MINI BAJA RACE CARE TEAM (DATA ACQUISITION)

The Queen’s Baja SAE team that designs, builds, and races a small off road car as part of the Baja SAE competition series each year. Queen’s Baja team wants to improve the performance of their vehicle through gaining and understanding of how the vehicle responds under race conditions. The acquisition system has to be able to withstand harsh elements of rough terrain.  

An enhanced understanding of car functionality under practice or simulated race conditions, will aid optimize driver and vehicle performance, aiding in future prototype design. 

Requested measurements are to be found through the usage of two different Data Acquisition Systems, currently owned by the Queen's Baja Team. The Vapor system is a converted atv heads up display system allowing the driver to monitor RPM, Engine Temperature, time, and inform driver of shift points. Alternatively, the Edelbrock Qwikdata system will be used to collect data for analysis, including measurements listed above, and additionally, acceleration, drive shaft torque, and strain exerted on the chassis.    

During the design process, the following criteria need to be kept in mind relating to sensor selection, and placement: Functionality, Durability, Error, and System Compatibility. With this in mind, the desired deliverables for this project include: Wiring Diagrams, Mounting System Drawings, comprehensive material list, and final presentation and report explaining aspect of design and reasoning. 

The Queen’s Baja SAE team that designs, builds, and races a small off road car as part of the Baja SAE competition series each year. Queen’s Baja team wants to improvise the performance of their vehicle by using a racing data acquisition system to withstand harshest elements of rough terrain and perform better than before in the upcoming events.

The Queen’s Baja team has been participating in the Baja SAE competition for over 30 years and has built a new car every year since 1992.  There are 3 North American Baja SAE competitions each year where the top three teams with the highest cumulative score in the three competitions are awarded the Mike Schmidt Iron Team Award.  Since 2003, the Baja team has made an effort to attend all three North American competitions each year. 

The competition is scored in several categories such as design, maneuverability, acceleration, suspension and a 4 hour endurance race.  The endurance race accounts for 40% of the points therefore it is important to monitor the car to ensure proper operation.

The team placed 11th and 7th during competitions in the 2009 season.  During the 2008 season, they placed 1st, 12th and 13th in the North American competitions which granted them 1st place overall (cumulative), winning the Mike Schmidt Iron Team award.

With the addition of the Data Acquisition System, the team can separate themselves from the competitors as no other team currently has implemented a Data Acquisition System. 

There are several benefits will be gained by implementation of a data acquisition system. During race implementation will provide useful data to the driver during the race through the vapor system including:  RPM, programable shift points, and temperature of different components.  Usage of the Qwikdata system will give the team the ability asses vehicle response under race conditions through records of strain on chassis, drive shaft torque, engine temperature, acceleration, and RPM. Currently, information desired by the client, for application  includes:

• Monitoring of vehicle 

• Frame loading

• Stress on suspension system

Comparison of car reactions to course through comparison of accelerometer readings to mapping of course.