(bhu) PAC-Car II (1) has reached its goal. Last weekend the car set a new world record in fuel efficiency. On Saturday the PAC Car covered the sensational (converted) distance of 5,134 kilometres with just a litre of petrol; they topped the following day with 5,385 km. The valid world record up until was just under 4,000 km. The result was achieved in the Shell Eco-Marathon (2) on the Michelin test track in Ladoux, France.

Competition with obstacles

Already at the Eco-Marathon at the end of May in Nogaro, France, the PAC-Car had come close to the world record (3), missing it by a tad with 3,836 kilometres. Now, in Ladoux it has finally succeeded, even though there were obstacles to overcome. The start of the competition on Friday was not very promising.

PAC-Car on the road: Drivers had to do 10 circuits or 20.678 kilometres with an average speed of at least 30 km/h. Then the fuel consumption was calculated. large

A thunderstorm with hail swept over Ladoux and prevented the start of the first race. Luckily, the PAC-Car remained intact. The sun came out on Saturday and the race could begin. In the first race the teams had to start with conventional tyres. The PAC-Car therefore did not manage to improve its performance from Nogaro by very much: 3,952 kilometres. Not quite a worl record, yet.

PAC Car on the track; tent city in the background, where the teams prepared their vehicles for the race. large

The world record Team after the first new world record on Saturday afternoon. Seated from left to right: Annemarie Halter, Florian Kolb, Fanny Frei; standing from left to right: Gino Paganelli, Nicolas Weidmann, Rahel Strässle, Jean-Jacques Santin, Pius Kobler, Jérôme Bernard and Dominik Isler. large

New power train, new tyres, ...

For the afternoon race teams were allowed to mount a new kind of radial tyres, which have a considerably lower rolling drag than conventional tyres. On top of that, the PAC-Car team decide to fit a new power train, which they hoped would increase efficiency by a another few per cent. The decision was not without risk because the power train had never been tested under racing conditions. This risk paid off: with a converted 5,134 kilometres the PAC-Car roundly demolished the existing world record.

And another one on top

On Sunday–another bright sunny day–the team managed to top their own record: 5,385 km/h! The PAC-Car project is thus successfully concluded. Jean-Jacques Santin, head of the project PAC-Car said: "We're happy but it will probably take some time to really sink in. I'm very proud of the team, especially the four students who have worked intensively on the project for the past eighteen months. It was a lot of work and now it's done–fantastic!".