STORY: Olin Baja Car Pushed to the Limits at Rugged SAE Competition
Last month, eighteen members of the Olin Baja project team took their off-road car to Holly, Michigan, to attend the annual Baja SAE competition for engineering students. After three days of tests and working day and night on-site to get it ready, their vehicle was pushed to the limits on the fourth day. Would it endure the notorious four-hour endurance race?
Read on and listen as students recap their experiences at the competition through audio clips.
The Olin Baja team pose for a group photo with their student-designed and built off-road vehicle at the SAE Baja competition in September, 2024.
The Most Rugged of all Competitions
A group of fifteen current students, along with three alumni, traveled to the Great Lakes region on September 12-15 to compete in the grueling Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Baja competition for the first time since 2022.
The four-day event is structured as a challenge for students who work all year to design and build an off-road, single-seat vehicle that can operate in dirt and mud and will then survive the severe punishment of the race's rough and rugged terrain.
The Olin Baja team hadn't passed all required inspections of the event since before the pandemic in 2019. As they made their way to the site they wondered, would they be able to prevail this time over the most-rugged of all Baja competitions?
Members of the Baja project team push their off-road car toward the starting line at the SAE competition in September, 2024.
The future engineers worked together as a team - first, here on Olin's campus and then at the competition. The goal at the event is to have students encounter real world situations to discover and resolve technical challenges in design, test, manufacturing, and business issues.
Passing the Necessary Tests
The first couple of days of competition are engine inspections, technical inspections, and brake tests (the team failed the brake tests the last time they competed). The technical inspections are there to ensure the car meets the 100+ Baja design rules and is safe to operate.
A team can do any of the inspections on any of the first three days of competition. However, come Saturday at 5:00 p.m., the inspection closes, and if all three inspections aren't passed, a team can't participate in the endurance race (or compete in any other events.)
The Oliners worked to pass the tests after first failing the general technical test "spectacularly," having to go back and make some quick fixes and repairs, which Kai Scott '25 elaborates on in an audio clip later in this story.
Watch as they make some repairs on the car...
But they did it - with just seconds to spare - and the team and their car was now all set to compete in any of the dynamic events - including the notorious four-hour endurance race on Sunday. A race that's designed to push the cars to their absolute limits and to break as much as possible.
Listen as Oliver Buchwald '25, a senior mechanical engineer major on the team, shares the ins-and-outs of the endurance race.
The Olin Baja team works through the night at the Baja SAE competition, preparing their car for the grueling endurance race. The race is designed to push the car to the limits and to break as much as possible.
Carter Harris '26, a junior electrical and computer engineering major and member of Olin Baja, said they worked day and night at the competition to get the car ready.
Would all the work pay off in the daunting endurance race on Sunday? - A race they hadn't competed in since 2019.
How many laps would the car make? How fast would it go?
Would there be a need for tow outs?
Listen as Jo Fyling '25, a senior mechanical design major on the team, shares how by the fourth day of the competition, the endurance race helped to reenergize the group.
Jade Cambell '27 works with an angle grinder, shooting visible sparks upward during the SAE Baja competition.
Through Doubt Comes Happiness: The Results
Not only did the car endure the punishment of the terrain and successfully make it around the track, the team made five trips around - though, it wasn't completely unscathed.
"With two pit stops to repair broken parts, we ended up making it five laps in the race, which really pushed our car to the limits. The team was all extremely happy with how everything turned out – I think most of us doubted we’d be able to pass the notoriously-difficult technical inspections," says Harris '26.
Listen as Kai Scott '25, a senior mechanical engineering major on the team, recaps the long nights of work before the competition, teamwork in Michigan, and the powerful payoff.
The team's off-road vehicle is seen being pushed on the SAE competition track.
Starting from Scratch
How did Olin Baja get to the point where they are today? The latest iteration of the team pretty much had to start from scratch post-pandemic after SAE changed the rules of the competition.
"Instead of 2WD, cars now are required to be 4WD. This required us to pretty much redesign our entire drivetrain from prior year’s cars with lots of added components and complexity. This design of the car started in FA22, so it’s been a long time coming getting to this competition!" added Harris.
A successful showing at the 2024 SAE Baja competition!
What's Next?
Reflecting on the experience and looking toward the future, Matt Farmer '26, a junior project manager, shared the team's hopes for next year.
"With the immense knowledge and inspiration we took away from competition, and the dozens of new members this year, Baja is excited to start a new design cycle. We’re hoping to improve upon our current car design, return to competition next academic year, and compete in even more events than this past competition."
Final stats:
- Endurance laps completed: 5
- Average lap time: 49:08:399
- Fastest lap time: 5:30:636
- Tow outs: 2
- Fire extinguishers used: 1
- Hours slept: not many!