By Madeline Reinsel

This past spring semester, in the noisy workroom of the College of Engineering’s Maker Garage, several undergraduate students gathered around the metal frame of a small car. They were at work on the car’s accumulator, a box that holds batteries, fuses, wiring and a battery management system – “all of the dangerous stuff,” according to Josh Woodburn.

He and his fellow students, part of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Ram Racing team, have refilled the tank – figuratively, that is – both within their ranks and on the track. After the pandemic put the brakes on Ram Racing’s membership and momentum, these student engineers are building their new dream – an electric car – and preparing for national competition next spring.

The club’s newest car and first electric vehicle will ultimately weigh about 500 pounds and hit top speeds of around 75 mph. Next spring, the undergraduate students plan to take the car to the annual Formula SAE competition, a national design challenge for which college students build and race small Formula-style cars.

Ram Racing gets back on track

VCU‘s Formula SAE team got its start in the early 2010s, and members attended their first competition in 2017 with a gas-powered car dubbed VCU-01. And though that car couldn’t race due to safety issues, the Ram Racing team returned to competition in Nebraska in 2019 to successfully race its second car, VCU-02, which also ran on a traditional internal combustion engine.

But the COVID-19 pandemic was the equivalent of a racing red flag, bringing the team to essentially a full stop. The club dwindled to only a handful of members, forced to meet virtually to discuss their new dream: an electric car.

“The members at the time decided that they would put a lot of research into an electric vehicle, because it’s probably the future of every car,” said Woodburn, a mechanical and nuclear engineering major who is Ram Racing’s current president.

Though all of those pandemic-era team members are no longer VCU students, the current team decided to stick with the electric vehicle, which they plan to race at the spring 2026 Formula SAE competition.

So while the revamped Ram Racing is still gearing up for its next national appearance, the club’s very existence is a comeback story of its own. Today, the group boasts approximately 30 active members. Many are also enrolled each semester in a course run through VCU’s multidisciplinary, team-based Vertically Integrated Projects program, where they focus on the car’s higher-level research and design.

“I have trust in the students, 100 percent,” said Charles Cartin, Ph.D., the director of the College of Engineering Makerspaces and a professor of mechanical and nuclear engineering, who instructs the VIP course. “They are doing extensive, in-depth research concerning their overall vehicle design to meet or exceed the overall requirements for competition. They are doing a wonderful job.”

While some members join Ram Racing with relevant automotive skills, such as welding, others learn from teammates or school trainings.

“It’s been impressive how much the club has been rebuilt,” said Adam Bechtol, also a mechanical and nuclear engineering major and the club’s project manager.

Practice makes perfect

The team hasn’t started testing the new electric car yet, but members have been practicing their driving skills by taking VCU-02 to local autocross events, which typically are obstacle courses marked out by cones. There, they compete against other drivers in a variety of car styles on a technical racetrack, which includes both straightaways and slalom-style elements.

And Ram Racing has found success at those local competitions, placing third out of 102 cars at a time trial in May. VCU-02’s light weight and fast acceleration help it outperform full-size cars on short, technical autocross tracks.

“Even though on a Formula One track we would be destroyed, we’re building it for our competition and autocrosses, and that’s why we beat $150,000 Porsches,” said Woodburn, a senior who joined the club in his sophomore year, inspired by his childhood love of cars and racing.

“I did a lot of Go-Karting as a child,” he said. “I would go to Cars and Coffees” – community gatherings of car enthusiasts – “and watch Formula One as well.”

Woodburn’s childhood Go-Karting may have prepared him to drive VCU-02, which perches drivers just a few inches above the pavement. Driving the car feels significantly snappier than driving a regular passenger vehicle, several Ram Racing members said, and it’s much easier to spin out.

“You’re going to feel everything to a higher degree than you would in a road car,” said Ronin Harper, a mechanical and nuclear engineering major and the team’s primary competition driver. “So, imagine that the car is kind of on a knife’s edge, like you’re walking on a tightrope when compared to driving a normal car.”

There’s also no power steering. But unlike a professional Formula One car, which can reach speeds exceeding 200 mph, the team’s vehicle tops out at around 70 mph.

“For someone that realistically is not going to get to Formula One, it’s the closest you’re going to get to that,” Harper said. “But obviously at lower speeds.”

The Formula SAE national competition that Ram Racing plans to attend next spring will test VCU-03 both on and off the track, with a strong emphasis on driver safety. VCU-02 is equipped with a six-point safety harness, arm restraints and a roll cage, as well as a fire suit for the car’s driver.

“It’s definitely not comfortable to sit in the car, but it definitely is safe,” Woodburn said.

The team has also seen success at VCU: Two car-related projects completed by VIP team members recently won third place overall and second place in mechanical engineering at the College of Engineering’s 2025 Capstone Expo.

Looking to the future

Despite forward progress, Ram Racing is still looking to increase membership, and especially to recruit more members with electrical engineering experience. The club also would like to increase funding by connecting with additional businesses, for discounts, sponsorships and services, in Richmond and beyond.

“The support that we’ve had has been wonderful and gotten us to the point where we are now,” Woodburn said. “But it’s hard to design an electric vehicle for the first time.”

Still, Ram Racing is on track for the 2026 Formula SAE competition. For Woodburn, it’s the culmination of a dream he’s had since visiting VCU as a high school student.

“When I was touring colleges and seeing what student organizations were available, and I saw a Formula SAE team where you’re building a race car – it was really the first time that I was like, I need to be in that club,” he said. “It was a no-brainer to join.”