Ball State students have built a car from scratch that can get 90 miles per gallon.
Students from the Department of Industry and Technology have been working on this car all year so they could attend the April 26 "Super Mileage Challenge" at the Indianapolis Raceway Park. The competition was open to high school and collegiate racers, but Ball State was the only university in attendance.
This car is unlike any other car on the road. The first difference is most cars don't hope to achieve 40 miles per gallon, let alone 90. However, the biggest difference is that this car has three wheels and rides close to the ground. All of the cars have a three-horsepower Briggs & Stratton engine, which is strong enough to run a lawn mower.
All cars in the stock category have the same type of engine that can't be modified. The rest of the vehicle may be altered and changed, but the engine must remain the same.
"The first car you build, which this one is for us, is always the toughest because you have nothing to base it on," team advisor Scott Warner said. "You have no history."
All drivers must weigh exactly 150 pounds. Ball State team members chose Dana Charlesworth to be their driver because she was the smallest amongst the group. However, she still had to wear scuba diver weights around her waist to meet the 150 pound requirement. These requirements keep all of the contestants on an equal playing field.
Each team had 25 minutes to complete the 10 laps around the 0.68 mile track. The judges weighed the gas tanks before and after the race. The goal is to use as little gas as possible and end with as many miles per gallon as possible.
Last year's winner won with 1,430 miles per gallon. When the drivers finish, judges weigh the remaining gas and take the average of the best three runs. Ball State accelerated up the track curves and then killed the engine, coasting down the straightaways in an effort to conserve fuel. The whole purpose of this event is to maximize a car's fuel economy.
The Ball State team was only able to finish one complete 10-lap trip around the track, a little under 90 miles per gallon. Their clutch broke leaving them no choice but to call it a day. Though they were unable to finish the entire race, everyone was happy with their success.
"Despite what happened," Charlesworth said, "I think we learned a lot from today. We wish we could have had a few more runs... get better mileage, but we completed the 10 laps that no one thought we could complete. We were pretty impressed with that."
Warner said the team attended the race not intending to win, but to gain experience and learn strategies and designs from other drivers.
"(We went) to satisfy our own desire to build one of these things and to get our feet wet so that we could improve," he said. "(To) learn from what we did this year so that we can build a better car next year."
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