The SAE Midwest Mini Baja competition encompasses a grueling weekend, which challenges each team to design, build, and test their vehicles. Team members will get valuable experience as they contend with budget constraints and work at actively promoting local businesses, corporations, and organizations that contribute support to each team. In essence, such comprehensive sponsored events present an important first opportunity for students to acquire concrete engineering skills while using creativity, imagination, and problem-solving techniques to exercise and expand on their theoretical backgrounds. Three such competitions take place annually in North America: Midwest Mini-Baja, Mini-Baja East, and Mini-Baja 100, all of which are sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). Midwest Mini-Baja is the largest and most prestigious of these events, playing host to over 135 teams.

The 2005 University of Windsor Midwest Mini Baja team will be participating in the competition to be held in Troy, Ohio in June of the same year. The competition is judged on a points system, with a total of 1000 points possible. The 1000 points are divided into two principal categories: static events and dynamics events. In the static events category, the judging evaluates overall vehicle design based on team reports and presentations worth a total of 300 points. The remaining 700 points are made available in the dynamic events, in which the vehicles are tested on acceleration, top speed, hill climbing, hauling capacity, maneuverability, and an intense four-hour head-to-head endurance race.

Thanks to the ongoing support of various donors in the community, the fabrication of the 2004 Mini Baja vehicle was a success. As a result of such sponsorships, the 2004 team had an extremely rewarding outcome, finishing 6th overall in the static events category. They also performed extremely well in the dynamic events as they were ranked 11th before entering into the endurance race. Unfortunately, the team’s hope for a top ten finish was lost due to a steering system failure and a fuel miscalculation. However, due to the team’s successful performance in all other events, the 2004 Mini-Baja team ultimately finished in a very respectable 20th place out of 137 cars, the highest ranked team from Ontario!

MINI BAJA 2005 TEAM: (From Left to Right) John Dejan, Jason Petruniak, William Lo, Steve Reis, Matt Reynolds, Janelle Meszaros, Lucas Romeo, Curtis Calwell, Robert McKinlay (not seen)

This year there will be two teams from the University of Windsor entering the 2005 Midwest Mini Baja competition, a senior team made of 4th year students and a junior team comprised of 3rd year students. The senior team is composed of 9 dedicated members who are all mechanical engineering students looking to improve their skills as engineers. There have been continuous improvements each year in the University of Windsor’s Mini Baja car as each team has been able to learn from the previous year’s successes and failures. The 2005 Mini Baja senior team will use the 2004 vehicle as a starting point for design while improving on the weak areas. Some of these areas are: a totally revised drive train involving gears rather than chains, an improved front suspension with custom uprights, and a new look for the car using a one-piece fiberglass body. While some of these goals may be challenging, this 2005 Mini Baja senior team is dedicated to creating a car that will be a strong top ten contender in the 2005 Mini-Baja Midwest competition.

The Midwest Mini Baja competition is popular among engineering students at the University of Windsor. Beginning in first year many students aspire to be a part of this exciting experience, often times joining the Mini Baja team as helpers. Due to the overwhelming number of students interested in being a part of the Mini Baja experience, a junior team has been created which is composed of a group of dedicated third year students. Hoping to gain experience for their fourth year, the junior team intends to modify the 2004 Mini Baja vehicle and re-enter it in the 2005 race. In addition to entering a proven vehicle into this year’s race, the process of developing adjustments to improve the 2004 car will be a tremendous benefit to the team, as it will allow team members to gain experience that will be useful for future Mini Baja competitions.

For more information please visit the team's University of Windsor website at :-

Mini-Baja is a worldwide collegiate design competition in which aspiring engineers are challenged to create the ultimate off-road recreational vehicle.

Learn more about:

*2004 Mini Baja Team

*2005 Mini Baja Senior Team

*2005 Mini Baja Junior Team