Cal Poly’s 3000 MPG Supermileage Car

George Leone, Student Project Facilitator at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, CA, sent us pictures of a fascinating project one of the student teams is undertaking. Cal Poly students are designing a “Supermileage” car to compete in the Shell Eco-Marathon as part of a class project. The Shell Eco Marathon is designed to challenge high school and college student teams worldwide to design, build and test energy efficient vehicles. The winners are the teams that go the furthest distance using the least amount of energy.

Precision Board Plus PBLT-6 was cut on a CNC router and coated with Duratec to make carbon fiber molds for the body. They then added a 50cc engine for utilizing a tactic known as “burn and coast”, where they let the engine run for a short time and then coast, allowing them to achieve much higher miles per gallon. The MPG goal for this car, named “Lamina”, is 3000 Miles Per Gallon!

Lamina is not completely finished (they are working out final details on forming the windshield), but we have some great pictures of their progress. Additional pictures, including a video of Lamina’s maiden test voyage can be seen here. Stay tuned for a future update with finished pictures!

Human Powered Vehicle Challenge

George Leone, Student Project Facilitator at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, CA, recently sent us pictures of a project that students from the Human Powered Vehicle Club designed for the ASME Human Powered Vehicle Challenge. The human powered vehicles have been known to reach speeds of approximately 55 mph.

After testing the sheet-metal prototype, a mold was cut from Precision Board Plus PBLT-6 using their “hot-rodded” ShopBot CNC router.  They then vacuum-bagged the molds for the bodies using a room-temp cure system. The molds were coated with Duratec for an ultra-smooth surface. Once finished, the Carbon/Kevlar bodies were fitted over a composite or Chrome-Moly frame.

The bikes are 100% built by students unless the technology is WAY beyond the capabilities or ingenuity at Cal Poly. This is also an all-volunteer club, and students do not earn credits for participation.

George has been working with composites for over thirty years. He enjoys working with Precision Board Plus because “it allows students to take their vision and turn it into reality quickly and easily, whether they are using Surform files and sandpaper or a CNC router. It’s low-dust, green chemistry composition coupled with its favorable carbon balance and renewable resource content appeal to the stewardship concerns of our 21st century engineers in training.”

Check out the pictures here:

Precision Board Plus PBLT-6 mold being routed:

Spraying Duratec for an ultra-smooth surface:

Room temperature cure vacuum bagging:

Putting together the carbon fairing:

The bikes:

Lazarus:

Atlas: