 The winning team in the Shell Eco Marathon. Click image to enlarge |
Houston, Texas – A student team from Mater Dei High School in Evansville, Indiana has won the 2008 Shell Eco-marathon Americas and set a new mileage record. A team from the University of British Columbia finished fourth in the combustion engine category, followed by Quebec’s Universite Laval in fifth place. The competition challenges student teams to design, build and test fuel-efficient prototype vehicles that travel the farthest distance using the least amount of fuel.
The winning combustion-engine prototype achieved an equivalent of 1,208.6 km per litre, or 2,843.4 US miles per gallon. Three teams broke the mileage record set by Cal Poly in 2007.
The 2008 challenge included 32 teams from four high schools and 23 universities from Canada, Mexico and the U.S. Of the entries, 25 vehicles were powered by combustion engines, four by fuel cell/hydrogen technology, one by diesel fuel, one by liquid petroleum gas (LPG) and two by solar power.
The diesel winner, entered by the College of the Redwoods in California, achieved 129.4 km per litre (304.5 US mpg). Schurr High School in Montebello, California ran an LPG vehicle that achieved 69.5 km per litre (163.5 US mpg); Penn State’s winning fuel cell/hydrogen vehicle achieved 709.1 km per litre (1,668.3 US mpg) and the Purdue Solar Racing Team of West Lafayette, Indiana won the solar division with an equivalent of 1,216.4 km per litre (2,861.8 US mpg).
The 17-member team from Universite Laval was on hold for two days waiting for their vehicle to clear U.S. customs. With only one day left to compete, the Canadian team worked well into the night to fully assemble their car and clear inspection within 12 hours. In their first attempt, the team from Quebec moved into fifth place.
“It was a nice outcome that we got the car,” Raphael Desiletes-Aube said. “We used the spare time to organize the fastest way to reassemble the vehicle. Once the car got here, it really motivated my team members to push harder so we could get the car out on the track.”
Event photos, complete results, videos, and pod casts are available at www.shell.com/us/ecomarathon .
