Facing the unexpected at Baja SAE

The team members, who worked hard to compete with their rivals, unfortunately had to face several unexpected situations during their races. A number of engine breakdowns forced them off track. Then, further problems with brakes prevented them from taking part in a number of events in the Kansas competition. However, the team greatly improved in the design and marketing, design report and prototype cost events.

Nicolas Lévesque, the team's Technical Director

The Polytechnique representatives finished 53rd out of 87 teams in the Kansas competition, and 31st out of 91 teams in Illinois. The team, whose goal was to make the top 20 in the general rankings of both competitions, was disappointed with its results, but happy to have acquired the experience. "Unfortunately, we did not attain our goals, but these competitions taught us a lot," says Chloé Constans, the project's Design Director, adding: "A failure is often more motivating than a victory!"

More motivated than ever, the group's members are getting ready to build a new vehicle that will be quite different from the last one. A number of sub-systems will be revised and made lighter and easier to build. The team aims to design a vehicle that's lighter, higher-performance and more visually interesting, and of course, just as resistant as the last one.


Polytechnique wishes the team the best of luck at its next competition!
 

To find out more, visit
http://step.polymtl.ca/~minibaja/