2012 – Americar

Americar was a substantial departure from previous designs and was an ambitious challenge to design and build. Americar was the team’s first car with an independent rear suspension and manual transmission. Americar was styled in an excessively patriotic scheme that can only be described as ‘Murica.

Results

Baja Wisconsin 2012 – 81/117
Baja Oregon 2012 – 45/96

2011 – Feather

Blue Car was the last in a series of cars with a similar rear suspension setup. Blue car was designed for weight savings and design optimization, focusing on several overbuilt or troublesome components from previous years, including the rear axle, chassis, and UV joints.

Results

Baja Illinois 2011 – 57/122
Baja Kansas 2011 – 44/106

2010 – Blaze

Orange Car was the third iteration of cars with a similarly setup rear suspension and packaging design. The design focused on improving structural integrity of frequently damaged components such as the front uprights, rear axle, and chassis. Orange Car was one of the first Baja cars at the University of Illinois to include on-board data acquisition instrumentation during competition.