Getting out to 'break it a few times' seen as key to Baja competition

A group of UPEI engineering students is heading to Illinois next week for an international Baja off-road vehicle design competition.

For more than nine months the 12-person team has been designing and building the vehicle. It looks like a small dune buggy, and goes about 50 km/hr.

At the competition they'll be judged on how they designed, built, and marketed the model.

"A lot of it will be just how much we are able to get out and testing. We're working on a pretty tight timeline right now," said Andrew Simmons, one of the creators and a recent graduate of the university's design engineering program.

"If we can drive this around a bit, break it a few times, find out where it's weakest, then once we get to the competition we should have a much better chance."

Simmons said the team is hoping to make the top 30 or 40 this year. Last year they placed 84 overall. He expects they'll be up against about 100 teams from around the world.

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