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11-Year-Old Pilots 1,325 MPG Concept Car
MikeChino writes "Hypermiling vehicles depend on ultra-efficient engines and low weight to go the distance, so Cambridge Design Partnership selected 11-year-old Cambreshire student Kitty Foster as the pilot their new 1,325 MPG car. The vehicle incorporates a highly modified lightweight oxygen concentrator that was originally developed for the Ministry of Defense to treat injured soldiers."
Still really cool, but my original reality was much more awesome. I would have loved to break the sound barrier when I was 11.
The Peel P50 is widely recognized as a car (specifically, the smallest car ever commercially produced). It had room for one passenger, had three wheels... and a single door and a few windows. So I guess we're pretty close. Honestly, I'm surprised they didn't stick a light one-piece Lexan windscreen/canopy on it to cut down on the wind resistance.
An 11 year old is pretty light, but since the point clearly has nothing to do with designing a vehicle to move people around, why not just replace the entire machine with a two-pound computer?
The Challenge is held on a closed track, so it's not like anybody would get hurt. With the driver removed, we could ratchet the number up to 10,000 miles, I'm sure.
Why would you want to? I have no idea, but then, I have no idea what the point of this demonstration is in the first place except to print "large numbers of miles per gallon" in a newspaper. So why not just take it to its logical conclusion?
You don't need a license to drive.
You need a license to drive on public roads.
What private citizens do with their private vehicles in their private race tracks is none of the government's business.