Joe Batwinis

Name: Joe Batwinis

Major: Aerospace Engineering

Year: 3rd

What do I do?: Design Leader


Random Story: The engine in pretty much every Baja SAE car is at the rear of the vehicle. Plus, almost all are rear wheel drive as well. This means that the majority of the weight in the vehicle is located at the rear. What this means, is the vehicle is capable of doing some rather nice wheelies. Or at least it would be if the anemic engine we are required to use had any torque. However, the car can still do wheelies if you give it some help... which is where my story gets interesting.

Let me stop here to say I have a bad history with wheelies in these cars.

Rewind to the Homecoming parade of Autumn 2005. I, a lowly freshman, am riding around on the back of the old car "Sloopy"(Right, with me in it) in the parade. The parade isn't moving terribly quickly, and this gets rather boring, so we decide to do some wheelies for the crowd. Kids love wheelies, college students love wheelies, Dads love wheelies. Moms are questionable.

In order to perform a wheelie you stand on the back of the car while it is stopped, and proceed to jump down on the rear of the car at the same time the driver guns the gas. This throws the center of mass back far enough for the tiny Briggs and Stratton to lift the front end of the car in the air. With proper throttle management, you can ride this wheelie for a while. Usually the rider can stay on board as well.

On this particular day however, Sloopy's rear brakes had been disconnected, leaving only the fronts. So as we are driving down Woodruff, we go to pop a wheelie. While the front end is in the air, the driver hits the brakes, which does not slow the car, but it locks the currently-airborne front wheels. When the front falls back down, the car stops immediately. This throws the rider, me, over the top of the car where I slam my head against the frame, which got a nice "oooooh" from the crowd.

Ouch. This was one of those star-seeing moments. I also bent up my glasses. Once I regained my composure, I yelled at the driver for being an idiot and then made my way to the team pickup truck and climbed in the bed.

Fast forward a year and a half. A new team member is taking the old car "Woody"(Right) for a spin around the C.A.R. parking lot. I decide to teach him how to do wheelies, so I jump on the back, explain what he needs to do, and we go for it. The front end pops up in the air pretty high. Too high for me to ride out, so I go to jump off. Unfortunately my foot comes down in some loose gravel and I lose my footing and fall.

My face breaks my fall. More specifically my two front teeth and my upper lip. Somehow I managed to hurt only my face with any significance. Very minor scrapes on my knee and palm, my lip cut badly and bleeding prodigiously and the lower half of my front teeth are nowhere to be found.

A quick trip to the ER and then up to an emergency dentist and I have teeth back, although granted they are only half mine. Thanks to Tim Brownell and Andrew Muhic for being chauffeurs that day.

In summary, I don't do Wheelies anymore.