PROVO, Utah — If you're willing to sacrifice comfort, a new car created by students at Brigham Young University can travel from Salt Lake City to New York on just one gallon of gas.
The team of students just won a national miles-per-gallon competition with their car, which can go about 2,000 miles per gallon of gas.
The competition was tough, especially since the BYU students don't compete on Sundays, meaning they had to get all four sessions in on the same day.
During their first session, the car blew a tire and it took hours to fix. That afternoon, things turned around and they were able to complete their competition with just ten seconds to spare.
While on the flight back to Utah, the team learned they had won the competition.
"When we finally found out it was like a second wave like not only do we get a number on the scoreboard, but it happened to be first place," explained David Leavitt Michael, an engineering student on the team.
The students took modern tech and stripped down all the comfort of a regular vehicle to create the lightest, most aerodynamic vehicle with the least rolling resistance.
It can be a pretty "brutal" ride for whoever is inside, one student explained.
"It's cramped, it's very uncomfortable like your head rests, but on this wall over here 90-degree angle," explained Yazan Tuffaha, a Manufacturing Engineering Masters Student. "It's very, very hot because there is no air circulation."
"There's a tremendous sacrifice, Michael added. "And with all things, you see this, I mean, this is a specialized vehicle just to get the maximum fuel efficiency, it cuts corners of comfort. I mean, the person has to be the right size to fit in it, and no cooling or AC or any other creature comforts, things are unfinished."
And the car also can't go very fast, with a speed of about 20 miles per hour on average during the competition.
"People shouldn't look at this and say, 'Oh, they've got some magic technology here that you know, that they could patent or something,'" said Dale Tree, Ph.D BYU Engineering Professor. "We're using the same principles that all the engineers use, that are working in the industry, but we are able to take them to like an extreme."
The team's advisor said the research isn't going to eventually make a car go coast to coast on a thimble full of gas, but they won't rest in their work.
"We would like to get over 2000," Tree explained. "That's been a goal for a while, but I think we could get 3000 miles per gallon. So there are improvements that we're still working on."
A $3,000 award for winning the competition will help the students as they get ready for next year, where they believe they will get even closer to the 3,000 miles per gallon goal.
