Sunday Competition for Best Gas Mileage

After winning their second supermileage competition in two weeks,UC Davis engineering students have returned to the Sacramento area to defend their titles at the West Coast Supermileage Competition on Sunday, June 9, at the California Highway Patrol Academy test track in Bryte, Calif. The UC Davis students will enter two vehicles they designed and built from scratch in a class. One of the students' small vehicles, "Side FX," won last weekend's East Coast Supermileage Competition in Michigan by cruising at 1,437 miles per gallon of gas. The student team began its winning streak in May with its other vehicle, "Shamu," which squeezed 1,627 miles per U.S. gallon to capture first place in the student category at the Shell Fuelathon, a Canadian competition for super efficient gasoline-powered vehicles. "We've never broken 2,000 miles per gallon -- that's our goal," said Bruce Dughi, a graduate teaching assistant in the campus's vehicle-design class.

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Andy Fell, Research news (emphasis: biological and physical sciences, and engineering), 530-752-4533, ahfell@ucdavis.edu