Team History

The University of New Hampshire is home to a program called UNH Precision Racing. UNH Precision Racing is a non-profit Student Organization created by a small group of University of New Hampshire Mechanical Engineering students in 2003.

The goal of UNH Precision Racing is to build a scaled open-wheel, formula-style race car to enter in the annual Formula SAE event held in Detroit, Michigan. The vehicle is completely designed and constructed by students and, in addition, they do all of their own fundraising. The annual working budget is roughly $30,000.

Season I

2003 to 2004: Car 36 is born. Being the first year for UNH Precision Racing, development of designs was nearly non-existent. The team was small and lacked support, adequate funding and a general knowledge of Formula SAE design and fabrication. Through these struggles the team managed to successfully complete the car. At competition, the car passed SAE's intense technical safety inspection and successfully completed every event except for the endurance race.

Team: Chris Bova, James Deloid, Kevin Jerram, Alex Kilar, Stephen Hochrider, Ethan Lessard, Evan Levine, Nate Purmort, John Tansey, Todd Wyman.

Season II

2004 to 2005: Car 61 is born. Car 61 was designed under a new design philosophy that suspension is the most important part of a racecar and should therefore be designed first. The chasis was entirely redesigned to allow the driver to lean further back, thus lowering the center of gravity. In addition, the car's overall height was significantly reduced and the car sat lower to the ground than Car 36 did. Larger steps were also taken in suspension and drivetrain design, something not seen on car 36.

Like the previous year, the team felt the pressure of time and took many short cuts to get the job done. In the end, this led to controls failure. The clutch cable broke during the second to last acceleration run, earning the deam a DNF (Did Not Finish). The repair took too long, causing the team to miss the skid pad event. The team earned a second DNF. During the Endurance race the first driver completed his 11 lap run but the third driver lost fuel pressure on his eigth lap (caused by a bad electrical connection to the fuel pump).

Team: Thomas Ackerman, Gregory Babbin, R. Brandon Bell, Jesse Bodwell, Chris Bova, Graham Dowie, Chris Gaudreau, Joe Gendron, Dave Hopkins, Mike DiFranco, Mirsad Jusufovic, Jason Kendall, Alex Kilar, Shelby Jones, Ethan Lessard, Robin Littlefield, Joe Mardo, Randy Naylor, Josh Pearl, Jeff Peterson, Nathan Purmort, Michael Shaw, Mike Siopis, Derek St. Gelais, Edward Sutton, John Tansey, Matt Tom, Stan Weed.

Season III

2005 to 2006: Car 49 was born. Backed by stronger faculty and student support, this was a revolutionary season for the team. In an attempt to create a lighter chasis, the team used FEA analysis to create a mature frame concept. In addition, the engine and drive-train went through significant design revisions compared to car 61. Basic fuel, timing, and compensation maps were developed by utilizing an engine dynamometer. Advanced maps squeezed 80 wheel horsepower out of the motor in the end, courtesy of TDC Tuning. The team switched the drive-train from a spool setup to a limited slip differential which utilized a Torsen limited slip center differential.

Car 49 was completed earlier than the previous seasons, resulting in some valuable practice time for the student drivers. The car looked and performed wonderfully. Unfortunately, the lower left-fron A-arm collapsed during a practice session. Furthermore, during the endurance event at competition the lower right-front A-arm also collapsed (with just three laps remaining!). Despite these shortcomings, the team placed 10th overall in acceleration and 29th overall in the presentation event. These results helped push the team to a 66th place finish, out of over 100 teams. This was UNH Precision Racing's best result to date. Had the team completed the endurance event, a top 40 position was guaranteed.

Team: Ben Bancroft, Jose Baugh, Jesse Bodwell, John Bracket, R. Brandon Bell, Scott Caisse, Carin Campbell, Dan Carter, Dave Ciasulli, Cam Ciccone, Eric Delanoy, Graham Dowie, Stuart Fricke, Tania Grindrod, Dave Hopkings, Shelby Jones, Ilya Karnauk, Tyler Kelley, Chris LaCon, Steve Lafaille, Mark LaFrance, Sara Lincoln, Robbin Littlefield, Josh Lizotte, Keith Matthews, John McLaughlin, Jeff Peterson, Marcus Proctor, Nate Purmort, Eric Rines, Brett Schuster, Derek St. Gelais, Joe Super, Tripp Sutton, John Tansey, Pat Vincent, Stan Weed.

Season IV

2006-2007: Car 42 was born. Car 42 was the biggest step in engineering and design by UNH to date. That year the seniors went above and beyond all expectations, taking all of the good things from the past years’ cars and applying it to car 42. The team was also taking shape, becoming a UNH sanctioned school organization with the biggest member of any organization on campus! The team was also made up of the biggest class of seniors at eleven, which by this time had been on the team for the last 4 years giving them invaluable experience.
            Car 42 was built using the R6, previously used on car 49. With major engine modifications and intake design the car was able to produce increased power leaving the team with the most powerful car built to date. This was also the first car to use a pull-rod type suspension system, which helped lower the center of gravity of the car, and stick to the pavement. With all of the design and analysis, plus the hard work from the team, car 42 placed 14th in design; this placed UNH in the ranks of 8-time FSAE champion Cornell and MIT. The competition concluded with UNH having one of the best-designed cars and most reliable, leaving with our highest placement at 51st!

 

Senior Design Team: R. Brandon Bell, Brian Burbank, Dan Carter, Graham Dowie, Joe Gendron, Robin Littlefield, Jennifer Mann, Adam Mowry, Marcus Proctor, Eric Rines, Barret Wolber. Underclassmen: Scott Hiland, Michele Pelletier, Brandon Courcy, Andrew Lord, Justin Courcy, Pete Stergios, Taylor Peterson, Addison Masse, Carin Campbell, John Laakso, Garret Partridge, Dan Madnick, Pat Vincenti.

Season V

2007-2008: Car 36 is born. After the 2006-2007 season the team was bigger and better than ever. After placing so well last year the team had high hopes for the coming year and decided to change direction. Major goals were set and completed by the end of the season. The biggest goal was to take car 42 and drop below 500 pounds. By the end of the season car 36 weighed a mere 419 pounds! Along with dropping weight, the team also changed to a Yamaha 1-cylinder yf450z, which included converting the intake from carburetion to fuel injection.
            With the hard work and determination of the 12 seniors, they were able to place 18th in Cost and Manufacturing, making car 36 one of the easiest and cheapest car built in the team’s history.
            The team also raised the most funds at a whopping $53,000 thanks to our generous sponsors. The team also acquired a trailer to haul cars, parts, and tools. This was the first time in team history that a trailer has been the sole property of UNH Precision Racing. This helps the team go to car shows, and racing events to pomote the UNH mechanical engineering program and FSAE.

 

Senior Design Team: Yuliya Barushka, Chris Bickford, Scott Caisse, Brandon Courcy, Justin Courcy, Mike Difranco, Adam Karlgren, John Laakso, Aidan McAllister, Eric Mesmer, Greg Tully.

Season VI

2008-2009: Car 86 is born.

 

Senior Design Team: Matthew Borowski, Carin Campbell,Mike DeGaetano, David Garneau, Ben Lewis, Philippe Lord, Keith Matthews, Eric McKenzie, Kurt Raisanen, Brendan Rickard, Jeremy Seiferth, Derek Smith, Joshua Spaulding, Kyle Tierney, E. Stanly Weed