Last week tuesady, March 8th and 9th, there was an SAE college competition held at the SAE World Congress. You are probally asking, what the hell does this have to do with r/c cars. well, the competition used vehicles based off r/c cars. ill give just a quick overview of the rules, and ill link them at the end of the post, which will also contain a view of the track.

In the performance category, the vehicles have to run through a 10 inch wide track that takes the vehicle up a 20 degree incline, along with a three step 35 degree incline, a chicane, 2 inches of water, 2 inches of sand, go over two twelve in long rock puts, over ½ inch high chatter bumps, over an inch and a half angle iron, then go back through the two inches of sand, the two inches of water, through the chicane, down the three step incline and back over the 20 degree incline.

There are two classes of vehicles, unlimited and modified stock classes. Between me and two of my friends, we entered three vehicles in each class for a total of six vehicles. These vehicles took first, second, and third places in the modified stock class, and first,
second, and fourth in the unlimited class. This is only the second year that I competed and only the second year my school took part in this competition, both times lead by me.
This competition was originally started 18 years ago. This is the first time in at least 7 years that Carnegie Mellon has not won this competition. For more the rules for this competition and the layout of the track, please visit rules and track layout (http://mywebpages.comcast.net/robertboswell/SAEfiles/30904MTBDC/04MTBRules.htm)

Ok so it wasnt that short. So as a quick summary, cause i know if i dont say this, people will go, hey just give me a summary, I took 5 of the top 6 spots. THe top three in one class, the top two in the other class over a chanlleging track that I don't have much expierence with, and the vehilces cannot be controlled externally (no remote control in other words). Another plus side, is there was prize money involved. fourth through 10th took home 50 a piece, third won 300, second was 500 and first was 700. that goes for both classes. so i won a total of 2750. not a bad little pay check there, eh?