Engineering students head to Mini-Baja race April 12
Janel Shoun |
The Lipscomb University Mini-Baja dune buggy is off and running!
Click here to see the Tennessean story on the dune buggy.
Click here to see the Williamson A.M. story on the dune buggy.You may have seen Lipscomb's first dune buggy roaring around on campus, jumping steps and kicking up dust. Or perhaps you saw it buzzing over piles of wood chips and plowing through mud in White’s Creek on TV last week.
Now the dune buggy, constructed by nine Lipscomb engineering seniors and various engineering underclassmen, has passed all its tests and is finally ready and on its way to Ocala, Florida.
The all-terrain vehicle will compete in the 100-mile Mini-Baja race, April 12-15, based on the Baja 1,000, an annual off-road race in Mexico's Baja Peninsula. The racing team will be judged on the quality of their car's design as well as their car's performance in several categories including a sled pull, suspension traction and land maneuverability, mud bogs, acceleration /top speed, deep water maneuverability and an endurance race.
Sponsored by the Society of Automotive Engineers, the race will pit 75 teams against each other on a rough terrain and water track. Lipscomb’s dune buggy not only roars through mud and climbs over obstacles, it also floats and maneuvers through water!
The nine students on the lead design team are Matt Lucas, Daniel McCullough, Jon Hester of Garden City, NY, David Beaman of Knoxville; Amy Gilfilen of Marietta, Ga.; Nathan Harless of Clemmons, N.C.; Kirk Pippin of Nashville; Robert Smithson of Franklin; and Paul Stevens of Columbus, Ohio.