Our Cars

Our Journey So Far

The Missouri S&T Baja design team has faced continuously evolving design challenges over the years. From building amphibious vehicles to meeting the latest four-wheel drive requirements, the team has consistently adapted, innovating with every new car.

Bud (short for budget) is the newest addition to our Miner Baja family. Its name reflects both the constraints and creative solutions that defined its development. Although Bud was not ready in time for the 2025 Arizona competition, the lessons we learned from this challenge have strengthened our resolve. We’re now focused on the October 2025 competition in Grey Court, South Carolina. With a 22.8% improvement in acceleration time and a 16.7% tighter turning radius, Bud is poised to outperform any car we’ve brought before. For the first time in team history, we’re exploring metal 3D-printed components and laser-welded CV joints, pushing our manufacturing capabilities further than ever. We plan to continually improve and upgrade Bud so it can be our best car yet.

Sal(vage) has been our trustworthy car for over 3 years now and got its name for a reason. Our previous car, Leo, was retired due to the new SAE 4-wheel-drive requirements, and many of its parts were used on Sal to reduce costs. Sal is the team’s first 4WD vehicle and has been the leading cause of our recent innovations that include: a carbon fiber driveshaft, a CNC aluminum knuckle, manual milled aluminum u-joints, and our inspiration for our upcoming 2025 car. While Sal is our largest and heaviest car in many years, it brought us up in the competition ranking. The first year Sal ran a competition, our team placed 24th due to our 4WD and our robustness to survive the competition obstacles. In the 2023-2024 season, Sal received a nose job to improve our steering radius and increase the durability of our mounting points. While we love Sal and have learned so much, it is time for retirement.

Leo was designed with compact competitiveness in mind. With a slimmer body style and simpler frame design, Leo led the way for our team to be lighter and faster than ever before. Leo was the first vehicle made since 2019 after a reboot of the team occurred, and it did not disappoint. While Leo only underwent one competition, our team gained a lot of knowledge on durability, power, and efficiency. Leo achieved high acceleration times and successful maneuverability, however, failures in the frame made us unable to complete the endurance race on the last day of competition.

With innovation in mind, Kermit led the way for heaps of testing and redesigns. To start, our donated custom gearbox with in-house design began Kermit’s life, allowing us to reduce weight and increase our engineering experience. This gearbox powered us through the mud pits at Mechanicsville, Maryland, and Pittsburg, Kansas, but did not withstand the test of time. With our powertrain scrapped but our engine bay existing, we were challenged with designing and developing a whole new system. With a pulley system, CVT, and chain drive, Kermit was back up and running for Louisville’s unofficial fall competition, Midnight Mayhem, in 2018. With 4 competitions down in 1 year, Kermit was and still is a powerhouse. That’s right, Kermit is still up and running, being used as a driver training vehicle; however, as Sal is moving into retirement, Kermit is planned to be our new showpiece after a well overdue makeover.

Frankenstein is just what he sounds like, a mixture of old pieces from previous cars put together to create a beast. The team was still able to innovate on this vehicle with the CNC knuckle designs, the drivetrain configurations, and a shifter in the cab. With a failure in the rear suspension in Pittsburg, K, that led to a drivetrain failure, the team set off to redesign and build Frank again for the competition in Peoria.

While our team has existed longer than 2015, our documentation did not, and we have very little information about our cars’ past, Frank.