14 DAY TRIAL // A group of French students from the Technical School at La Joliverie College in Nantes have created what could be the most efficient vehicle on the planet. They have built the Microjoule – a superlight car that can travel over 2,000 miles (3,218 km) on a single liter of fuel.
The Microjoule project was started in 1985 as the school's team entry in the Shell Eco Marathon, a yearly race held at the Nogaro Motor Circuit in France. The competition involves over 200 teams from 25 different countries and the main idea is to create the world’s most efficient gasoline-powered vehicle.
The rules of the contest are fairly simple: the competing cars can have three or four wheels and use gasoline, diesel, or an alternative energy source, and the race is won by the car that travels the greatest distance on the least amount of fuel.
The La Joliverie team have been competing since 1992 and have broken the world record for the most fuel efficient vehicle six times. They have so far won the annual event 21 times, and their creation holds the all-time Shell Eco-Marathon record for driving the furthest on a single liter of petrol: an astonishing 2343 miles (3,771 km) in 2009, which is the equivalent to driving from Gibraltar to Stockholm.
The Microjoule car looks more like a spacecraft from Star Trek than an actual vehicle, it accommodates just one person at a time and has no bells and whistles, but it uses gasoline and is a very impressive fuel efficient vehicle. The chassis is built from carbon fiber, which is lightweight and strong, and the minimum weight for a driver is 50 kg (110 lbs), Daily Mail informs.
This year, the judges at the contest tested the car on a track in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and determined that it could travel no less than 2,072 miles (3,300 km) per liter of fuel or 9,400 miles (15,127 km) per gallon. This means the 35-kg (77-pound) car can take you on a trip around the world for only $26 (€20).
Obviously, the French team won this year's edition of the contest, which took place last week. The members of the team explained that fuel efficiency was achieved through low tire resistance, air resistance and a very low drag coefficient.
“We try very hard to improve on each year’s performance,” Guillaume Himsworth, one of the students involved in the project, told the organizers at Shell. “Our competitors are getting better, so the challenge for us is to improve our car and stay ahead.”