Over 30 teams across the US and Canada registered in the Eco-Marathon, of which 22 actually participated in the event, and only 18 vehicles (including our entry) completed at least one official run. At the competition, we saw a wide array of designs, ranging from College of the Redwood's solar-powered "canoe car" made of actual wood, and Northern Arizona University's steel-framed vehicle to Cedarville University's 3 matching fiberglass cars, and Cal Poly's winning entry based on a carbon-fiber outer shell similar to our own design. Several teams such as Mater Dei High School used transparent and easily servicable body fairings, for example by using hinges to create a hatchback-style plexiglass rear fairing to allow access to the engine compartment without removing the entire outer shell.

The vast majority of the teams used conventional gasoline engines like we did, however, we also saw a few alternative-fuel entries. Los Altos Academy of Engineering entered a Hydrogen-powered car, based on a commercial hydrogen-fuel cell, while Lalar University demonstrated a hybrid vehicle. There were also two entries in the solar-powered vehicle category; however, none of them managed to complete an official run. In the gas-powered field, there was also a wide range of powerplants and customizations. Some of the teams, such as Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, installed the same Briggs engine that they will use in the SAE Supermileage competition in Michigan, while other teams modified Honda engines. Quite a few teams, such as University of Massachusetts, Amherst, reduced the displacements of their engines and added an overhead cam. We also observed innovations such as tuned exhaust pipes and fuel-injection systems. However, no-one attempted anything that was a giant leap forward, such as the controlled variable transmission that we tried to use two years ago, but rather seemed to take an incremental approach to improving their vehicles.

Shell also showed us the French vehicle that won the European Eco-Marathon, which achieved 6792 miles per gallon. They used a very small and efficient custom-built hydrogen fuel cell, and a high-efficiency engine (which was not on display). Their car was also very light, and had incredibly free-rolling wheels. Although their car was smaller than ours, they made the bulkhead separating the driver and engine compartment slant backwards, so the driver could fit in. Their vehicle also contained a lot of electronics for monitoring and controlling the fuel cell and engine. Maybe one day, we can reach their level.

Below are pictures showing the vehicles of other teams that we saw at the Eco-Marathon.
For more pictures, view Shell's pdf slide show (Warning: large download, ~28.1MB)
Note: These scaled-down JPG images are 800x600, ~100KB each. Click on an image to load the full-size
2306x1728 version, ~1.7MB each.