BYU Students Set Record at 2,340 MPG

January 2025

BYU student presenting engineering project car

Imagine traveling 2,340 miles on one gallon of gas. For the BYU Supermileage Team, that’s not a hypothetical. That’s what they got in their prototype car at the Shell Eco-marathon on the Indianapolis Speedway—where they took first place.

The lightweight car uses bicycle brakes and is built for fuel efficiency rather than speed or comfort. “With all the work that we put in—it was not just a sense of relief we experienced,” says the team’s driver, Dino Christensen. “Seeing the result left us feeling ecstatic.”

Though this was the team’s second straight win, this year’s race wasn’t without hiccups. Moments before the start of the race, a fuse in the car blew. After saying a prayer, the team replaced it and jumped back into the race. With just one run on the course, the team topped its previous record by more than 420 miles per gallon and beat the second-place team by more than 600 miles per gallon.

“It was kind of amazing that we had our first attempt and did so well,” says chemical engineering student Cami Nobrega. “I definitely felt as if God was helping us perform our very best.”

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