Cambridge Design Partnership

Gas prices have sky rocketed during the past five years, and so far it seems to know only one trend – upwards. As such, fuel efficiency, besides keeping environmental pollution to a minimum, has become a sort of priority for today’s automobile manufacturers.

Captioned above is a hypermiling concept car, developed by Cambridge Design Partnership, which its engineers boost it can travel an astonishing 1,325 miles on a single gallon of gas, and, yes, driving it is an eleven year old girl. The vehicle was driven by the Cambridgeshire girl at the annual Mileage Marathon Challenge at Mallory Park, just recently.

The car, which doesn’t seem to have been given a name, was designed and engineered with the purpose of promoting technology and engineering to students, and children alike.

Test driver Kitty Foster, 11, of Kings School, Ely said of the test drive, “When I told my parents how far this car could go on a gallon of fuel they were absolutely amazed! It wasn’t too hard. The Go system helped me use as little fuel as possible. It monitored the car’s performance, which helped us know when to stop the engine and start coasting.”

The car uses a unique system, Cambridge in-house engineering, called the Go System, which is crucial to the car’s success. It provides real-time GPS tracking information, monitors the car’s performance and regulates the engine to maximize fuel efficiency.

“The GPS information made a big difference and added 150 mpg. The whole car was great fun to drive. It’s good to see cars getting more environmentally friendly, and I’m really pleased we’ve done so well in the challenge’, said little Kitty Foster.

Cambridge Design Partnership used elements from its own lightweight oxygen concentrator, as well as other in-house technologies, to create the unique car. The oxygen generator system was originially developed to treat injured soldiers, but in the car it is powered by an innovative micro-diesel-engine. Nothing was spared to optimize the car for a perfect autonomy with the smallest possible fuel consumption. It even features low-friction tires to increase mileage.

The wacky looking automobile is still in R&D stage, and as it currently looks it in no way suitable for real roads, but the conclusions and experience Cambridge scientists have drawn might lead to real fuel efficiency solutions in the near future. Although, some of you might argue that if you strap some pedals and a chain to this car you’ll be able to reach 100% autonomy – fuel water and food. That’s another story, though .

Stephen Lamb, the MoD project leader from CDP added: “This is about more than just an ultra-eco-friendly car. This supports what our technologies can achieve.”

“We quickly realized that our R & D work for the MoD, creating an oxygen generator, was highly applicable to the Mileage Marathon Challenge. Both required an extremely efficient system that used very low power and could run off diesel. Now I just need to figure out how to make my own car get the same kind of mileage!”