[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by rohrt

Those competitions are interesting but far from any type of real world driving.

The competition should be hauling a family of 4 1200 miles in 16 hours.

C'mon. You don't think you could get 4 people in this?



True story time: back when we were doing this the minimum driver weight was 150 lbs.

We had one team member (happened to be my college room mate and best man in my wedding) weighed in about 149 lbs and a few ounces. We ballasted him down with all the pocket change we could muster.

Plus, we didn't let him pee until after he passed tech...



By the way, the prevailing strategy (then, and now it seems) was to accelerate up to a given speed, shut the engine off and coast (forever) until the desired minimum speed was reached. Repeat.

There was one team that attempted to run steady state at a given engine rpm but they weren't even competitive with a fuel economy in the 200 mpg range.

The bottom line is that you are not burning any gasoline when the engine is off. It becomes primarily an exercise in controlling mass and aerodynamics and reduced rolling resistance.

K