The point of this webpage is to show that great highschoo projects exist and I encourage them. This project existed back in 1994 and 1995.
Junior Year High School High Mileage Car Competition:
The High Mileage Car Competition was part of a high school class called Engineering Design. The goal of the class was to enter a state wide high mileage car competition. The first year I took part in the program we took first place with 350 MPG average. Above is the car we entered and the team that participated. Below are a couple pictures of inside the car. We had many sponsors to help pay for the car since the school did not pay for making the car. That year my task was to developed a efficient electronic ignition system with advance timing that would work for a four cycle 3 HP Briggs & Stratton engine. This engine was had a modified cylinder to accommodate a 90cc head and piston off of a motorcycle. We were leading the state in the high mileage car competition and learning a lot about the engineering field.
Senior Year High Mileage Car Competition:
The second year of the course I took the leading role of the team. This year we even took a more radical approach. A 25cc weed-whacker engine head on a 3HP Briggs & Stratton engine. This was a key step, why have an engine that puts out more power than you need? Also we realized the need to go 4 stroke. The hard part was connecting the two engines together. The rules said you had to have 50% of the cylinder walls of the Briggs & Stratton engine to enter. The answer was a custom connecting rod. This did not exist so we had to go the drawing board. This was my task this year, to adapt the head to the main block. I started with a block of aluminum and a milling machine and ended with a custom connecting rod. We also integrated fuel injection, remember this is a 25cc engine (the piston has a diameter slightly larger than a quarter) ... many said it wasn't possible ... but it was and we made it happen. These ideas earned us a 750 MPG average over 12 runs around the track in one day. This was a first place again (we did break 1000 MPG but that is another story).
