Starkville, Miss-Mud, dust, water and lots of bumps-were waiting for five MSU engineering students at the end of a recent long road trip. The five, all mechanical engineering majors, were the university’s 2002 Midwest Mini Baja team and on May 31, they traveled to Waukesha, Wis., for three days of competition against more than 120 other teams from throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and even South Korea. The field was the largest in the more than 25-year history of the event.
The Mini Baja, sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), is a way for students to put what they’ve learned in the classroom to the test by designing, building and racing an off-road, dune-buggy type vehicle, said professor of mechanical engineering and SAE student chapter adviser Bill Jones.
“Each team uses its own design, building a vehicle from the ground up, around a 10-horsepower engine donated by Briggs and Stratton Motorsports,” he said. “The project provides skills highly valued by the automotive industry, including project management and teamwork, as well as design and manufacturing experience.”
The sleek maroon vehicle built by the MSU students features a high ground clearance as well as a unique cable steering system that eliminates the need for a steering column and provides the driver with more leg room.
Much of the vehicle’s body, and even parts like the gearbox and rear axle housing, were designed and built by the students at the university’s Raspet Flight Research Laboratory, a research arm of the aerospace engineering department.
“The entire car was drawn entirely on the computer before any part was built,” team member Steve Neese said. Neese, a May graduate from Laurel, is departing this summer for a job at Nissan Motors’ Arizona testing facility. “The file was about 100 megabytes, but it had every single bolt, plate, nut and rivet in the entire car, and that made it easier to build the car because everything fits.”
The effort impressed the Mini Baja judges, who awarded the MSU team a tie for first place in the design report competition. The honor was shared with Virginia Tech.
The team also fared well in most other aspects of the competition, which included a series of vehicle maneuverability tests, acceleration, pulling and other factors. The MSU vehicle finished eighth overall, despite a breakdown in the last five minutes of the final event-a grueling three-hour endurance run at the Aztalan Motorcross Track. Overall first-place honors went to the University of Akron.
“The course was really rugged, and our car did well until the very end when an axle broke,” Neese said. “Despite that, it was a great experience.”
In addition to Neese, the 2002 MSU Mini Baja team members included May graduates Ramsey Callahan of Middleton, Tenn., and Jim Ragsdale of Newellton, La., and juniors Kenny Brister of Osyka and Brad Warner of Brandon.