High Mileage Vehicle Ready to Go
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By Tyler Brookman and Kendra Usher
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Would you like to sit in a car that is only 18 inches wide and 83 inches in height? That’s what the Power Mechanics class does. They make their own car from scratch, with a little research and study, and they aim to make a supermileage vehicle. A supermileage vehicle is a car made by students sent to competitions to test fuel efficiency against one another. How do they do fuel efficiency you might ask? The “race” conductors hand out a certain amount of gas, which is weighed in a container before handed out to the racers. The teams then attach the fuel tanks to their cars, and go around the track as many times as possible with no set speed requirement. After the cars sputter to a stop, they then remove the gas container and have it weighed to see how fuel efficient the cars are. They weigh the cans and use the weight of gas to find fuel efficiency more precisely than giving X amount of gallons and finding it that way. Power Mechanics class consists of only a couple of kids that manage to build a car and go to different towns to compete. This year, they took some of those parts from last years and cut off the back end and also redesigned the brakes. Surprisingly, the car this year only took to weeks to make, a great improvement from last year’s class which only got a single car out of 2 teams in the class. So far this year we have only gone to the Dells to compete and got 2nd place, the first place prize was given to Barneveld. The things they judge on are: most fueled efficient cars and most safety based. The driver of the car this year is Jerod Condon. To be the driver, a student must have a license, be over 130 lbs, and be short enough that the roll bar is 6 inches is above his head. These of course are for safety reasons because you can have a really fuel efficient car, but if it’s unsafe, you probably won’t get accepted in To make the car there are numerous safety precautions that they must follow, such as:
-being able to get out in 7 seconds or less,
-have a roll bar is able to support 350lbs or more
-have 2 kill switches and you must be able to see someone behind you
-sit at a 15 degree angle
-turn wheel so it won’t roll, and turn wheels all the way so you can make it around track Some of the kids in the class said that the car they make is actually not much different from an actual car. The only differences include no suspension, the brake is a handle not a pedal, you don’t use your feet, and you use a throttle to go faster. At the meet in the Dells, Jerod managed to put the car into the ditch and break the steering rod so now the class has to work to fix the car before the next meet. Power Mechanics class will be making even bigger cars than they ever have before. That is so they can have a new driver, who we all know as Big E. To make this car for Eric, the class will have to make the car 40 inches wide and 150 inches in length. They will also be adding better brakes and disbrakes. This next car will be tested at mode America (by Appleton, Wisconsin). It takes a lot of teamwork, dedication, willingness, and effort to work in this class. Not only do you have to work inside class with the rest of your classmates, but outside as well. The class takes some days on the weekends where they meet up and work on the car. One night the class stayed out on a Sunday night till 11 P.M to go over the safety precautions and fix the car together. You can’t just give up and stop working on the car, if one person gives up everyone else has to pick up the slack. The class teaches about the dedication to a team and also how to meet deadlines. They all have to work together to build the car. Everyone in the class said it’s their favorite part of the day; it gives them a time to get up and move around, and not just sit in a desk. They can put their contribution in and learn by themselves instead of just having a teacher tell them what to work on and teach them. It’s a good way to make friends and learn new things.
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