IMSTEA Super Mileage Challenge

Even though we crashed our high mileage car in practice, the team went to Indy on Monday, just the same. Other than the wind, it was a perfect day to be at the racetrack. For some of the students it was the their first chance to see a high mileage car in action. There were roughly forty schools represented with mileage numbers for those who made the three required runs, between 1293 miles per gallon and 101 mpg. Besides the wide range of mileage numbers, the range of solutions presented was just about as wide. Some of the cars were very well thought out and others looked like they were thrown together with whatever they had laying around. In addition to the cars powered by the 3-1/2 horse Briggs and Stratten engines, this year they had a few entries in the new experimental class. These included a couple of electric powered cars as well as diesel and hydrogen fueled cars. So there was a lot for my students to see and take in and we grilled some hamburgers, which is always a good thing. Plus, a day at the racetrack always trumps a day at school.

The next step is to decide what I'm going to do with this deal. I was planning on turning the project over to someone else but I'm not sure I can find someone else willing to do all that is required. I'm not real happy about bailing out on the team but if you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you know I'm spread pretty thin. I would like to see the kind of mileage we could get if we actually took a more serious approach. The rules require you to build a new car or make significant changes every two years. We usually start from scratch every two years, so we're always starting over. This gives the students who are involved lots of good experience but doesn't improve the mileage like it should. If you get a good baseline car built and continually make the detail improvements, you should be able to keep your mileage numbers creeping upward. This seems to be the approach of all the teams with high mileage numbers.

We've got a month of school left and a couple of guys want to work on the car, so I think we'll go that route. We'll try to get as much done as possible and then put the finishing touches on it as soon as school starts next year. It should be a lot easier to find someone else to take over the show if they have a finished car for their first year as faculty advisor.