7,000 MPG Car Wins Eco-marathon

[charper1]

Every year, Shell (yes, the giant evil oil company) puts on a little PR banquet in the name of vehicle efficiency called the Eco-Marathon. It's part of the long-standing tradition of oil companies blaming car companies for the excesses of the fossil fuel economy while car companies just as joyfully blame oil companies.

Nonetheless, it's a fun little event where teams get together and figure out how efficient vehicles really can be. And they can indeed be very efficient. By bringing the weight of the vehicles way down, putting them on high-pressure bike tires, and making the vehicles as obscenely aerodynamic as possible, these cars easily get thousands of miles per gallon.

The team from the French technical school St. Joseph La Joliverie went 7,148 miles on a single gallon of fuel. The Shell website is quick to point out that that's "almost ten miles per teaspoon." Maybe the body isn't the most efficient vehicle after all.

In any case... it gives you a sense for just how much power is contained in a gallon of gasoline. It's too bad we've been pretty much pouring it down the drain for the last few decades.


NOTE

2006 Euro Champs Visit America
Team ESSTIN – Ecole Superieure des Sciences et Technologies de L’Ingenieur de Nancy – gave the inaugural American Eco-marathon the one thing it lacked: tradition.



As the winners of the 2006 Eco-marathon Europe, averaging 11,634 miles per gallon at the event in Rockingham

 

[rpd203]

And where can I buy one of these cars? 1 gallon of gas lasting nearly a year, that'd be awesome!

 

[darrencp22]

If this car can go up to 65mph, sign me up for one.

 

[TheForce]

Damn! That thing goes just by the smell of gasoline.

 

[navychop]

And nobody sells a high mileage (or electric) commuter car.

Can't somebody sell a simple commuter- short range, low top speed (35-45 mph), lousy acceleration, seats 2? With a really small, lighter engine so the trade off we get is HIGH mileage? Doesn't need to be an intercity traveler.

And not a hybrid that might have life cycle costs actually higher than an equivalent gasser.

$10,000 - $15,000? Heck, even charge $20,000 or $25,000 - if it gets HIGH mileage! How about 60, 70 or 80 mpg in the city? I'd buy now and park my truck!

You think maybe "somebody" might speak Mandarin?

 

[Peter Parker]

With my luck I would buy one of these and get no better than 6,000 miles to the gallon.

 

[Van]

Theres a proffesor in Japan thats made an electric that does just as good as combustion engine based cars for performance and mileage but the car companies will only look at it and drop jaws at its abilities but wont touch it past that.

Keep something in mind with these vehicles that get this huge gas mileage, they are only save enough to protect you from a head on collision with a fruit fly and they do use bicycle wheels to ride on.

 

[charper1]

Correct Van, and in there lies a lot of the issue with the situation; do we want better millage, power, range, efficiency or more safety which almost always ads huge cost (to be light) or weight to lower that huge cost. We are always in the damned if we do, damned if we don't. We COULD make this car more of a reality and pretty damn close to they safety many of our 4000lb or more cars and trucks get, will it have the same range as its combustion counterparts? BUT with the materials and production costs, the cost for these cars would skyrocket I bet. Then bring on the economic wars of words, politics and lawsuits that we only make safe, efficient cars for the wealthy. I can see it now!

 

[Van]

I think I remember that the engines on some of these cars were about the strength of a lawn mower engine but its been a while.

 

[riffjim4069]

I think I remember that the engines on some of these cars were about the strength of a lawn mower engine but its been a while.

...along with the seating area the size of a coffin, an array of solar panels, mast and sail to ride the breeze, and a hose and Vaseline used to funnel bio-methane directly into the vehicles fuel supply. All this and a top speed of 1 mile per hour. Me? I'll take the 50+ MPG Toyota Prius Hybrid. What we need are more practical vehicles completing in this eco-marathon.

 

[navychop]

IIRC, it only takes 10-20 hp to keep the average car at hwy speeds. But a heck of a lot more to accelerate to those speeds.

 

[Van]

There was a program a while ago that fitted city busses in Australia with a system that captured the energy from the brakes when they were applied and stored it in high pressure cylinders wich could then be released during exceleration to decrease the load on the engine wich is where alot of fuel is spent. This is something that came out about 10 - 15 years ago and I havent heard anything from it since. The other technology was something that Chrysler had prior to the Germans taking them over that utilized hydrolic electric motors at the wheels instead of a transmission that were liquid cooled. They debuted it at the Detroit auto show on a Sebring back around 95 or so and it purportedly increase gas mileage and power at the wheels while reducing the size of the engine and using batteries for storage of energy, again another technology that hasnt been used in the form it was presented.