Students from Elche University (UHM) were showing off their new Eco car last Tuesday, the ‘Datil 15’, which they will be entering into the Shell Eco-Marathon this coming weekend on a Rotterdam street circuit.
The car is much lighter, has a much improved engine and a boasts a much lower fuel consumption than earlier models. The professor of Mechanical Engineering and Energy of the UMH, Miguel Angel Oliva, said that they fully expect the vehicle to achieve a distance of 2000 km on just one litre of ethanol, a vast improvement on last year’s best attempt which was recorded as 1156km.
The car has been built by eight students from the Polytechnic School of Elche, over a nine month period, with the process coordinated by professor Oliva and researcher David Abellan.
It is a rebuild of an earlier prototype, weighing just 28kg it is 30% lighter, it features an innotavive front steering arrangement and is 40% more aerodynamically efficient. The total cost of the vehicle is said to be just 6000 euros.
The car measures 2.85 metres in length, it is 60 centimeters wide and 50 centimeters high. It is one of the smallest models in its category with a new design that greatly reduces the possibility of tipping, something very important on a street circuit with sharp curves and bends explained Javier Martínez, one of the students participating in the project.
He also explained that the model has a number of other new features such as an aluminum chassis with carbon fibre cover and improvements in the four-stroke engine.
In last year’s race ‘Datil’ was ranked third among the vehicles using ethanol as fuel. With the improvements made to the new model the team expects to beat the mark of 2,000 kilometers per litre of fuel and win the category.
The competition serves as a platform for students to test vehicles that they have designed and built themselves as they are challenged to drive as far as possible on the equivalent of 1 kWh or 1 litre of fuel.
It marks thirty years of technological innovation, outstanding achievements and once-in-a-lifetime experiences, a significant milestone in what is one of the most challenging engineering student competitions, Shell Eco-marathon Europe.
This unique event brings together around 200 teams and 3,000 students from across Europe to battle for ultra energy efficiency on the road.
The event also features the Shell Energy Lab, packed with attractions around innovation and the future of energy. In 2015, Shell Eco-marathon Europe celebrates its 30th anniversary. The competition takes place from May 21-24, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Filed under: http://www.theleader.info/article/47308/
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