The wind howled, pushing against the cars on the road, blowing through the trees and pushing anything that wasn’t tied down and even people around as it made the day feel significantly colder than the actual temperature. The grass around the campus of the South Jersey Technology Park was squishy and the puddles littered the ground from the previous night’s heavy rain storms.
Despite the less-than-ideal conditions, it did not stop the attendees of the Rowan Society of Automotive Engineers’s annual Motorsports Day from coming out with energy and enthusiasm to see the cars that the club of student engineers had constructed, with the event garnering around 150 attendees of all ages.
Rowan’s SAE is the club on campus that allows mechanical engineering students to get hands-on experience with automotive creation through workshops and projects, like building Baja cars for competitions.
Alex Garfield is a sophomore mechanical engineering major and one of the underclassmen captains for SAE.
“The main thing that our club does is for one, we maintain the cars that are built from the engineering clinics, that’s built by the junior and senior class students. And so one of the jobs is like I said, to maintain those cars, and additionally, we have a lot of different club events,” said Garfield.
In the parking lot, a line of cars with unique and eye-catching features was on display for those in attendance to look at as they walked around and take pictures with, if they felt so inclined. They ranged from race cars to Jeeps, but all had something about them that is not often seen on regular cars on the roads.
On the grass to the side of the line of cars, this year’s featured Baja cars were also on display. A Baja car is a prototype of a type of off-road vehicle that is used in Society of Automobile Engineers intercollegiate competitions. The cars were set out for the teams to show off and explain the different features of each car to those around them.
Previous years’ Baja cars were also featured throughout the event. While some were just there for show, the cars were most prominently featured in the test-driving track that was set up toward the back of the event.
A tent with tables and chairs was also set up for guests to sit and eat the food that was being cooked on a nearby grill, specifically hamburgers and hot dogs. Chips, sodas, and water were also available to attendees.
As a mix of classic rock and 2000s-era popular music blared from the loudspeaker, people brought their dogs and children to walk around, and families of the junior and senior teams were numerous, out to support their student engineer’s automotive endeavors.
Across the lot, the club had set up a merch table selling shirts, hoodies, and bottle openers, as well as accepting donations. Another table held raffle buckets.
After signing a waiver at the table set up next to the track and having their hand stamped, participants could don one of the helmets, neck braces, and sets of gloves the club had ready for those who wanted to get behind the wheel for themselves.
The club volunteers would detach the steering wheel from one of the two available cars, to allow for the driver to have room to climb into the car, offer them a hand in stepping over the side, then reattach the wheel and explain how to power the car, mostly by encouraging the participants to press the gas pedal hard. They would then move to the back of the car and pull on the starter cord to get the engine going.
Underclassman Sam Prince was one of the people who went for a test drive.
“It was very fun. It was a little muddy. Great experience. I always wanted to do something like this. I came to support my engineering friends… a little too windy, made it hard to drive,” said Prince.
The muddy conditions caused difficulties at times for the less experienced and more timid drivers, who were more inclined to drive slowly. One such driver ended up getting briefly stuck in the mud before some of the SAE members went over to help get him out and get the car moving again.
As the event progressed and the line to test drive shortened, the volunteers announced that the test driving would be paused while the junior and senior teams did demonstrations of driving the cars they had built.
The junior team went first, playing “Danger Zone” by Kenny Loggins as their team captain drove around the course in the simple, silver-framed car. After two laps, the demonstration was completed and the team posed for pictures with their vehicle.
The senior team’s demonstration drive was next, with team captain Vincent Gallo getting into the blue and green piece of engineering the team had dubbed “Goblin Car.”
“Our demo was a great experience with the car, really show[ing] off what it can do. And teams [are] very happy about what we’re able to accomplish… The mud makes it a little bit more difficult to kind of if you want to avoid that, but the wind isn’t really an issue at all,” said Gallo.
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