Editor’s Note: Baja SAE and Formula SAE are dominating their competitions this year, with each placing in the top 10. This week, we highlight Baja, and next week we focus on Formula.
Cal Poly Racing Baja SAE is celebrating a top 10 finish with their off-road vehicle at a Wisconsin competition that drew 80 teams from around the world and tested their engineering expertise, endurance and esprit de corps.
The team is aiming to crack the top 5 when 50 members head north for their next competition that kicks off May 31 in Washougal, Washington.
“Our car has the ability to compete with the best of the best,” said Joshua Wright, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student and Baja team lead. “We were extremely happy with our win in Wisconsin and know we have the capability to perform even better.”
The team placed seventh overall at Baja SAE Oshkosh and second in suspension and traction in the four-day competition that included three static events – design presentation, sales presentation and cost report – four dynamic events – acceleration, maneuverability, traction and suspension – and a four-hour endurance race.
“This club is the perfect balance of doing a cool automotive project that has a ton of support from alumni and sponsors while gaining valuable experience in engineering,” Wright said. “It’s quintessential Learn by Doing.”
The Making of CPX23
The Baja SAE, or Society of Automotive Engineers, challenges students to design, build, test, promote and race an off-road vehicle, vying to have their design accepted for manufacture by a fictitious firm.
Cal Poly Racing’s Baja team has a storied history, spanning 51 years and starring a single-seat, all-terrain vehicle that has dominated the collegiate racing scene. The team has finished in the top 20 for the past four years.
More students than ever are joining the team composed of 22 leads overseeing 11 subsystems, three in management and 50 active members. All engineering majors are represented, along with students studying agriculture, music and math who like making stuff, Wright said.
Many students join with no background in automotives – as an avid mountain biker who grew up in Santa Cruz, Wright was drawn to the club by the suspension component – but share common interests, like a love of the outdoors.
“It’s a great opportunity to do an extracurricular activity with a low barrier to entry, and we have a very good time together,” he said.
The team also shares a desire to build the most competitive, advanced car possible, putting in countless volunteer hours each year at their workspace in the Hangar.
For the 2023 SAE season, all teams had to design their vehicles around the same 14 horsepower engine to create a more challenging engineering design test, organizers said.
Cal Poly’s team redesigned the gearbox for their 415-pound car – CPX23 – and recruited more electrical engineering majors to modify their electronically controlled continuously variable transmission, or eCVT. Cal Poly is the only collegiate team using a dually activated eCVT.
The transmission gives their car more fuel economy and overall efficiency but requires significant mechanical, electrical and structural modifications – a task that pushed the team to its limit in Wisconsin.
The Testing of CPX23
Once CPX23 was race-ready, the car was loaded onto a trailer for the cross-country trip to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, as 16 members flew out for the competition.
Over four days, the team logged minimal sleep as they presented their vehicle, then tested it in a series of challenges that netted them points based on performance.
“Wisconsin was a mud puddle,” said Wright, detailing the exceptionally muddy conditions that complicated the task of keeping the electronic components clean.
Five drivers navigated through the dynamic events, including a sled pull and four-hour endurance race. The car made it about halfway through the endurance race before the transmission malfunctioned.
“Our transmission ended up failing in competition, but it’s very hard to make something that complex and not have something break. It did result in tons and tons of learning,” Wright said.
He added that pushing the bounds of engineering can sometimes come at the cost of reliability.
Since returning from Wisconsin, the team has logged even more hours in the Hangar, making calculated improvements for the next SAE competition that includes a hill climb as one of the dynamic events.
“Our car is incredibly good at climbing hills, so that should play to our strengths,” he said.
Close to 90 collegiate teams will battle for supremacy, but Wright believes CPX23 could reach the top 5 if their car completes the endurance test.
Regardless, he’s proud of the team that had to rebuild after COVID canceled competitions critical to the club’s continuity.
“Last year, we only had three people who had ever been to a competition, so to place seventh this year in Wisconsin was super awesome,” he said, adding, “We have the privilege of working on a fun project in a great club, all while learning. You can’t get that anywhere else.”
By Emily Slater
