Shell Bitumen pave the way for young engineers
Company lays temporary track for Shell Eco-marathon at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
SHELL Bitumen have paved the way for more than 200 students from 29 countries around the world to put their energy-efficient vehicles through their paces at the Shell Eco-marathon Europe by laying the temporary race track at London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in less than 48 hours.
Using their premium low-temperature (LT) binder, Shell Bitumen together with their contractor, FM Conway, created a challenging 2.2km street circuit for young engineers to race their vehicles.
Part of the track included a decline with turns requiring more stability from vehicles, while a ramp with a 5% gradient provided another challenge. These features posed new questions to students around how to save maximum energy during the descent to compensate for the need for high power and consumption in the climb.
Young students competed in two main categories – one for Prototype vehicles and the other for UrbanConcept cars. The students had spent the last 12 months designing, building and testing their energy-efficient vehicles with the aim of seeing which one could travel the furthest on the least amount of fuel.
They competed for a variety of awards in both categories, such as the Battery Electric prize, Hydrogen Fuel Cell prize and FuelSave Diesel Prize through to the Alternative Fuel Prize and Shell FuelSave Gasoline prize.
Emma Mallinson, Shell Bitumen’s regional marketing manager Europe/Africa, said: ‘The Shell Eco-marathon is all about innovation and adapting to new challenges around energy and mobility.
‘With a short window to lay the track, we were able to create a high-performance circuit using our Shell Bitumen LT binder that helped pave the way for the young engineers to put their energy-efficient vehicles through their paces.’
Themed as ‘Make the Future London’, the festival marked the first time that the Shell Eco-marathon had come to London. Over four days, more than 30,000 people of all ages came to watch the races and participate in the event.
The Shell Eco-marathon began in 1939 at a Shell research laboratory in the US following a friendly wager between scientists about ultimate fuel economy: who could travel the most miles per gallon.
Shell Eco-marathon Europe began in 1985 in France with 25 teams participating from four different countries. Over the years, the competition has grown into a truly global event attracting thousands of students from all over the world.
2016 saw the most significant change to Shell Eco-marathon with the introduction of the Drivers’ World Championship: a head-to-head race against the 2016 UrbanConcept winners from North America, Asia and Europe to find the quickest and most energy-efficient driver.
Universitas Pendidikan from Indonesia won. The team has been awarded a week’s training with Scuderia Ferrari in Maranello, Italy. They will meet the Formula 1 team and receive coaching on how they can improve their technology for next year’s Shell Eco-marathon.
