Supermileage Car Coasts to the Finish Line
S. Himmelstein | June 26, 2017The carburetor engine has served students in the Society of Automotive Engineers Club at Penn State Erie, The 
The team's vehicle traveled 2,418 miles on one gallon of gas. Image credit: Penn State BehrendBehrend College, well. The engine helped them secure two first-place finishes since 2012 in the International Supermileage Challenge, a competition that challenges teams to design vehicles that get the most mileage out of a single tank of high-octane gasoline.
The student designers recently swapped out the carburetor engine for a fuel-injection engine and finished second in this year’s 38th annual competition. The revamped vehicle traveled 2,418 miles on one gallon of gas.
The engine is well-suited for the “burn and coast” method of driving that the team uses. At the start of the competition, the driver starts the engine, accelerates for a bit and then turns the engine off to coast the remainder of the course. It’s an intentional attempt at fuel conservation.
The vehicle measures around eight-feet long and less than two-feet high. Its lightweight, aerodynamic design contributes to the fuel efficiency it delivers.
In the future, the team’s goal is to travel 3,000 miles on a single gallon of gas. This year’s first-place team, Université Laval, which also uses a fuel-injection engine, finished with 4,113 miles.
I'm a bit perplexed. Why is this article about a 2nd place team that uses fuel injection and was able to squeak 2,418 miles out of a gallon of gas when the 1st place team, also using fuel injection, was able to travel 4,113 miles?
While the accelerate and coast method may be interesting, I'm more interested in how Universite' Laval was able to go more than 70% farther.
In reply to #1
Pesky details.
Is there a minimum transported weight, and a minimum allowable cross-sectional area to these super-mileage competition vehicles? What kind of payload do they carry? Any payload?
Autonomous, with no passenger?
I want a luxury Sedan that gets 166 mpg, but no one in Detroit is making that for some odd reason, even though it is really very simple in principle to do using existing low mass hydraulic motors, hydraulic accumulators, and a specially designed opposing piston (fuel-injected at computer controlled self-ignition point during compression) motor/hydraulic pump, where the motor and pump are integrated as one assembly. I want one of those.
Accurate News!! So, the 'Americans' who won this event are Canadians <https://www.ulaval.
In reply to #3
Not.
"I didn't lose. I got second. That's still winning. How could I be unhappy with second place? There are a million people who would love to be in my position." -Lauren Alaina