In 1996 the student chapter of SAE was established at the University of Delaware with the intent of competing in the International Formula SAE event held at year's end in Michigan. The Society was begun on campus primarily through the efforts of a core of student members that were highly dedicated to this cause. Dr. John Lambros agreed to become faculty advisor to the club after seeing the seriousness of the students. Our activities began in September of 1996 with the beginning of fall semester. The club accumulated about 40 members (including 2 graduate students and two non-engineering majors) of which 15 were active on a regular basis in the design and fabrication of our vehicle. Several of the initial months of our effort were occupied by considerable fund raising efforts. These efforts were made by the students and Dr. Lambros through mailings to numerous companies and through personal contacts and visits. The process was extremely time consuming and consequently delayed the preparation of the vehicle itself. However, a large amount of funds were raised. Approximately $3,600 were raised in cash. (This excludes $3,000 promised to the club by the College and $500 by the Department of Mechanical Engineering.) Additionally, substantial contributions totaling approximately $12,000 were made in kind and in discounts from various companies. Our sponsors included Futura Coatings Inc., W. L. Gore, Oryx Technologies, Velocity Sport Tuning Inc., European Import Performance, BFGoodrich, Hard-core DuPont and Brewed Awakenings. Total contributions in cash and kind to the club were approximately $21,000. Note that although the nominal cost of the car was not to exceed $8,500, a much larger amount of funding is necessary for completion of the project since other expenses are also incurred (tools, spare parts, consumables, safety equipment, driving suits and helmets, travel to competition etc.).
In addition to financial difficulties, a second problem facing the club was the lack of appropriate working space. For some time our activities were sheltered in the senior design room in Spencer laboratory, but during spring 97 semester, the most critical time for the actual fabrication of the car, that room was no longer available. A lot of the fabrication was performed at the Center for Composite Materials (CCM) across the street, but most of the parts were scattered around at students houses, many of whom had to convert their personal garage to working space. Most of the machining work was done at an outside machine shop (Jake's Restoration) who was kind enough to open his doors to the UD-SAE team on a 24hr basis. In working conditions such as these a lot of time was wasted merely moving the appropriate components from one place to the other. In addition, without a permanent space in the department in which the UD-SAE students could work, they felt neglected from the department and the college which bred feelings of isolation and bitterness among them. Nevertheless, with superhuman effort on the part of the students during the weeks preceding the competition, the car was ready to be taken to Detroit in time for the competition. However, no lengthy amount of time was available to test the car before that.
In 2007, the team travelled to Detroit for competition once again. Though plagued with mechanical problems, they made a strong showing, and finished in the top half of the standings. Car 27 was one of about 35 to complete the enduro, and was the first car from Delaware to do so.
Today, the team resides in 137 Spencer Lab. The room is located very close to the University of Delaware Mechanical Engineering machine shop. There are about 15 current active members who routinely ensure the optimum performance, throughout the designing, manufacturing, assembly, and driving of the team’s racecars.