What is Baja SAE®?
Every year, the Society of Automotive Engineers® holds a series of competitions in which hundreds of collegiate teams from around the world compete to design and fabricate an all terrain vehicle to be used in multiple events. This funding campaign is dedicated to supporting the official University of San Diego Baja SAE® team that will be competing in Portland, Oregon for the 2018 event. As a team of senior engineering students, our mission is to design and fabricate a fast, lightweight, and durable ATV, but in order to do this, we need your help! By donating and supporting our fund, you will be contributing to the financial needs associated with the fabrication process of the Baja car as well as the personal and intellectual growth of all the students on the team.
Donations are applied to...
All donations will be applied to the expenses incurred from material and part costs to build our Baja car. These materials and parts include (but are not limited to):
- piping for the chassis
- welding materials
- all-terrain tires
- steering mechanisms
- braking systems
- stock materials for a custom gear box and differential
- sheet metal for firewall
- shock suspension
- Briggs & Stratton 10 horsepower engine
- circuitry for telemetry systems and electronics
Welcome!
Thank you for continuing to support us! This project would not be possible without our supporters. We will continue to keep everyone updated with our progress as we approach the weekend of the competition, so be sure to check in regularly on our official Instagram and Facebook page for weekly updates. Portland, here we come!
Why are donations necessary?
We need your help funding this project because we are all full-time university students and are incapable of funding all of the material/part costs as strictly out-of-pocket expenses. Any donation will help us reach our goal this year, and even if you can't donate, simply letting others know about our project will help tremendously! Our project is going to require at least $35,000 in order to successfully build our miniBaja car.
Though the best performing cars aren't necessarily built with the most expensive parts, having a higher budget greatly improves our productivity and our ability to purchase pre-manufactured parts that otherwise would require lots of time to fabricate (such as raw piping for the chassis). If we are able to spend our time on the parts that do require more design time and ingenuity (such as the gear box, breaking systems, and differential), not only will our end product be optimized to the specifications required to help us perform during the competition, our team will also learn skills that we couldn't have otherwise, therefore rounding-out our engineering skillset.