For the past five years, the Stevens SAE Baja club has competed in the annual SAE Baja competition, which involves over 100 collegiate teams building off-road vehicles to compete in several events such as acceleration, hill climb, maneuverability, and endurance. These tests push the cars to their performance and durability limits with the best designs coming out on top.

Due to recent rule changes, the team is designing the suspension system for Stevens' first four-wheel drive (4WD) vehicle to compete in the SAE Baja competition in early June in Rochester, New York. The past vehicles have been rear-wheel drive (RWD), and the new rule requiring 4WD brings significant design changes to every subsystem addressed by this project. The entire system includes subsystems consisting of the front and rear suspension, steering, and brakes. This vehicle will expand on previously established suspension designs while complying with SAE Baja rules and regulations. One of the largest motivations of this project is to design a suspension system that can survive every event in the SAE Baja competition, which has never been done by a Stevens team.

All goals set by the team reflect the performance of previous vehicles. This can include previously established goals that have been proven successful as well as ones that must be improved upon.

The most important goals set by the team are as follows:

• Total vehicle weight of 475 pounds (not including driver)

• Ground clearance of 12.5 inches to clear obstacles

• Vertical wheel travel of 10 inches for both the front and rear

  • Have 6 inches of compression from static ride

  • Have 4 inches of droop from static ride

• Outboard braking in front and rear

• Pro-Ackermann steering geometry