2000-2001

Vandals Racing was begun at the University of Idaho in 2000 by John Ma, Marc O'Dell, Bob Drew, Zac Doerzaph, and a few other industrious young engineering students as a club activity for the Mechanical Engineering Department. With the support of the College of Engineering and Dr. Tony Anderson, they began working on a design for the May, 2001 competition. These students traveled to Pontiac, MI in May to view the competition firsthand, returning home with a fresh set of ideas for their vehicle. The group worked throughout the 2000-2001 school year to complete their vehicle and debuted their work as rookies at the May competition. Their hard work paid dividends as they placed eighth place in the autocross event and 28th place out of 120 schools overall, earning them rookie of the year honors for 2001.

2001-2002

For the 2001-2002 school year, the team format remained the same with a small turnover in team members. With a limited budget and only nine months to design, build, and test a new car, the team finished just in time for the competition. While at competition, rain forced the cancellation of the endurance event, worth 35% of the points, before all teams had a chance to run, including the U of I team. The 2001-2002 Vandals Racing team came home finishing 92nd out of 125 teams.

2002-2003

After the 2001-2002 season, there was a complete turnover of team members on the Vandals Racing team, including the faculty advisor. A new group of eight students began working on the FSAE car as their senior design project under the guidance of Dr. Edwin Odom as faculty advisor, Dr. Steve Beyerlein and Dr. Karl Rink as senior design professors. The Vandals Racing team also enlisted the support of Idaho Engineering Works , NIATT , AutoWare , and several local sponsors to implement a new design. Three underclassmen joined the team and Vandals Racing again made the trip to Pontiac, MI, anxious to see what the competition had in store for this group of first-timers. This new team took fifth place in the skid-pad event and was on pace for a fifteenth place finish of 140 schools before they lost a radiator hose with only two laps to go in the all important endurance event. The team came home 54th place overall.

2003-2004

For the 2003-2004 season, the new team started working throughout the summer to increase horsepower, re-design a differential housing, and design the cooling system for the fall. We once again enjoyed the support of Dean David Thompson, Dr. Odom, and Dr. Beyerlein and are actively seeking additional sponsorships to continue the tradition of learning through hands-on engineering.

2005-2006

The 2006 car was a continuation of the 2005 car. The car was equipped with a custom built differential gear drive; rarely seen in FSAE. The gear drive allowed for better rear weight distribution of approximately 55% in the rear. Additional features included:

1) Innovative Trihubdal Drivetrain
2) Lightweight CNC Wheel Centers
3) Clutch Actuating Shifter
4) Custom Programmed Telemetry Software
5) Motec ECU Control
6) Acoustic Tuning of Intake and Exhuast Manifold
7) Evolutionary Optimization of Frame

At the Detroit competition we placed 58th (out of 125 teams) due to a very unfortunate problem that occured on the track; preventing us from competing in the acceleration event and preventing us from being competitive in all of the other dynamic events.

Nonetheless, we nearly made it design semi-finals (top 20 designs); as we tied some of the teams in the semi-finalists with our design score.

2006-2007

The 2006-2007 team worked on the following:

1) Quiet Muffler
2) Throttle Body
3) Frame
4) Pedal Rail
6) Steering Column
7) Uprights
8) Braking System
9) Planetary Gear Drive
10) Carbon Fiber Intake/Body
11) Exhaust Header

2007-2008

The 2008 car is a continuation of the 2007 car. We will build upon last years designs and finalize the car's packaging. Key areas include:

1) Reliable starting
2) New carbon fiber intake design for broader torque curve
3) New titanium exhaust header for broader torque curve
4) Reinforce pedal rail
5) Improve overall packaging

We plan to take the car to competition in June 2008 at the SAE Formula West in California.