The student-driven project DTU Roadrunners at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) has set a new world record in distance driven on one litre of petrol in the Shell Eco-Marathon race held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
The car – which is named DTU Phoenix and took part in the UrbanConcept ethanol category – drove the equivalent of 665 kilometres per litre of petrol, which is 53 kilometres better than the previous world record of 612 kilometres, also held by DTU.
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Literally on fire
The result for DTU was even more astonishing given that the students found last week that a fire had started in the car and destroyed the its firewall and almost all of the electronics.
But the team worked day and night to get the car ready for the race.
“We wanted to do 650km/l this year, but that was before the fire,” said Thor Therkelsen Christensen, a team leader for DTU Roadrunners. “What happened was beyond all of our expectations.”
