Best Practices for an SAE SUPERMILEAGE® Vehicle

As the world continues to be dependent on fossil fuels to power industry and transportation, it is necessary to promote a design for conservation philosophy in our emerging professionals. The Society of Automotive Engineers SUPERMILEAGE® Vehicle (SAE SMV) competition provides a challenging design problem for emerging professionals while increasing awareness of design and operation criteria necessary to minimize fuel consumption in a small displacement, single passenger vehicle platform.

This report represents the benchmark and research results of the 2001 SAE SMV team from Lawrence Technological University (LTU). The report cites major sources of energy loss within the scope of the SMV project and, provides the team's analysis of best practices to minimize losses and optimize performance.