 The 30th Anniversary Shell Eco-Marathon UK (Thursday 13th July 2006) finished in fine, sun-drenched style, with French team Microjoule topping the leader board with an astounding 10,128 miles per gallon (mpg). The event also marked the first running of the Schools Initiative which saw Edlington School drive seven laps of the Rockingham Motor Speedway at an average of just 782mpg – a highly commendable effort from a school who only began the project less than 10 months ago.
The overall winner of the Shell Eco-Marathon UK, Team Microjoule, also headed the gasoline class. They were joined on the podium by Remmi-Team of Finland in second place (6,987mpg). Team Green from Bath, UK stood on the third step with 4,306mpg. This has always been the most competitive class, and with 41 entries, this year was no different. All the teams were hoping to better previous results and old rivalries were re-ignited up and down the pit lane.
The big news of the Rockingham event was the Schools Initiative class, with 29 competitors registered less than ten months ago, 11 of the schools took part in this year’s event. All of the other entrants were cheering on these schools, and a huge amount of admiration was shown to Green Meanie from the Edlington School, Doncaster, when they managed 782mpg to win the class. In second place was Hinchingbrooke School (530mpg) and third place went to Tabor Typhoon (399mpg) from the Tabor Science College. While the first three places are important, every competitor in this class deserves to take home a trophy, as simply being at the event with a working car is a phenomenal result, of which they should all be very proud.
Gasoline powered cars have always achieved the best results in fuel economy, but there are also many teams who are working with technology to allow an internal combustion engine to go further on alternative fuels. The diesel class was won by Team Callo from France, having travelled the ten miles around Rockingham with a figure of 4,227mpg. In the LPG class, Team Callo also took the honours with 4,444mpg. A remarkable achievement by Esstin of France with a Hydrogen fuel cell powered car saw them reach an equivalent of 11,634mpg.
Norman Koch, Shell Eco-Marathon UK Event Manager: "The 30th running of the Shell Eco-Marathon UK has been a great success, both from the point of view of promoting the development of sustainable energy solutions and because it’s fantastic to see so many young people enjoying engineering, whilst having a blast over the two days in the Northamptonshire sunshine. We are all delighted with Microjoule’s result and look forward to them returning next year, to attempt to break the world record. I would also like to thank our partners in the Schools Initiative, Honda, the Learning Grid and the Royal Academy of Engineering – without them the new schools would not have been able to enjoy the event here at Rockingham."
|
