Automobile Project

A car without a load of unnecessary electronics and superfluous sensors to go wrong but still having the benefits of engine management and good fuel consumption.
Del

employ a braking system that uses braking energy to charge a cell phone rather than wasting that energy as heat

Change a tire, change the air in a tire, check the battery, replace an alternator on a V-8 (may take too long for a project), clean the inside of the windshield, replace a muffler, add windshield washer fluid, replace a tire with a donut spare, install a trailer hitch, use the cigarette lighter, program a GPS, clean out my wife's glove compartment, find the label that has the tire pressures on it, open a trunk from inside it, find the ignition switch on a Lincoln MKZ, find a rest room on the Garden State Parkway, figure out what the toll is on the Ohio Tpk, find a parking spot on my street, find the secondary latch on a Ford F-150 Pick-up hood, find a cheap parking garage in Mid-town Manhattan, find a way home after your car has been stolen, find someone to road rage with, find a drive-in movie, replace a serpentine fan belt, install some fuzzy dice, put a continental rear on a '56 Ford, install a Chevy 409, take out a small block Chevy engine, find the right shift pattern on a Hurst transmission handle adapter, find a gas station when you dashboard says "15 miles to empty", find a gas station that has a clean rest room, try to get away with drinking 3 beers when going through a DWI check point, find your insurance card in the stuffed glove compartment when the cop asks for it, find the rattle in the door that annoys you to no end, find the lock for the trunk key in a dark alley, convince the dealer's service manager that the repair you need is still under the warranty, figure out how to close the sun roof when it starts to rain and finally figure out how to set the pre-sets on the radio.

All of the above projects may be more difficult than an engineering basic project but try one of them to impress the instructor.

Good Luck, Old Salt

Try to find a way to use the surface area of the vehicle to convert the sun's energy to recharge some of the energy used to drive the vehicle.