After careful consideration we have decided we will be constructing the Baja car frame ourselves, at the SAE Shop. We are in the final stages of purchasing the required tubing and should begin building our frame jig in the next couple of weeks. We will be outsourcing the bending of the tube, but all other aspects will be completed by the team.

Our sponsorship package is complete and available for viewing here.

We have also made some significant progress on our Formula promotional vehicle. It was taken in to Alsport Sales last week and given a full carburetor cleaning, as we believed that a dirty carburetor was the reason for the poor performance of the engine. However, once we brought it back to the shop it was still running very poorly. After some quick troubleshooting, we traced the problem down to a faulty spark control module connector. We bypassed the connector, and the results can be seen below.

Our BAJA design is now finalized.  Polaris Outlaw spindles and hubs will be used.  Power will pass through a CVT and then a chain reduction before going to the rear wheels.  Next week Brett and Luke will be going over the frame measurements to make sure they will pass the SAE Mini-Baja rules.  Our goal is to have the frame sent to Dumur Industries next week.

A budget and expense timeline has been put together.  If you are interested in learning more about the Cougar Racing team or you are interested in sponsoring our project please email Cougar-Racing@74ss.com

At tonights meeting we were able to go over the first frame proposal as a group. We looked into a few things like the angle of the front nose and how the rear frame would be built. Below is an updated picture of the frame.

After going through parts from previous BAJA projects we were able to find spindles in good shape for the front end of the car.  New parts should be available for the Suzuki spindles and if they are we will be reusing them.  Components for the rear drivetrain are there as well but we have to check into their condition.

We have started putting together a business proposal for the project and we are looking into revising our current sponsorship template.

Our next meeting is scheduled for Thursday at 6:30 in the shop.

We assembled a new toy at the shop today.  The drill press is a full-size, 1 hp Craftsman.

more pictures coming on saturday

Today we had a successful welding clinic in the SAE garage. The event was put on with the help of Praxair and Lincoln Electric. They brought with them a new MIG and TIG welders that participants were able to see in action. Students, faculty and cougar racing team members attended the event.

For the past few months we have been spending the majority of our shop time organizing and cleaning up.  The shop hasn’t been very active in the past few years and everything needed to be sorted out.  A tool chest and complete tool set will help keep available time productive as we spend more time working and less time searching for tools.

On Wednesday Feb 25 we had a meeting with Praxair and were able to finalize the details for our upcoming welding clinic.  The clinic will be open to the public and it will cover safety, mig welding and oxy-acetaline cutting.  Any extra time will leave the opportunity to cover more welding types.