The design, construction, testing, and competition of the Mini Baja 77 winning vehicle was performed as an academic assignment by senior Mechanical Engineering students. The nature of the course is explained; the educational benefits explored. The vehicle design criteria and their relationship to the morphology of the design process are developed. The tradeoffs and compromises by the group required to develop an optimum design were extensive. The actual design is presented in a series of photographs, and examples of the required tradeoffs are illustrated thereby. An analysis of the educational benefits of this type of competition is presented along with recommendations for expanding the concept.
