Students' Eco Car Gets 2,752 Miles Per Gallon

[anamaniac]

Cool.

I could go for a nice efficient bike. Too bad it's winter 8 months a year, 2 months of road repair, and 2 months of almost winter. =(

 

[ta152h]

If 30 MPH is your max speed, I can beat that any day of the week. It's called a horse, and it can go faster than 30 mph, and even produces gas.

 

[enewmen]

You can mount a Honda GXH 50 Engine to your bicycle as a kit, then get 150 mpg.
Or get a smaller GX35cc engine and reach near 200mpg.

I was able to personally ride from the Mexicn border to Anahiem CA on less than 1/2 gal while going 30mph - with some hills! (the fastest legal speed for a motorized bicycle)
The kit is cheap as well..

 

[Guest]

Small moterbikes and mopeds doing more than 200 mpg have been available for more than 15 years.

 

[cekasone]

i went to Cal Poly Pomona, i am proud to see this. congrats guys

 

[cookoy]

96 lbs for engine, chassis, axles, wheels, frames, seats... it's a coffin on wheels!

 

[sanphire]

I was part of a team that entered the Shell Eco Marathon at Ripley, Mill Hill school way back in 1996/7 on a comparatively low budget. Great times - "raced" at the British F1 circuit, Silverstone out of the marble-floored Ferrari scuderia. Our petrol 35cc engined car (made from aluminium frame, balsa wood ribs and a homebrew fuel injection system) was driven by an 14-yr old kid and reigned supreme in the schools category topping 2,800 mpg. Our similar 50cc diesel car ran to 3,700mpg, around 9th in our category. I seem to remember the Japanese teams arriving with carbon-fibre wonders topping 7,500mpg. The trick was to run the engine just long enough to get up to speed and then kill it so the car coasted, then you'd start up the engine again and get back up to speed - not practical for a road car
Best of luck to the CalPoly team - you'll have a blast!

 

[bin1127]

Shell eco-marathon, cause we all know that Shell is the biggest supporter for green technology.

 

[Chris_TC]

Pray you don't get hit by a bicycle, it'll rip this thing apart.

I don't understand the point of this. Of course fuel efficiency goes up the lighter the vehicle, the better its drag coefficient, the less powerful its engine. Everybody knows that. But who would dare drive this car on a highway?

 

[ssddx]

I agree that this is a great learning experience, however, It would be more practical to be working with current gen vehicles than with non-street legal carbon fiber & balsa wood deathtraps. I'd rather see 200 mpg for a 4cyl focus than 1500+ mpg for a toy.

 

[mman74]

[citation][nom]mianmian[/nom]So you can save 1 gallon of gas for paddling 2700 miles.[/citation]
You make a very valid point.

 

[kingnoobe]

LMAO TA. Such bs unless you have a racing horse. And if you pull a buggy behind it even bigger bs. Not to mention the horse would have to stop and rest. Thus the car would end up easily beating the horse, and did you not read all they have to do is change the gear ration.

And don't try to say I don't know what I'm talking about. I've lived around amish damn near all my life. It's not normal for a horse to do 30, and to be honest I'd like to see.

 

[sagansrun]

Totally unpractical. Going in the wrong direction scientifically that is. Might as well get a bicycle.

If they can get a normal car, for normal people to get 2700 miles on a gallon of gas, or a gallon of any combustable liquid, then I would be impressed.

 

[soo-nah-mee]

Tomorrow's news: A group of mechanical engineering students from California Polytechnic State University has mysteriously disappeared after making great strides in gasoline efficiency during the Shell Eco-Marathon competition.

 

[zzzop]

So this modified Honda 3hp 4 stroke engine can run for 91 hours on a gallon of gas? (2752/30 MPH) yea right!

 

[Guest]

Using a Honda engine... euhm wait I thought they made their own engine...

 

[Guest]

I agree with the poster above, this project is designed to train engineering students and get them thinking about the challenges associated with automobile design, not offer a commercial vehicle. Maybe they should raise the bar a bit...design criteria to provide room a family of 4 and groceries.

 

[chomlee]

If special tracks (like train tracks) or tubes were built for these cars and they were computer controlled to help eliminate accidents, I could see a very efficient people mover.

I know it is thinking too futuristicly but if the efficiency is really that good, it would be a way to utilize vehicles such as this. Although, I don't know how much that MPG would go down if you put a 200lb person in it.

 

[Regulas]

I wonder what this cost the taxpayers? Government grant.

 

[mlopinto2k1]

Um, the mpg ratio per horsepower is insane. Why not make it go 100mph and get 1200mpg?? That is retarded. Anything better than 100mpg is nuts.