I have always wanted to share my BAJA Experience...and the time has come...
It was one hell of a roller coaster ride...
Hatsoff to Susheel chand and Sarogi Bhai for their perseverance...much of the credit should go to them as they gave it all...They were at IITM participating in an RC car event and susheel's friend informed him about an event called SAE BAJA...its popularly known as mini BAJA across Europe and America...its a multi national event where nearly 100 to 150 teams participate....
SAE BAJA is an event where College students have to design and fabricate an all terrain vehicle all by themselves...the design and manufacturing should conform to the rules provided by the organizers...we were given a hundred pages pdf!!
SAE India wanted to bring this concept here and so it conducted the first ever SAE INDIA BAJA event...The deadline was over when susheel came to know abt this event...Each team had to pay up 10k for registration and susheel shrewdly convinced the director and managed to get the fund...we pushed the deal through and registered for the event...50 teams had registered and 25 wud qualify for the main event...And yes we did qualify....
Now Anant and susheel went about building the team...Anant came to my room and explained it to me and i just readily agreed without slightest hesitation...Finally the team was ready...we were a team of 14 (8 final yrs, 4 3rd years and 2 second yrs)...Now the harder part was about to begin..the actual work!!
Amit and Aiyaz agreed to do the finance management...And from day one they had their hands full...stacks of bills being couriered to their rooms everyday!!
We went about with designing first...At first we decided to assign a particular sector of design to a team of 2 or 3...like CAD, transmission, Chassis (rollcage) etc...that didnt work and it was decided to give the design burden to sudheel, rupak and mallya with kushal(2) asisting mallya in CAD...Rupak is another main player i wud like to mention...Kind of person who gets work done no mater what...
Another aspect of this event is u have to look for sponsors...Amit was entrusted with this and he went across Mangalore looking for a local sponsor but in vain...every1 was willing to sponsor to a tune of few thousands...the project involves lakhs of rupees!! we are not building a toy car here :D
After a month or so the design was done...The basic objective was to not to try any new stuff and keep it as simple as we can...We still didnt have a sponsor...We were pooling up money from our pockets...And finally The breakthrough...Bosch agreed to sponsor our college and RV college as well...2 months for the kickoff now...We started off with fabricating straightaway...
Lombardini and Mahindra provided the teams with Engine and Gear box respectively...We had to fix a few bugs in the gearbox...Then engine became a major headache and time killer, in spite of trying every method in the book, we missed the basic thing, the small spark plug...we had to get a new one and Lombardini had its only plant in aurangabad...Anant agreed to go and he was back with proper instructions and a new spark plug....the engine came to life!
After fabrication we started the assembly...we encountered some problems with brakes...the caliper holder was brushing against the rim and we fixed it with the crudest of methods :P Aggu and Aiyaz bhai did it...A great man told us that the suspensions wud never work and better late than never..we realized and modified the suspensions...After the whole assembly was done...we crosschecked the rule book and i was entrusted with the electrical part and i did my job somehow...the car was decorated with side panels where the logos wud sit...After sorting out a few teething problems we were all set for a test run...the kill switches that we used cost us merely 50 bucks...but the ones as mentioned in the rule book are worth nearly 2k...!!! Every team member had a ride and showed off the car in the campus..it was fun!
We had a vote out for driver's slot...not the MTV roadies way...
to qualify one needs to have a license...half job done their..we came down to 3...pratik, amit and susheel...pratik being a 2nd year wud get opportunities in the coming year (a great driver he is)...so Amit and susheel got the green signal...susheel didnt have a license yet...but he convinced us that he wud get one bfr the event...we had a test run in the dried up lake near NITK (KREC) school...and it was a perfect spot...All the 3 drivers tried and we were convinced that we had built an all terrain vehicle :D
Alas..the brakes started fading away and the reason was a leak...we fixed it temporarily with mseal...we used so much mseal that even the gear changing knob was made of mseal :P and yes i aint kidding here...another crude method...the team was aptly titled 'JUNKYARD MANIACS'!!
Adi and Jha got a new set of tools..The team was split into 2 batches..one wud take care of vehicle and another wud take care of spares...all was set...
It was one hell of a roller coaster ride...
