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New Car Gets 3,000 MPG

Students at Cal Poly University use superlight carbon fiber and bike parts to keep the vehicle's weight down.

By Claire_Martin Mar 30, 2012 12:10PM
Image from ShamanOfTheLIGHT on YouTube.Driving across country on a single tank of gas is suddenly possible -- in theory. A new, tiny, gold car with a bullet-shaped front section, called the Lamina, gets 3,000 mpg. Designed by students at California Polytechnic University for the annual 2012 Shell Eco Marathon, the vehicle maxes out at 25 mph, so it would be an extremely long coast-to-coast trip. But still, the fuel-saving concepts behind the Lamina are worth a closer look.

Size and weight are key. The designers used superlight carbon fiber, special low-resistance tires with BMX bike rims and a modified Honda generator, creating a vehicle that weighs just 70 pounds. "We aimed to create a modular engine and drive train in a single unit that can be taken out for tuning," Cal Poly team member Ann Peters wrote in a National Geographic blog post. "Lamina utilizes a ... technique in which the external skin of the vehicle, instead of an internal frame, supports the structural load." 

The 50-cc engine allows for a driving style called "burn and coast" in which the driver runs the engine to get up to speed, and then cuts it and coasts for as long as possible. "If you have to slam on your brakes when you come to a stop, you've probably used too much [fuel] to get there," Gabriel Mountjoy, a member of the Cal Poly design team, told Fox News (see below). "So that's just wasted fuel every time you put on your brakes."
The student designers concede that combining all of the weight- and fuel-saving concepts they used for the Lamina isn't practical for regular cars, but each could be applied individually. And overall, our vehicles could already be far more fuel-efficient than they are. "You can actually get 100 miles per gallon even in a truck or something that isn't nearly as sleek or small as this thing," Mountjoy said. "It's really just sizing an engine properly for your car. We don't need all that extra horsepower that people love."

The Lamina will make its debut in Houston this weekend at the Shell Eco Marathon, an annual contest that challenges students to build the world's most fuel-efficient vehicle with the fewest emissions.
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7Comments
nkBoilermaker
Apr 16, 2012 4:11AM
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Put a 4 cylinder perkins diesel in a ford ranger and bingo, 50 miles to the gallon.
iowabigboy
Apr 16, 2012 6:14AM
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Its about time Someone Said it..

WE waist to MUch Gas On macho Engine sounds..
Minimal is best..
Jade Snow
Apr 16, 2012 5:37AM
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25 mph, just slow enough to point and laugh at the idiot at the gas station filling his/her gas-guzzling super-chromed-out, lifted, nonsense truck that never goes off road.
Michguy82
Apr 16, 2012 6:36AM
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This is unrealistic. You know what if people want to use gas guzzling trucks, let them it is a free country. The real issue is that our morons in government will not allow the drilling of huge untapped oil reserves that could produce billions of barrels of oils. Estimates say enough to last 100 years or more.
3SGTE
Apr 16, 2012 7:02AM
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funny this is power to go slow as fark...... ppl love good cars with goood HP not cheap **** slow cars that can be EQ as a walking car LOL...
Paul XL
Apr 16, 2012 5:17AM
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if you can't fit a person in it  it doesn't count as a car
Ratyy
Apr 16, 2012 12:56AM
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That's ****in awesome!
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