West competition.

The team’s race car will be entered against 108 other cars in the regional annual engineering design and performance competition sponsored by SAE.

The car is built mainly out of lightweight, high-strength steel and aluminum. It is 80-inches long, 16-inches wide and 5-feet, six-inches tall; it weighs approximately 450 pounds with a driver seated inside.

The car was built by a group of about 20 SAE members at UCLA. The team is comprised mostly of mechanical engineering students but also includes biology, psychology and English students.

“I think this has been a great experience because we’ve learned how to use our knowledge and apply it to something real,” said UCLA SAE President Greg Glenn, a fourth-year mechanical engineer.

Designing of the race car began in June 2002 with the actual construction beginning January.

“This was my first year working on this project, and I’ve learned a lot ... because I’ve never really worked with metal before,” said Scott Wright, a third-year electrical engineering student. “It’s cool to be able to do something tangible and to go race it later.”

Despite the complexity of building a race car from the ground up, team leaders of the Mini Baja project said they didn’t run into very many obstacles.

“I think that this year it’s been built better than previous years,” said Mini Baja project leader James Sharp, a fourth-year mechanical engineer. “This year we improved the design from last year and were more organized, so it was easier to make.”

Third-year mechanical engineer Jan Pochop agrees that this year’s car has turned out better than previous years.

“I think it will perform better since we did a better job of building and designing the electrical system,” he said. “It’s more organized as far as the design goes.”

Glenn added that the only problems they faced were time and budget constraints, which is an issue in almost any project.

“Money is always a problem, but we got sponsors and help from lots of different places,” he said.

The car’s engine is donated to each team every year by Briggs and Stratton Corp., which produces a 10-horsepower engine with a suggested retail price of $628.

This year, the Mini Baja team spent about $5,000 in parts to build a whole new car. The team also received donations, funding, discounts and support from corporate sponsors such as Raytheon and Honeywell. Last year, the team spent $3,400 while operating on a tight budget. In previous years, they spent as much as $10,000 to build a race car.

The race car is expected to be finished by the end of this week in time for this year’s Mini Baja West regional competition in early May.

Before travelling to Provo, Utah, the team will have a week to test out its newly built car. Only eight members of the Mini Baja team will participate in the competition May 8-10.

The competition will be divided into three days. The first day will be a static event; the race cars will be judged based on their design, and there will be a mock sales presentation, where teams will pitch their cars for mass production.

The second day will consist of individual events where the cars will be tested in hill climbing, rock crawling, and maneuvering. Each team member will have a chance to drive the car in at least one of the events.

The last day will feature a four-hour endurance test. In previous years, the test has included obstacles such as mud pits and drop-offs.

UCLA’s Mini Baja project leaders’ goal is to finish the four-hour endurance competition this year.

“Two years ago, it broke down after half an hour,” Glenn said. “Last year we lasted for three and a half hours, so I hope this year we will finish.”

Sharp is very optimistic about this year.

“I feel it’s going to be a really good year,” he said. “We were strong last year, so I’m expecting to do better. ... I hope we finish the whole thing this year.”

Assistant project leader David Miller, a third-year mechanical engineering student, Glenn and Sharp are expected to be this year’s drivers for the endurance event.

Miller sounded enthusiastic about driving the car in the race.

“It’s the first year that I’ll be driving in the endurance race,” he said. “It’s exciting to be able to drive something that you built.”