school project gas mileage car

[dirty_canadian4894]

everyyear at in my metals class they make gas mieage cars and compete at a state tournament and last year they got 3rd place. but all of the schools we compete against use the same car year after year and make it a little better every year. but our school has two metals classes and we have 3 teams each class and we do a tournament at school to elimidate all but 2. this year is the last year were gonna do it because the school has decided to stop giving money to any of the technical classes(stupid frickin' school board) so were gonna go all out and win it.

every year they all cheat and leave the gas lines/filter/carb filled with gas but thgis year were gonna do everything we can to cheat so here are the major rules lets see if ao can give us any ideas to win this year.

8 ounces of gas(any kind)
25mph speedlimit
firewall to protect the person from the engine
driver cant touch the ground

there may be soem other vital rules but im forgetting them

my ideas so far are:
hybrid electric
110 octane race fuel
hidden fuel reservoir i the frame
big fuel filter
extremely lightwieght
4 hp honda motor
rear fork/tire/sprockets/chain from a roadrace bike
front dual a arm suspension


the best and most legal idea so far:
one big group makes 2 cars and the first car is really light wieght and follows all of the rules and the second car is really strong and can push the other one around the track until it runs out of gas while thother just rides on the front and conserves gas.
my teacher likes this idea because we have lots of heavy tubing layign around and were cheap/poor.

im probably gonna draw the car up in autocad when we get all of the particulars figured out.

[HoppysMag]

so do you use a regular car engine or like a lawnmower engine?

you might be able to run a motor, with soem kind of transmission into a generaltor to storage cells and an electric motor throw some solar panels and thermo thingys on it ( the things that turn heat into electricity)

[dirty_canadian4894]

they use small 4hp motors from lawnmowers and stuff

[dj89]

Thats way to big. You guys don't remeder JYWs? 1/2 hour wind waker 4 sreock motor will be just fine.

[PyRo]

8 oz? Get a nuclear reactor, 8oz of should last you a couple thousand miles pushing the reactors weight on wheels.

[PyRo]

Do a bunch of trials and get the math class to make you all sorts of cool graphs and such. Be sure to strip the vehicle of everything and I mean everything, paint, get a smaller fuel tank, make an aluminum frame, just have a bare bones seat, the lightest possible no cushion, have the smallest person drive it and don't let him eat for a week before driving. An ounce doesn't seem like much but one here and one their adds up quickly.

A few things you should figure out.
Get all the motors you can get your hands on since you will need to experiment, gas, 2 cycle, electric (maybie you could do a hybrid, get a tiny gas motor to charge a couple car batteries running a small electric motor). You're going to have to get differant hp gas motors, I would say no more than 2hp it's not a race, it's a gas milage competition. Our 2hp go cart used to break 25mph.
You are going to have to make sure all motors are in good running condition, a good motor is going to get better milage than a bad one (no one cares about loosing 1oz of gas in their mower because the plug is dirty but you should).
Then you have to figure out what the optimal mixture is (air-fuel ratio) and tune the carb probably through trials.
You then have to figure out which throttle position is the most efficant.
You can also play with gearing.

You can win it just depends how much effort you want to put into this.

[frop]

^^ what he said.

If there is no minimum speed limit, do some research & find the most fuel efficient little peepee engine you can find (fuel flow, not BSFC)
Blueprint the durty girl
make EVERYTHING out of aluminum, not the heavy tubing you have laying around
What requirements are there for drivers? If you are allowed to, get the youngest kid you canfind to drive it.
Metals class? does this include casting? AL block, plus off the shelf internals
tune it as best as you can
fuel in the frame always works

Put some effort into it & you could become the new reigning champion for years to come

[skife]

well, i would suggest using a 2 cycle motor, a single cylinder, just mix it with more oil than you usually would.

get the smallest carb you can find.
hell, why not just hook up a bicycle rear end up to it so the driver can peddle his way around the track *shrugs*

when your building it, make sure everything is square, a motor that is binding because its not square will use more gas.
dont run an airfilter, if you have a choice, dont run a muffler.
i hope this helps

[mcveighr]

Can you use a small diesel?

[PyRo]

Do they make diesels this small?
Tell us what kind of milage you are pulling, and what type your competition is.

[dirty_canadian4894]

its a circle track with small cars? i think were gonna use triangulated conduit

[PyRo]

But what kind of gas milage have you been getting? I hope its atleast 50mpg. If not just get one of those honda hybrid cars.

[rehme]

nah just put a fish carburator on it! if you can get one.