How To Stretch Your Gallon of Gas Farther + Giveaway

This weekend I had got the cool opportunity to visit the seventh annual Shell Eco-Marathon in downtown Houston, a competition for high school and college students to see who can build the most fuel efficient car. Hundreds of student teams came from around the US and other countries such as Brazil and Guatemala, along with their Prototype and Urban Concept cars that run on gasoline, battery, solar power, biofuels and hydrogen. One car broke the track record and surpassed 3,000 mpg!

My whole little family of engineers and future engineers had a blast talking to teams, watching the cars race, and playing around at the interactive Shell Energy Lab.

Cars had to be pushed inside the GRB convention center.
The Big Ten was well represented. Engineers galore!
These are high schoolers!
Prototype cars lined up to race around the track.

Geekiness galore. My husband and I are both proud Penn State engineers so of course we visited with the Nittany Lion team and cheered them on from the balcony above the track with a “We Are!”

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Penn State only had a budget of $1000 per car, with no fancy corporate sponsors like the teams from other schools such as Purdue and Mater Dei high school.

I was especially taken with the all female “Shopgirls” team from Granite Falls high school. Check out this awesome video about them.

Drive Smarter and Win a Gas Card

Also launched this weekend is Shell’s Target One Million initiative to help people become smarter and more fuel efficient drivers. As part of that effort, Shell has developed a quick web-based game that users can play to help them learn how to drive smarter and stretch their fuel purchases farther. Over 300,000 people have already played the game, including me!

At the Eco-Marathon I got to spend some time with John and Helen Taylor, the world’s most fuel efficient couple. They are passionate about helping others who want to learn how to drive smarter and save fuel. They shared with me that they receive hundreds of emails from people thanking them for helping them save as much as $1000 a year! Changing a few driving habits have meant life-changing cost savings for some.

John and Helen Taylor drove around the world, 25,717 km, on just 24 tanks of fuel.
Shell’s newest research found that Americans, Houstonians in particular, really do want to learn how to drive smarter in order to both save money and environmental resources. Houstonians drive more miles annually than drivers in LA, San Francisco or New York! We waste 118 million hours a year just sitting in traffic…that’s 52 million gallons of gasoline! 
Blogger Melissa checks the tire pressure. 
After spending time with the Taylors, I was inspired to try a few of their tips to save fuel. I tend to be an aggressive driver, trying to get places in a hurry, but my personal values of frugality and stress-free living helped convince me to try taking it easier on the pedals. My car was also due for an oil change so I spent an hour cleaning out the trash and took it in for maintenance and detailing yesterday. It’s SO nice driving a clean and well lubricated car! 
Shell wants everyone to join the Target One Million challenge and play the smarter driving game, so they have generously provided me with some Shell gas cards to give away to my readers! Yay! 
To win one of seven gas cards worth $20 each, head to the smarter driving challenge and play the game. It only takes a minute or so. Then leave a comment here with your favorite fuel efficiency tip! 
You can get extra entries for Liking Water Water Everywhere on Facebook, subscribing to the blog, and following me (@MainlineMom) on Twitter! The contest will close this Friday, April 12th at midnight and I will email the winners about where to mail their gas cards. Easy peasy. 

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Disclosure: Shell invited me to the Eco-Marathon and provided me with a gas card as well. I am a chemical and environmental engineer and I totally loved this whole event and as always my words opinions are truthful and my own. 

42 thoughts on “How To Stretch Your Gallon of Gas Farther + Giveaway”

  11. We’re Shell-iacs thanks to Hubs insistence one sticking to “Premium” fuel. And yes I totally agree air pressure in the tires DOES help with efficiency.

  12. We’re Shell-iacs thanks to Hubs insistence one sticking to “Premium” fuel. And yes I totally agree air pressure in the tires DOES help with efficiency.

  13. We’re Shell-iacs thanks to Hubs insistence one sticking to “Premium” fuel. And yes I totally agree air pressure in the tires DOES help with efficiency.

  26. I love the tip about using cruise control because I LOVE to use my cruise control! Unlike everyone else, my trunk is completely empty! lol 🙂

  27. I love the tip about using cruise control because I LOVE to use my cruise control! Unlike everyone else, my trunk is completely empty! lol 🙂

  28. I love the tip about using cruise control because I LOVE to use my cruise control! Unlike everyone else, my trunk is completely empty! lol 🙂

  32. Here in the Texas springtime, turn off the AC, lean your head out the window, and scream into the wind “Weeeeee, Weeeeee, Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee”

  33. Here in the Texas springtime, turn off the AC, lean your head out the window, and scream into the wind “Weeeeee, Weeeeee, Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee”

  34. Here in the Texas springtime, turn off the AC, lean your head out the window, and scream into the wind “Weeeeee, Weeeeee, Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee”

  36. Don’t use luggage racks. The shape of modern vehicles are tested and retested to be as fuel efficient as possible. Putting anything on the top of the car, or the trunk, changes the dynamics of the airflow and could, and probably will greatly reduce fuel efficiency

  38. My favorite tip is the reminder to empty the trunk of non-essentials, we never ever seem to do that! Unless we are in the Jeep, which has no true trunk space and saves us some!

  42. This graph shows how much money you can save by slowing down. Cost per gallon and cost per 100 miles show the difference in cost at your typical highway speed and the cost at the reduced speed.

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