F08 took quite a departure in engines this year.  We chose to use a normally aspirated Aprilia 550 cc vee twin running on gasoline with Performance Electronics controller.  This engine seemed to have many desirable attributes including weight, power, and dry sump.  This year and the next few years several teams tried to use it, all with very limited success.  We were luckier than most in that we had only minor failures; most other schools blew numerous engines in the process.  Very few could make it through the complete competition without an engine failure.  We finally blew our engine the next year at Texas Motor Speedway.  This car continued with the unsuspended “aero into the anti-roll bar” and had excellent handling.

We took this car to the Michigan International Speedway and would have placed 8th, but after the endurance event was over, one of the tech inspection scrutineers claimed that our rear wing was 1” past the plane of the rear tires and thus disqualified the times in the endurance and fuel economy event.  This was a last minute adjustment that we made before the competition in which we increased the angle of attack of the wing.  The wing was in compliance before we adjusted it.  SAE later wrote a long letter of apology but did not reinstate our points

F08 team members: Tim Patek, Thomas Walter, Tam Nguyen, George Thompson, Drew Waller, Richard Fielder, Eric Leichtle, Blake Hinsey, Ali Karimloo, Alejandro Moreno (seated).

F08 Today

F08 has its engine removed waiting for repair or replacement.