Gas Miser ‘Big Richard’ a Winner for CSUN

A team of Cal State Northridge engineering students coaxed the equivalent of 1,278.69 miles per gallon out of a two-horsepower engine to win the sixth annual West Coast Supermileage Competition.

Their dark red vehicle, designed by 11 engineering students, looks like a giant cheese wedge rolling on three bicycle wheels, powered by a lawn mower engine.

“Big Richard,” as the vehicle has been dubbed, set the winning mark while making four laps around a California Highway Patrol track in Bryte, located on the Sacramento River’s west bank across from Sacramento. The race covered about seven miles.

The vehicle was driven by student Hiep Nguyen and led a field of 12 vehicles from eight California colleges and universities in the competition.

“The SLO,” a whale-shaped vehicle entered by eight students from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, finished second with 951.53 m.p.g. The entry from Cal State Sacramento, which fielded the champion designs the past two years, came in third with 888.68 m.p.g.

Gas mileage, not speed, determines the winner, said Ben Winkler of the California State Automobile Assn., which sponsored the seven-hour competition with the Society of Automotive Engineers.

A Cal State Sacramento team set the U.S. record in 1987 with 1,971.77 m.p.g.