Cal Poly’s Supermileage Vehicle Team is entering two cars in this year’s Shell Eco-Marathon Americas. Each of the 15 team members is under pressure to finish the cars by March, when they hope to reclaim the grand prize in the competition. More than 500 students from North and South America will compete to see whose car is the most fuel-efficient and produces the fewest emissions.
The difference between the Supermileage Vehicle Team and other car clubs on campus is their focus, said Verent Chan, team manager and mechanical engineering senior.
“Our goal is fuel economy whereas other teams are purely about speed,” he said.
Chan added that they use regular gasoline in the competition, which shows the potential for using fuel more efficiently instead of turning to alternative energy.
“I think a lot of people assume we use solar energy, but we use a combustion engine and normal, unleaded gasoline you can buy at a Shell,” he said.
The team is racing one vehicle in the “futuristic prototype” category and another in the “urban concept” category. This is its first time racing an “urban concept” vehicle, which will be nearly street-legal. The concept for the urban concept vehicle came last December; so far they’ve finished the frame and engine. The car has four wheels and will weigh under 200 pounds.
Gabe Mountjoy, a mechanical engineering sophomore, is working on attaching the rear wheels to the car’s carbon fiber chassis. His and other team members’ projects will contribute to the complete car — but getting all the pieces to work together is the hardest part, Mountjoy said.
“It’s like a large puzzle with many pieces,” he explained.
The Supermileage Vehicle Team is also competing in the “futuristic prototype” category using the same car they raced last year, but with internal modifications. It has three wheels and weighs about 95 pounds.
The Shell Eco-Marathon began in 1939 when Shell Oil Company’s laboratory employees argued about whose car was more fuel-efficient; the winner of that race achieved 50 mpg. Canada’s Laval University team holds the futuristic prototype record with 2,757.1 mpg and a team from Mater Dei High School, Indiana, won the first urban concept race last year with 433.3 mpg.
Cal Poly won the grand prize in 2007 at the inaugural Marathon in the Americas with 1,902.7 mpg, but they set a new team record for fuel efficiency in 2008 with 2,752.3 mpg.
The two drivers this year, Timothy Liu and Michelle Fong, were chosen for their small size and low weight, due to the cars’ compact size.
Lui, a mechanical engineering sophomore, said most of the stress of being a driver comes from managing speed and time. He’ll start the engine and get up to 30 mph, then turn it off and coast until the car is moving at 7 or 8 mph, then begin the process again, he said. This helps the car get the most mileage out of its gas.
Each driver will drive for about 40 minutes at a time, stopping to check the car and fix minor damage.
When Lui joined the team as a freshman he had to learn quickly, he said.
“I didn’t know much of anything through the year but I kept listening and tinkering and eventually it soaked in,” Lui said.
Though he may not end up working in the industry, Lui the experience of how to go about tackling problems like those he encounters with these cars will be there. He added that what the teams learn about making fuel-efficient cars during the Marathon impacts engineers’ mindset about efficiency and performance trade-offs when designing everyday cars.
Like Lui, Anthony Fong, a computer engineering sophomore, didn’t really know a lot about cars before joining the team after meeting them at Open House before coming to Cal Poly.
He said he’s not really that big of a car person, but likes the people on the team, who he said was amazed to learn are very smart and friendly.
“The car is cool but the car doesn’t talk to you,” he said.
Chan said the event is competitive without being cutthroat and the teams are actually friendly, even trading or loaning supplies when needed. The Supermileage Vehicle Team borrowed an electric starter motor from the University of Colorado team when it broke at the marathon last year.
The event has been held in California since its launch in the Americas in 2007, but this year, it will be in Houston, Texas, from March 26-28, 2010. It is the first time the race will occur on a street course.There are Shell Eco-Marathons in Asia and Europe as wll.
The team meets Thursdays during UU Hour in building 13, room 109, and Saturdays at 10 a.m. in the Research Development building. Car enthusiasts and others interested can view the team’s progress on their blog at cpsmv.blogspot.com.