The Project

The main goal of the Mini Baja project is "to design and build a prototype of a rugged, single seat, off-road recreational vehicle intended for sale to the non-professional weekend off-road enthusiast...the vehicle manufacturing cost must be less than $3,000." Our team goal set at the beginning of the project was to build a safe and reliable Mini Baja. Oh yeah, we also learn how to work together, function as a team and how to put up with each other over the course of 8 months.

The next major step in our project was to do research on our individual subsystem. Using various resources on the web and by asking questions to those who have been there before, we learned, or tried to learn all there is to know about our own subassembly. For example, as the person in charge of the front suspension, I first had to research on different types of suspensions. I had to learn about each one, the advantages of each as well as the disadvantages. It doesn't sound all that difficult, but it turns out the suspension is what usually makes or breaks a Mini Baja. After learning about the general aspects of suspension, I had to get acquainted with the terminology of suspension and suspension design. They don't teach you these things in your Fluids or Thermodynamics class, so I had to do research on the topics myself, or find someone who was willing to teach them to me.

Once we had become masters of our subassemblies, we began looking for sponsors and resources. Each person was responsible for looking for their own parts, but the team helped out where ever someone needed help. The order in which you looked for sponsors or resources didn't matter because if you found a resource, you'd ask if they could sponsor us. Or if you find a willing sponsor, we had a resource. In our experience, it worked both ways. It also helps at this time to find someone with resources to help you construct the Baja. We met Al Hardt through a class I was taking and he turned out to be one of our greatest sponsors. Once we had an idea of where we could obtain building materials, we worked on finalizing our design.

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