The Rochester Institute of Technology from New York, US, won the Sasol Mini Baja Competition at the Auto Africa Exhibition on Saturday for the second year running.
The Rochester Institute of Technology from New York, USA won the Sasol Mini Baja Competition at the Auto Africa Exhibition on Saturday for the second year running.
The American team led the two-hour enduro finale from start to finish, but were under pressure from the second-placed team from Pretoria Technikon. Cape Technikon were placed third in the final standings.
A total of 19 university, college and technikon mechanical engineering department teams took part in this year’s event, which has grown from a four-team contest when it was started in South African at Pretoria University in 1996. This year 35 cars took part, some institutions entering as many as four spaceframe vehicles.
Formal engineering tests and evaluations like hill-climbing ability, acceleration and pulling power were held at the Gerotek Test Facilities on Friday, with scores in the acceleration test giving the competitors their grid positions for the two half-hour pre-final endurance races and the main two-hour final on Saturday.
“Over the years, the students have seen what works in competition and they’ve evolved their designs accordingly. In fact, there are five similar competitions in the world now, three in North America, one in Brazil and one here. We’d love to send a team over to compete in the US, one day,” said Schalk Els, senior lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Pretoria and the organiser of the event.
While the American team had the advantage of using some sophisticated components on its machines, such as Penske dampers, the visitors deserve credit for a flawless performance in the enduro, “which was so muddy in parts that it was impossible to identify the mud-covered competitors at the end of the event,” a spokesman for the competition said.
All the cars were fitted with single-cylinder four-stroke engines, supplied by Briggs & Stratton, that deliver an identical power out-put of 7,5 kW. No modifications of the motor were allowed.
Many of the teams used a continuously-variable transmission (CVT) to eliminate the necessity for gear changes, but teams with very small budgets came up with different options, such as using motorcycle transmissions linked to the engine with belt drives.
“This evolved from a practical thesis, where we took three students who were each given areas of responsibility for the vehicle, such as chassis, suspension and drivetrain, and put their designs into practice. They were evaluated on the vehicle for their degree, and the competition started off as the fun part,” said rally driver Barry Grobbelaar, who was instrumental in starting the Mini Baja series when he was a lecturer in the engineering faculty at Pretoria University in the mid-1990s.
Overall results:
- Rochester Institute of Technology, US (car no 1)
- Pretoria Technikon (car no 43)
- Cape Technikon (car no 3)
- University of Pretoria (car no 39)
- University of Stellenbosch (car no 38)
- University of Natal.
DMS Systems (car no 51) won the best social entry trophy. Prizes for the best static judging score, best performance score, and best endurance race score went to Rochester Institute of Technology, while Pretoria Technikon and Cape Technikon received the best design report prizes.
