Durand High School team wins gas mileage competition
WQOW 18 News
Fuel economy is the driving force behind an award won by area high school students.
For the past few years, Durand High School has been competing in high mileage competitions across the state. The goal of those competitions is to build the car that gets the best gas mileage.
The team recently returned from an international competition in Houston.
Durand's car, which ran on ethanol, got 345 miles per gallon. That was good for first place in the alternative fuels category and a record for the competition. It might even be a world record, the students are stilling looking into that.
Getting a car to run 345 miles on a gallon of ethanol is no easy task.
"They had to formulate the gear ratios, engine speed, and engine rpm's and how it would affect things with the torque range, BTUs for ethanol versus BTUs versus gasoline," says Bill Rieger, Technology and Engineering instructor at Durand High School.
Once the team had the math down it was onto the car, which cost around two or three thousand dollars.
"We have to go through and do every phase of the process, find sponsors to pay for it, we have to get the material and build the car and then we have to register for the events," says Ted Wayne, Durand High School senior and team captain.
Wayne stumbled upon the contest while looking for car designs.
"We do ten laps for a total of six miles, they measure the fuel before and after. And down at Shell they get very into it and even took the temperature to account for expanding of the fuel," says Wayne.
"They had potholes and anything that can screw you up so you're watching that, you're watching for other cars, you're watching for people who decide to walk across the track to take pictures," says Travis Robelia, Durand High School senior and team driver.
The team used a 5.5 horsepower motor to capture the title. Total weight of the car was about 135 lbs. Most of the competition they faced was college students, although there were a few other high schools competing.
"We were pretty friendly with the other teams, everyone is going for the same goal just trying to get runs out and to get their car working. We actually had a lot of help from other teams for tools that we can't afford," says Ben Ulwelling, Durand High School senior and team manager.
"It was an excellent group of guys, thinking and designing through the whole process of building," says Rieger.
This was the first time the team entered an international competition and the first time using ethanol as the fuel. For winning the competition, students took home a $1,000 check for Durand High School.
Ted, Travis and Ben all plan on attending UW-Stout in the fall and hope to compete again next year.
