It might actually be more surprising if the
Michigan Tech student engineer team in the Baja Enterprise off-road vehicle design competition didn't win, because they do have a long history of dominating the contest.
This year's result was pretty good, landing the Tech team in the top 10 internationally, fifth place among U.S. teams, and first among Michigan teams.
?The goal was to design and build an ORV that can handle rough terrain and water, and yes, they really do test them out, with a tough mud bog competition on a site formerly used to test Jeep durability.
"We've been pretty successful the last few years, and this year in particular it was a really good team effort," says team advisor Brett Hamlin. "Everyone worked together toward the success of the university, not just the success of any single person's design."
One of the strong points of the U.P. team's design was its cost, ranked eleventh among all the entries, which means it was a good value for the quality of vehicle they turned out.
Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: Brett Hamlin, Michigan Technological University
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