UP's TuksBaja team builds and races its own cars

[Daniel Puchert]

The university faculty that makes and races its own cars

"A love of mathematics and science is necessary — but not sufficient — to become a good engineer."

These are the words of Professor Schalk Els from the Vehicle Dynamics Group housed in the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology (EBIT) at the University of Pretoria (UP).

 

[3WA]

Tuks Baja? Baha Taco?

 

[PCWARITM]

Tuks Baja? Baha Taco?

Bajaj Tuktuk?

 

[garyc]

This competition originated in the engineering faculties in the US in 1976, organized by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). It has since spread to include the universities of various countries, including South Africa. If I remember correctly we started getting involved around 1996.

These vehicles are put through a variety of rough off-road tests during the competition, but to make things even more interesting they need to be designed and built in a way that they are ready for mass production.

 

[ronz91]

UKZN also participates in these sort of things but usually as a final year project