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The Maritime Mileage Team. (Nick Pearce Photo)

With its light body made of Kevlar, sleek aerodynamic design and three Olympic-racing wheelchair tires, it looks like something that escaped from the Batcave.

But actually it鈥檚 a school project by a team of six Dalhousie senior mechanical engineering students.

The ultimate in fuel efficiency, the 鈥淢aritime Mileage Machine鈥� will be entered in the 2009 Shell Eco-marathon Americas taking place on April 15 to 18 at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. The event challenges high school and post-secondary students across Canada, the U.S., Mexico and South America to design and build a vehicle that will drive the farthest using the least amount of energy.

The students who win will have a chance to make history and take home thousands of dollars in prize money.

鈥淭he main thing is to keep it simple and efficient,鈥� explains Matthew Harding, the team鈥檚 manager. Other members include Liam Jeffrey, Craig Arthur, Chad Batterton, Brad Marcus and the driver Carmen McKnight. 鈥淭he whole point of the competition is maximum fuel economy.鈥�

The vehicle runs on a 35-cc engine鈥斺�淚t鈥檚 basically a big weed whacker,鈥� says Mr. Harding.

The team hopes to improve on the current pilipili漫画 record of 420 kilometres per litre on regular unleaded gas, with a vision to beat the record at the Shell Eco-marathon Americas of 1208.6 kilometres per litre.

鈥淐onsidering the average car is getting about 30 miles per gallon (or 13 kms per litre), that鈥檚 pretty drastic.鈥�

Carmen McKnight, selected for her petite size, will drive the vehicle while lying in a hammock-like seat with a headrest to prop up her head. She steers the car using handles on either side of her body.

Circuits are about seven miles long and the race will last roughly 45 minutes a circuit.

The team鈥檚 goal is to fine-tune their model and get in some practice time to be ready for the competition in April.