Hatsoff to Susheel chand and Sarogi Bhai for their perseverance...much of the credit should go to them as they gave it all...They were at IITM participating in an RC car event and susheel's friend informed him about an event called SAE BAJA...its popularly known as mini BAJA across Europe and America...its a multi national event where nearly 100 to 150 teams participate....
SAE BAJA is an event where College students have to design and fabricate an all terrain vehicle all by themselves...the design and manufacturing should conform to the rules provided by the organizers...we were given a hundred pages pdf!!
SAE India wanted to bring this concept here and so it conducted the first ever SAE INDIA BAJA event...The deadline was over when susheel came to know abt this event...Each team had to pay up 10k for registration and susheel shrewdly convinced the director and managed to get the fund...we pushed the deal through and registered for the event...50 teams had registered and 25 wud qualify for the main event...And yes we did qualify....
Now Anant and susheel went about building the team...Anant came to my room and explained it to me and i just readily agreed without slightest hesitation...Finally the team was ready...we were a team of 14 (8 final yrs, 4 3rd years and 2 second yrs)...Now the harder part was about to begin..the actual work!!
Amit and Aiyaz agreed to do the finance management...And from day one they had their hands full...stacks of bills being couriered to their rooms everyday!!
We went about with designing first...At first we decided to assign a particular sector of design to a team of 2 or 3...like CAD, transmission, Chassis (rollcage) etc...that didnt work and it was decided to give the design burden to sudheel, rupak and mallya with kushal(2) asisting mallya in CAD...Rupak is another main player i wud like to mention...Kind of person who gets work done no mater what...
Another aspect of this event is u have to look for sponsors...Amit was entrusted with this and he went across Mangalore looking for a local sponsor but in vain...every1 was willing to sponsor to a tune of few thousands...the project involves lakhs of rupees!! we are not building a toy car here :D
After a month or so the design was done...The basic objective was to not to try any new stuff and keep it as simple as we can...We still didnt have a sponsor...We were pooling up money from our pockets...And finally The breakthrough...Bosch agreed to sponsor our college and RV college as well...2 months for the kickoff now...We started off with fabricating straightaway...
Lombardini and Mahindra provided the teams with Engine and Gear box respectively...We had to fix a few bugs in the gearbox...Then engine became a major headache and time killer, in spite of trying every method in the book, we missed the basic thing, the small spark plug...we had to get a new one and Lombardini had its only plant in aurangabad...Anant agreed to go and he was back with proper instructions and a new spark plug....the engine came to life!
After fabrication we started the assembly...we encountered some problems with brakes...the caliper holder was brushing against the rim and we fixed it with the crudest of methods :P Aggu and Aiyaz bhai did it...A great man told us that the suspensions wud never work and better late than never..we realized and modified the suspensions...After the whole assembly was done...we crosschecked the rule book and i was entrusted with the electrical part and i did my job somehow...the car was decorated with side panels where the logos wud sit...After sorting out a few teething problems we were all set for a test run...the kill switches that we used cost us merely 50 bucks...but the ones as mentioned in the rule book are worth nearly 2k...!!! Every team member had a ride and showed off the car in the campus..it was fun!
We had a vote out for driver's slot...not the MTV roadies way...
to qualify one needs to have a license...half job done their..we came down to 3...pratik, amit and susheel...pratik being a 2nd year wud get opportunities in the coming year (a great driver he is)...so Amit and susheel got the green signal...susheel didnt have a license yet...but he convinced us that he wud get one bfr the event...we had a test run in the dried up lake near NITK (KREC) school...and it was a perfect spot...All the 3 drivers tried and we were convinced that we had built an all terrain vehicle :D
Alas..the brakes started fading away and the reason was a leak...we fixed it temporarily with mseal...we used so much mseal that even the gear changing knob was made of mseal :P and yes i aint kidding here...another crude method...the team was aptly titled 'JUNKYARD MANIACS'!!
Adi and Jha got a new set of tools..The team was split into 2 batches..one wud take care of vehicle and another wud take care of spares...all was set...
2 comments:
Nice post sir.. wqas just googling with Baja+NITK+bosch... ur post was the 2nd result.
Great blogs! I am impressed at your work!
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