Matt Dawson meets engineering students ahead of the Shell Eco Challenge
13 May 2013
Former England Rugby Captain, Matt Dawson, calls at Aston University ahead of the student team’s trip to Rotterdam to compete at the Shell Eco-marathon Europe 2013.
The Aston team’s eco car, which includes plywood suspension and even plywood wheels, is competing in the Marathon against a total of 224 teams from 24 countries. Last year, the Aston team won the Eco-Design Award for creating a hydrogen fuel cell car that left leave a 'lasting impact' on the judges for pushing the boundaries of sustainable driving and car design.
Matt, who is taking part in his own celebrity driving challenge, travelling from Preston to London on a single tank of fuel, met with students to gain some expert tips and encouragement on driving and green technologies.
Aston University team leader, Nick Atkins, said; “We’re competing in the Shell Eco-marathon this year following Aston’s success last year winning the Eco-design Award. We’re a new team with a brand new car. We’ve completely changed the design with some sleek bodywork and a backbone chassis, and we are using plywood suspension and even plywood wheels.”
Speaking before the challenge Matt Dawson, who also appears on the BBC’s Question of Sport said; “I am really excited to be taking on the Shell FuelSave Driving Challenge. The demand for energy is set to increase in the future and by using the right fuel and making simple changes to our driving habits, we can all reduce our fuel consumption and costs. I hope by taking on this challenge I can show UK drivers that it’s easy to save fuel and encourage them to try it for themselves.”
The Shell Eco-marathon initiative challenges student teams from around the world to design,build and test ultra-energy efficient vehicles with the aim to travel as far as possible on just 1kWh or 1-litre of fuel. Previous distances reached include the equivalent to driving from Paris to Moscow, that's 2,485 km or 1,544 miles.