Instead of going to Rock Werchter, I decided to go to Rock Ingham with the Eco-Runner Team Delft last week. Every year a race is held in Rockingham for the UK Shell Eco-Marathon and I happened to know some people who were participating there, so I tagged along to take pictures, video and help out where I could.
The concept is to design a vehicle/car that has the best fuel efficiency; by taking into account aerodynamics, design, weight and other things that I know nothing about … When the car is complete you can take it to one of 3 events in the world (UK, France and USA) and compete against other teams that also have the same objective but might have a better/worse designed car than yours.
So this year the race/contest in Rockingham was held on Wednesday 2 and Thursday 3 of July. Dante, Gide and me headed to the UK on Monday to set up the tents, electricity, etc. since the other team members still had exams on Tuesday.
To keep a long story short: there were lots and lots of problems but the final goal was achieved! Things like brakes not working, seatbelts that were not fastened, the top of the car that went flying with the wind, etc. Anything that Murphy could come up with happened … But in the end they did manage to reach their goal and even surpassed it by getting a fuel efficiency of 2282km/liter!
Of course these cars aren’t designed for driving on normal roads and Shell might not be a company you imagine holding contests for designing fuel efficient cars, but you have to admit that it’s nice knowing that there are vehicules out there that can drive you from Gent to Gibraltar on 1 liter of fuel …
I’ll be dreaming of a better world tonight!
Oh, and if anyone wants to see Dante drinking beer, click here for a video.