California Team Achieves Over 1,900 MPG in Shell Eco-Marathon Americas

US or IMP Gallon? Significant difference!!

The article does not say but since the contest was held in California (USA) it would be safe to assume US gallons.

...you never know, it would make it easy for them if they had an Imp Gallon, that is aproximately 0.2 US Gallons more = 20% more mileage oer gallon!

That is about 380 more miles per gallon if my maths are correct!!!!

It should be stated and not simply assumed......

Well, I can't disagree with you on that. Assumptions can be down right embarrasing and I try to avoid them. In this case I felt the logic supported the conclusion but, as you say, you never know.

Who was driving was it a mouse? you have to keep the weight down.

must have been. In school our SAE Supermilage team would recruit the most petit student in the department to be the driver...they just steer (or try not to steer) since the accelerator is all computer controlled.

I don't think it would a "car that's meant to be driven" like people say about most sportscars...they would just need an autopilot that would perfectly follow the car in front....then you could sleep on the way to work.

I patiently await the day that these kinds of supemilage design principles will trickle down to road cars. Not the hulking +2000lb behemoths we drive today (I won't even start to say what I think about SUVs and the like) but real, single person commuters. After driving with my kids down the HOV lane it's absolutely astonishing how many people will just sit there in stand-still traffic, all in the name of CONVENIENCE to be able to drive themselves to work...the irony being that I too drive myself to work in a car with 100 too many horsepower and 4 empty seats.

Of course large vehicles would have to be condemmed to specific roads (or specific roads rededicated to these cars) for safety reasons if there is such a differential in the kinetic energy.

I see two scenarios. Either we continue driving the vehicles we have and gradually use up our oil reserves and drive the alternative fuel market into a frenzy or we go through the trouble and inconvenience of some lifestyle changes (bye bye Escalade & friends) and take our technological skill to make some changes that will significantly change our need for excessive power to transport ourselves around.

I wish cities and governments would continue with this "hybrids and super efficient cars can drive in the HOV lanes" idea and change the rules so it pushes everyone to not just go spend more money on a trendy hybrid (seriously...the "hybrid" part that recovers energy does nothing if you're cruising down a hiway...particularly in a HOV lane where you're not stopping because of traffic) and make create more incentives to go smaller and lighter. Cram in all the tech you want but the physics of the whole problem is heavy vehicles require more energy to accelerate and the energy recovery systems in hybrids can only do so much to save a bit of that energy.

If a dedicated network of roads (feeding a downtown core and criss-crossing about to get you within a few blocks of anywhere) where nothing weighed more than few hundred pounds and travelled with computer optimised speeds so your car adapts its speed to the events surrounding it (making any accidents minor fender benders and paint scratches) people could get to to work (or wherever) using a minimal amount of energy or at least get close enough to be able to walk or take public transit.

Funny (pronounced "ironic") how so much is possible but the people with the decision making power (gov't) never has the intestinal fortitude to make any changes.

P.S. I'm not associated with them but here's one project that I'm following and interested in buying a kit once they're available...we need more of this sort of thing.