When some UW-Stout students strapped into the cars Wednesday, they were testing their engineering skills for competition.

David Marten, a club member, said, "What we're known for when we go to these races -- we're competing against roughly 100 to 150 teams and UW-Stout has always been known for a car that handles well… its always going to be the car going through the jumps and hoops and a very well handling car."

The Society of Automotive Engineers, which is a national organization, allows students to design, manufacture and race single-person all-terrain vehicles.

The test is to build tough off road cars that can hold together for four hours of competitive races.

"We do all of the design work and manufacturing ourselves where some schools will do some of the design work and computer work -- figuring out what they want to do and then they'll send it out to a machine shop or professional manufacturer to have parts made and we really do them from the ground up," said Robin Schulte, a club member.

These cars are built from scratch every two years.

The next time the club will take the cars out for a competitive spin is November at the Arkansaw Race Track.