Students Build Racecar for Competition

A team of 15 Mechanical Engineering Technology students from Fairmont State University will leave today, April 30, to compete with 100 colleges and universities from across North America, China, Brazil and Russia in the 33rd Mini-Baja East Competition.

The students will travel to Tennessee Tech University with their custom-built Mini-Baja racecar for three days of competition from Thursday through Saturday, May 1-3. The competition, sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers, tests the students' skills at designing and building an off-road vehicle that can sustain itself through rough terrain and water. Capping the different competitions in acceleration, braking, hill climbing, top speed and suspension is the four-hour endurance race. In the past three years, FSU has won Overall Best Rookie Team, Briggs & Stratton Water Crossing and Overall Most Durable Race Car.

"Our successes on the track gave us another chance to show everyone just how good we engineering technology students are here at Fairmont State," said Andrew Lowther, lead mechanical engineering technology race-car designer and graduating senior.

The Society for Automotive Engineers provides some general guidelines for teams such as maximum width and the tube thickness in the steel of the roll cage. The design teams must follow the exact safety requirements as stated in the one-and-a-half inch thick specifications manual. Each car has to use identical 10 horsepower Briggs and Stratton engines giving the FSU car a top speed of over 40 mph.

"It sounds slow, but it wasn't when I hit a tree," said race-car team leader, Sage Seifert.

The FSU team put much of its effort this year into the suspension system. Each wheel is independently suspended, while the rear wheels are under power and supported by over-sized shock absorbers. This makes the vehicle so stable that it faces little danger of tipping over on the rugged Tennessee terrain.

"The race is always marked by a pervasive spirit of camaraderie, helpfulness and good cheer. Competitors help each other throughout the event," said Merle Thomas, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering. "This is especially true for the Fairmont State University and West Virginia University teams. Last year, the FSU car was about to be disqualified by the lack of some almost-impossible-to-get safety washers when the team from Camden County College of New Jersey gave us some of their spares."

The FSU College of Science and Technology's Technology Department offers academic programs and opportunities for pre-professional study ranging from architecture, aviation technology, civil engineering technology, electronics engineering technology, graphics technology, mechanical engineering technology, occupational safety and technology education. For more information about these programs, visit http://www.fairmontstate.edu.

The Society of Automotive Engineers has more than 84,000 members -- engineers, business executives, educators and students from more than 97 countries -- who share information and exchange ideas for advancing the engineering of mobility systems. For more information about SAE International, visit www.sae.org.