Spring Break
Baja team gives engineers a chance to build buggy, race
Issue date: 9/27/07
Ah, driving. The wind whipping through your hair, heading out to wherever you please. The dirt flying around you as you speed over that last hill towards the finish line, cutting off that jerk you met earlier from Ohio State.
Though that last joy may be less well known, a team of students here at Hopkins is living the dream of competitive racing.
For four years, the Hopkins Baja racing team has pursued its three-fold goal: To build a small racing buggy themselves, to race their buggy against other schools and to have fun racing when most students only dream about it.
Two sophomore mechanical engineers, Bobby Ng and Dave Chow, founded the Baja racing team with the goal of building and racing their own race car. Though it took some time to become competitive, last year the team placed 22nd overall out of 75 different university teams from around the country.
Twenty-five students comprise this year's team. All are freshmen or sophomores, except one junior and one senior. The two co-captains are Avik De and Adam Baumgartner, both sophomore mechanical engineers. The team is comprised of primarily mechanical engineers, but other majors such as physics and biomedical engineering are also represented. Though most of the current team is engineering-related, students from any major are more than welcome to join. No experience is required, just a passion for motor sports.
The racing league is organized by the International Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). All teams must come from universities, and all must build their own cars. The Hopkins team, due to time and financial concerns, buys the transmission and engine, then builds everything else themselves. You can often find them in the Latrobe machine shop, welding the various components together into a final racing machine.
Building the car is far from the best part. According to Baumgartner, "The best part about the racing team is when you finally get to drive the car. To see the car come alive at the end is really satisfying."
Though that last joy may be less well known, a team of students here at Hopkins is living the dream of competitive racing.
For four years, the Hopkins Baja racing team has pursued its three-fold goal: To build a small racing buggy themselves, to race their buggy against other schools and to have fun racing when most students only dream about it.
Two sophomore mechanical engineers, Bobby Ng and Dave Chow, founded the Baja racing team with the goal of building and racing their own race car. Though it took some time to become competitive, last year the team placed 22nd overall out of 75 different university teams from around the country.
Twenty-five students comprise this year's team. All are freshmen or sophomores, except one junior and one senior. The two co-captains are Avik De and Adam Baumgartner, both sophomore mechanical engineers. The team is comprised of primarily mechanical engineers, but other majors such as physics and biomedical engineering are also represented. Though most of the current team is engineering-related, students from any major are more than welcome to join. No experience is required, just a passion for motor sports.
The racing league is organized by the International Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). All teams must come from universities, and all must build their own cars. The Hopkins team, due to time and financial concerns, buys the transmission and engine, then builds everything else themselves. You can often find them in the Latrobe machine shop, welding the various components together into a final racing machine.
Building the car is far from the best part. According to Baumgartner, "The best part about the racing team is when you finally get to drive the car. To see the car come alive at the end is really satisfying."
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posted 11/19/09 @ 1:31 PM EST
I just read the article that a friend posted, well i gotta say it definitely makes you wonder thats for sure, but if its true which would be awesome, that is just a cool thing to know, another reason to want to get into motorcycle riding haha. (Continued…)
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