Honda Eco Mileage Challenge 2011 Winner Breaks Records with 8,571 mpg Fuel Efficiency

If you thought your vehicle was fuel efficient, then take a look at this.  The winner of the Honda Eco Mileage Challenge 2011 achieved a fuel-efficiency of 8,571 mpg.  You’re not seeing things.  Such fuel-efficiency could get you around the Earth on 2.9 gallons.  We at Brickell Honda would be happy just to travel the length of Florida on that amount of gas.

The Honda Eco Mileage Challenge is a competition to see how fuel-efficient drivers can make their vehicles.  Just looking at the winning car (pictured above) shows you how strange looking some of those vehicles might be.  The competition started in 1981, and this year was the 31^st running.  Team Fireball won, and with a fuel economy above 8,000 mpg, the name seems fitting. 

Previous records at the event include a 292.5 km/l (688 mpg) in the first running of the race.  The most recent record, which Team Fireball just broke, was 3,432.325 km/l (8,073.328 mpg), and that stood for ten years.

412 participants entered the competition, held at Twin Ring Motegi Circuit.  Entrants lapped the track three times going 15.5 mph on Honda’s 50-cc gasoline engine.  (Motorcycle fans might recognize that engine from the Honda Cub).  After the vehicle completes three laps, officials measure fuel consumption to calculate overall fuel economy.  (So no, Team Fireball did not actually travel 8,571 miles – they just calculated how far it could go on 2.9 gallons).

To take another look at just how impressive that fuel economy is – the average mileage of a vehicle per year is 12,000 miles per year, or 1,000 miles per month.  That means you travel about 8,000 miles in 8 months.  Can you imagine only needing 2.9 gallons over the course of 8 months?

To be fair, you probably wouldn’t want to be driving Team Fireball’s vehicle.  Aside from it’s funny looking exterior (you would certainly turn heads), it lacks amenities.

Source: http://green.autoblog.com/2011/10/13/winner-of-honda-eco-mileage-ch...