From Bay to Baja: Your Support, Our Success!
Help us build our new car, Mochi, for the Baja SAE competition! With innovative features like our custom gearbox and steering wheel, carbon fiber control arms and many more, Mochi is designed to take on the toughest challenges and showcase our engineering skills!
Project Description
UBC Baja is a passionate engineering design team that thrives on creating off-road vehicles built to conquer the toughest terrains in the Baja SAE competitions. Organized by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), these high-stakes, intercollegiate events take place across multiple days in the United States, where teams from over 120 universities compete head-to-head. Teams are put to the test, judged on their engineering designs, business presentations and vehicle performance through an intense technical course. The ultimate challenge culminates in a heart-pounding, four-hour endurance race, where teams battle it out over rocks, jumps, mud pits and obstacles designed to push their vehicles—and their engineering—to the extreme.
This year, we’re taking things to the next level with Mochi, an all-weather, rugged, 4WD, single-seat off-road vehicle. Designing Mochi isn’t just about building a car—it’s about pushing boundaries and redefining what’s possible in engineering. Throughout the process, we are learning to juggle their passion for innovation with real-life demands, all while striving for engineering precision that breaks new ground. Get ready to witness the future of off-road performance, one bolt at a time!
Challenges and Impact of Your Support
Building a competitive off-road ATV isn’t easy—especially on a student budget. It takes high-quality parts, advanced software and specialized manufacturing to bring our innovative design to life and stay competitive in the Baja SAE series.
Our team is pushing the boundaries of design by integrating high-performance materials like carbon fiber into key components of our car. This year, we’re working on a hybrid carbon fiber-aluminum upper control arm and a full carbon fiber steering wheel. Carbon fiber’s strength, light weight, and corrosion resistance make it an ideal choice for durability and long-term reuse, reducing future repair costs.
We’re also developing custom printed circuit boards (PCBs) to control the motors and electronic suspension. While more expensive than using Arduino components, custom PCBs simplify wiring, reduce system size by 10x, and offer improved reliability and safety, making them a smart investment for our vehicle’s performance and longevity.
Your contribution goes a long way in making our vehicle faster, stronger and more competitive:
- A $30 donation can help us purchase a Teensy 4.1—a powerful microcontroller board needed for prototyping
- An $80 donation can help us purchase a DC power supply variable
- A $100 donation can help us purchase the custom gearbox housing material
- A $200 donation can help us purchase one control arm bearing—a crucial component to connect our hybrid carbon fiber-aluminum upper control arm to the chassis of the vehicle
- A $700 donation can help us purchase a limited slip differential for balancing power to the wheels
- A $1000 donation can help us purchase front/rear hubs for our vehicle wheel hubs
By supporting UBC Baja, you’re helping a team of passionate engineering students push the limits of innovation, gain hands-on experience and take on the challenge of designing, building and racing an off-road vehicle on the international stage.
Join us on this journey—become a donor and help us drive engineering forward!
Are you an organization or business and want to support us? Corporate sponsorship opportunities are available. Give through our Corporate Giving and Sponsorship page or contact us by emailing msuntorn@student.ubc.ca to discuss further.
About UBC Baja
Founded in 2011, UBC Baja is a student-run engineering design team that designs, builds and races off-road vehicles for the international SAE Baja competition. Our team is made up of passionate students from over ten departments and disciplines who apply engineering principles to create high-performance, rugged vehicles capable of tackling extreme terrain.
From design and manufacturing to testing and competition, we gain hands-on experience in mechanical systems, teamwork and problem-solving. Whether it’s welding chassis components, optimizing drivetrain performance or fine-tuning suspension geometry, we push the limits of innovation and practical engineering.
Each year, we take our custom-built vehicle to compete against universities from around the world, putting our designs to the test in endurance races and technical challenges. Driven by a passion for engineering and motorsports, UBC Baja continues to grow, learn and push the boundaries of what student engineers can achieve.
Want to stay updated? Follow us on Instagram @ubcbaja to see what we’re up to!
