COOKEVILLE, Tenn-- An All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) designed and built by UL Engineering students emerged among the best in the 2008 Baja SAE competition at Tennessee Tech last weekend. The Ragin' Cajun Racing team placed fourth out of 93 teams, and took third in a four-hour endurance test. Teams from major institutions in the US were represented in the competition, as well as teams from Canada, South Korea, Colombia, India, France, Venezuela and Mexico (complete list below). The mini-baja competitions are sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers each year.

Each Mini Baja ATV is equipped with a 10 HP Briggs & Stratton engine, and must undergo a rigorous design review and safety inspection prior to being allowed to race. The rules alone comprise 54 pages, and cover all aspects of vehicle design, with the highest standards set for driver safety.

The competition comprises a series of events. The first component is a series of Static Events for a total of 300 points, and includes: Evaluation of Design and Documentation; Cost Reports; and Presentation.

Dynamic Events for 700 points follow, and test vehicle function including: Acceleration; Traction; Maneuverability; Specialty Events; and finally the Endurance Race, which dominates the scoring with 400 possible points.

The four-hour Endurance Race takes place on a closed-loop course through rough terrain conditions, including a water hazard over 3 feet deep. Many vehicles do not survive the race.

The Ragin' Cajun Racing Team exhibited a mastery of the key engineering concepts-- optimization and prioritization-- by building a vehicle that, while remaining competitive in minor point categories, excelled in the high-point Endurance Race, where the Team tied for 3rd with 369.23 points. In fact, other than a #4 finish in Water Maneuverability, the Louisiana students did not finish in the Top 10 in any other point-scoring category, intentionally trading off minor categories to maximize major ones. (Download final scoring spreadsheet here.)

Louisiana Engineering Senior Cole Melançon confirms that strategy. "When we designed the car, we knew we needed to make trade-offs, to accept weaknesses in some areas in order to strengthen our design in important areas. For instance, we knew that making a solid, fast car would help us win the Endurance Race, but that it would hurt us in the Sled Pull. In fact, we expected to do worse in the Sled Pull than we did."

Melançon continues, "A lot of teams do unbelievably well in the first 2 days, but don't even complete the Endurance Race. But we knew that the big points were in the Race, and that it's more prestigious to finish well there. And we did."

"We made the same decision on the Static component," Melançon explains. "We wanted to do well in Design Evaluation, which was 125 points-- almost half of that component. The top 10 cars are usually decided by a very few points. A lot of the schools have trouble showing the engineering work they did, so we put a lot of work into posters, showing the work we put into the system. The spreadsheet shows that we finished 14th overall in that segment, but it doesn't show that we were 9th for Design Evaluation."

Melançon comments that there are basically three types of teams. "Some teams don't put much engineering into their car, they're just putting something together to show up and compete, see what it's all about. Others put engineering into the product, and compete well. Then some of us also put together a strong presentation. The first paragraph of the rules say that the basis of the competition is to design and build a car that you're trying to sell to a fictitious company. That's why there's a cost factor, a marketing report, and other components."

Mechanical Engineering students comprise the Ragin' Cajun Racing Team. Melançon served as Team Captain and Driver. Leading the construction effort was Shop Foreman Logan Holbrook. Other team members were Megan Roman, Blaise Gregory, Ben Tortorich, Ben Latour, Tony Viator, Lyle Durio, Clay Guillory, Dustin Duval, Bryon Johnson, Kevin St Aubin and Kyle Stephenson.

Seniors may work on the project for two semesters for credit towards their degree. During that time, the students design and build the vehicle, using the engineering principles that they have studied in the Mechanical Engineering program.

This is not the first year that UL has placed in the Top 10. In 2006, the Team placed #6 in the West, but slipped last year, placing #50 in the competition at the South Dakota School of Mines (spreadsheet) and #53 at Rochester Tech (spreadsheet).

The team is supported by the donations of local industry, business and members of the community. “We are grateful for the support of the community has provided our students in this and other projects. The mini-baja team is almost entirely supported by donations from these civic-minded organizations that are willing to invest in our students, especially the Lafayette Auto Dealers Association [LADA] who has been extraordinarily generous over the years,” said William Emblom, a former Faculty Advisor to the team. In addition to LADA, other sponsors included The UL Student Government Association, energyalloys, Mcgill Precision Water Jet, Blueline Manufacturing, C&B sales, Applied Control Concepts, High Tech Components, QMS, Superior Manufacturing, Knight Oil Tools, Baker Hughes, Madrin Care Specialties, and Louisiana Safety Systems.

(Note: 93 teams were entered, but only 72 received overall scores.)

Teams not receiving a score: Andrews, FAMU+FSU, FIU, George Washington, Georgian College, James Madison, Manhattan College, Middle Tennessee (2 teams), Missouri-KC, Universidad Nacional Experimental "Francisco de Miranda", Nebraska, UNT, Northern Arizona, Pittsburg State, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana Bucaramanga, University of Puerto Rico, UTEP, Tulane, Vellore Institute of Technology, WKU.