LSU team plans to go far on little

• By JORDAN BLUM
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: Apr 13, 2009

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A team of LSU engineering students went to the Shell Eco-marathon last year with high expectations of achieving great vehicle fuel mileage and, well, winning.

But their one-person vehicle “toppled over” during a practice run — the day before the California eco-race — after the team made some last-minute design adjustments.

They spent all night doing repairs, but the car did not finish the 14-mile course.

“Pretty much everything that could’ve gone wrong did go wrong,” said LSU team captain Jordan Truitt. “We did so bad we decided we needed to do it again and save face.”

Then tragedy truly struck in July when team member Ellen Hinson, of New Orleans, died in a late-night car wreck on Highland Road.

“We decided to dedicate this race to her and name the car ‘Ellen,’ ” said Truitt, a senior mechanical engineering major.

Now the eight-student team is set this week to drive to Fontana, Calif., to compete with more than 50 other college and high-school teams from as far away as India in fuel-efficiency competitions Wednesday through Saturday.

“I’m really excited about this year’s car,” said Paul Duhon, of Lacassine.

“It came together really nicely,” said Duhon, the only team member besides Truitt to compete in multiple years.

The team is using a light, aerodynamic vehicle designed with a fuel-injected string-trimmer engine. Their goal is hitting close to 1,500 miles per gallon.

That could mean a top-five finish, team members said.

Last year’s surprise winner, Mater Dei High School of Evansville, Ind., pulled off a record-breaking 2,843 miles per gallon accomplishment.

The Shell Eco-marathon began as a friendly wager between scientists to see who could get the most miles per gallon from their vehicles. It evolved and moved to Europe in 1985. In 2007, a U.S. version came to California.