The Strange/Beautiful Cars of the Shell Eco-Marathon
So, you think your car is efficient. Maybe you have a Toyota Prius or a Volkswagen Golf diesel, two cars known for stretching a tank of fuel and going the distance… but they’ve got nothing on the weird looking cars of the Shell Eco-Marathon. These cars, no matter how good or downright ugly they might look, are designed to squeeze every bit of energy out of their small fuel tanks. The winner of the Gas Powered Prototype devision crushed the competition this year in the Americas, turning in a result of 1524.7 kilometers on just one liter of gasoline. In conventional figures that’s 0.066 l/100km or 3586 miles per gallon!
The race, which has races in Europe, Asia and the Americas, is is split into two classes. The Prototype class cars are designed for all out efficiency and streamlining, often leaving creature comforts and practicality behind. The UrbanConcept class designs are aimed at being useful on the street and often feature a more conventional appearance. Cars enter the race in one of 7 categories depending on their fuel source, which can be conventional gasoline and diesel, biofuels, fuel made from natural gas (GTL), hydrogen, solar or electricity.
Because these cars are so efficient, drivers aren’t asked to expend an entire liter worth of fuel… that would just be a crazy long race. Instead, over a number of days, they make multiple attempts at driving a fixed number of laps around the track at a set speed. Later, officials calculate the best efficiency of the car in each category and announce a winner. To learn more about this challenging, entertaining and innovative race, see shell.com.
The Gas Powered Prototype winner for the Americas race: 3586 miles per gallon!
Tag: Cool car Images , Unique car race, stylish cars, concept care, future cars,
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