MADISON, WI – April 21, 2020: Just prior to UW-Madison shutting down to contain the spread of COVID-19, CTech carried out an impressive storage transformation inside the Engineering Hall’s Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) workshop. To kick off the first of a multi-stage re-organization initiative, a range of CTech products were delivered and installed:

• Track Support Cart to be shared between teams.
• Dyno Room Base Cabinets
• Baja Stall Closets
• Baja Tandem Toolboxes (Utilizing 10″ BadAss Casters)

The SAE workshop on-campus hosts the university’s Baja, Formula Gas/Electric, and Clean Snowmobile teams among others. These extracurricular, student-led teams work together to hone their engineering skills by designing and building small vehicles. Once completed, their creations are challenged in a formal competition to test vehicle reliability, speed and agility, fuel efficiency, and even economic viability.

Operating much like a scaled-down version of a professional race team, members of collegiate SAE teams like UW-Madison’s spend long hours in the workshop fabricating parts and solving complex engineering problems to make their vehicles perform. Competitions themselves are officiated by SAE officials and automotive/aerospace industry leaders. That connection between education and industry makes SAE a worldwide STEM education influence.

The Track Support Cart was designed to provide a mobile platform for competition-specific tool and equipment storage, which will be shared by all SAE teams on campus. It’s based on a CTech Worktop Cart, and has been outfitted specifically to compliment SAE team efforts. Rolling on a dedicated chassis, it rolls on and off the trailer and around competition grounds with minimal effort. The cart was also outfitted with an optional race-day canopy to provide some cover from the elements.

The shared Dyno room also received a Pro Series Base Cabinet that will provide storage as well as a GasketLoc-equipped Worktop. This cabinet had to be custom-configured to fit in the oddly-shaped Dyno room, which is no problem for CTech!

The Baja team was largely on the receiving end of this first stage of the transformation. They received two BadAss Caster Cart Toolboxes; one exclusively with MotionLatch Drawers, and a second with Adjust-A-Loc cabinet space. Together, these two toolboxes will increase their workspace’s efficiency and flexibility for decades to come. Sat on our highly-maneuverable 10” BadAss Caster, the boxes can be rearranged endlessly to adapt to any workshop layout. Each cart also boasts a scrubbed aluminum worktop surface, adding yet another layer of functionality to their new stall space.

On the far wall of the Baja stall, a row of stand-up Closets now sits to add bulk storage space. This will boost the team’s workshop safety and presentation by clearing the floor clutter. Their sleek presentation comes thanks to a powder coat finish and radius-edge corners, which will boost the team’s image with visiting sponsors.

Each product was custom-configured not only to match the University’s color swatch, but to kick off a long-term initiative to promote increased organization and efficiency between teams on-campus. If SAE teams can take one thing away from working with CTech, it’s that you have to #OrganizeToWin. In the professional motorsport industry winners are organizers, and vice-versa. Every day CTech works hand-in-hand with North America’s leading race teams to make sure that their Pit Cart/Toolbox, Garage/Shop Cabinet, and Trailer Cabinet storage solutions are championship-caliber.

In late 2020, CTech is poised to announce some exciting news regarding further SAE program involvement! Keep an eye out for the #OrganizeToWin hashtag, which will be used to tag all SAE related materials in the future.