Photo: VIR

Three student teams from Vietnam yesterday took flights to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to participate into the Shell Eco-marathon Asia 2011 at F1 Sepang International Circuit during July 6-9.

The teams are ICE HUST from Hanoi University of Technology, BK AUTO 07 from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Mechanical, and UTC from University of Transport and Communication.

A truly iconic educational project, Shell Eco-marathon has been challenging competing student teams worldwide for almost a quarter of a century to design and build the most energy-efficient vehicle possible.

To June 30, 2011, 99 teams from 13 countries have attended the competition. Of those 75 cars were prototype and 24 urban concept cars.

The winning vehicle is the one that travels the farthest using the least amount of fuel. The world record was made by student team from Polytech’ Nantes (France) at 4,896.1km per litre.

This distance covered is roughly the equivalent of driving from the head to toe of Europe, from the North Cape in Norway down to the toe of the Italian peninsula.

Last year, Japanese team was almost got the first ranking while a Thai team passed their record only in the last laps. Finally, Thai team won the champion at 1,521.9 km/l at Shell Eco-marathon 2010./.