Quote:
Originally posted by Tyler 178
"Q2. How long is the route?
A2. The exact route has not been determined, but the off-road portion will be approximately 250 miles."
(Quoted from the darpa site http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/faq.htm)
This would mean that you would need about 17 gallons of fuel to go 255 miles if you were averaging 15 mpg. But you would probably use 20 gallons just in case. This is not too much gas, considering most car gas tanks are around at least 15 gallons anyway.
I like the johnny five comment by the way. Those were great movies (short circuit, if you haven't seen it, go rent it)
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Keep in mind, however, that the contestants will have to travel from Las Angeles to Las Vegas. A simple trip to
MapQuest tells us that the minumum distance for driving is approximately 400 land miles. At 15MPG you'd need 27 gallons of gas. Round that off to an even 30 gallons just for inefficiencies.
If I were competing, I'd probabaly do a dune buggy with a 2-stroke diesel engine. The technology has come a long way and fuel efficiencies for some of these new 2-strokes they've created are pretty large. Diesel has much more energy output for its volume, so it would be preferred, even though it weights 1lb more than gasoline per gallon (6.1lbs/gal for gas).