Week 11

The results are in for the previous competition and the team did not do as they hoped. The car had some huge malfunctions and the team had to work arduously to try to fix the mistakes, but at the end due to a design flaw in the braking system the team wasn't able to pass the inspection and couldn't even race. They did however get 3rd in the business presentation of the vehicle, but it was a harsh failure in our design that ultimately put us out of the race. All of our hopes for the new car would have to wait till the next competition in June. The team plans to redesign the brake system so it wouldn't fail and hopefully we will have better luck at the next competition. It was a disappointing competition, but all they can do is make sure it doesn't happen at the next competition. Now the team is focusing on testing the new car more and more and to give another driver some experience behind the wheel because for the endurance part of the race there has to be a second driver to give the primary driver a break. This is the end of my senior research project experience and I wanted to thank the Baja team for letting me be a part of this club and teaching me so much I never could have learned without this experience. I wish them all the best in their future endevours.    

Week 10

It was the day before competition and we got a call saying we needed everyone to come in and finish the car. I rushed over to Polytechnic and when I arrived I saw a half build vehicle. The team was planning to head out the next day, but the team was in full rush to finish the car. This was the most people I had ever seen working on the car at once. When we arrived our first task was to sweep the whole shop and put away all the tools that people were not using. Then we had to use the vertical band saw to cut some pieces of scrap that they needed for the car. Part of the competition is for the judges to see the learning curve and the processes team's used to decide how to build a certain way, so part of this was to see how much force it took for us to break the welds on a 1 inch steel tube. We had to use the lathe to shape down a tube stock piece of steel to fit snugly inside the 1 in steel tubing so we could get the welding to break down. After completing this then we had to help the panels fit onto the new chassis because the measurements were taken from the old chassis and was slightly off on the new one. I also got to watch and learn how to weld a little as one of the team members Coleman was trying to weld the CVT cover together. The CVT served as a gearbox, but didn't have gears instead used a ramp system to move the car. The whole team was in a rush to get the car working for competition the next day and would defintely have to stay overnight to finish. This is what the car looked like when I left at 8 pm at night.