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This car was designed and built by myself and three other engineering students. We planned to participate in a design contest, to see which school could get the most mileage from a car powered by a 2 hp Briggs and Stratton gas engine. The car had to have at least 3 wheels, be able to average 15 miles per hour, and burn iso-octane fuel (highly refined gasoline). I worked on the engine, and I also wound up driving to Michigan and entering the car in the competition. I think the other students lost heart after I crashed the car on a test drive--I think this picture is after the crash? notice the bent wheel. My girlfriend and I repaired the car and made the trip, and had difficulties in the competition, completing only 4 of the required 6 laps before the starter drive broke. We calculated our mileage on the aborted run at about 500 mpg.
Some engine pictures (click to make bigger)
I designed and build the billet aluminum overhead valve cylinder head. I started with a two inch thick block of aluminum, and using the lathes and milling machines and other equipment in the student's machine shop, I carved a wedge chambered head, and build the rocker arms and pushrods. This head made about 3 horsepower on the small water brake dyno, and the specific fuel consumption was significantly less than the original flathead design, mostly because I almost double the compresion ratio. Pinging at 10:1 compression is not much of a problem with 100 octane fuel. Notice the modified coil mount that allowed me to move the coil to where I wanted for optimum timing.
Here's a story about the competition that appeared in the Tucson paper:
