The SAE Supermileage Competition is a yearly fuel efficiency competition held near Detroit, Michigan. The Society of Automotive Engineers is the primary sponsor. Around 30 teams compete to build the vehicle that uses the least amount of gas to go a specified distance. Teams are required to use a one cylinder lawnmower engine provided by Briggs & Stratton, but significant modification is allowed. There are two divisions, Collegiate and High school.
In the Collegiate division, the winning mileage of the 2008 competition was achieved by the team from Laval University located in Quebec City, Quebec, achieving 3169 miles per US gallon (0.07422 L/100 km; 3,806 mpg-imp). In the 2010 event, Université Laval achieved the first position with 2340 miles per US gallon (0.101 L/100 km; 2,810 mpg-imp), followed by University of Ottawa with 1486 miles per US gallon (0.1583 L/100 km; 1,785 mpg-imp), Northern Illinois University with 1265 miles per US gallon (0.1859 L/100 km; 1,519 mpg-imp), Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology with 1262 miles per US gallon (0.1864 L/100 km; 1,516 mpg-imp) and École de Technologie Supérieure with 1044 miles per US gallon (0.2253 L/100 km; 1,254 mpg-imp).
In the High school division, the winning mileage of the 2008 competition was 1716 miles per US gallon (0.1371 L/100 km; 2,061 mpg-imp), achieved by the team from Mater Dei High School of Evansville, Indiana. Mater Dei also captured first place in the 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 competitions in the High school division. . Since 2009, however, High School division is no longer acknowledged in the event, Collegiate Division being the only category left.[1]