Photos: At Eco-marathon, a race to burn less fuel

How far does your car go on a gallon of gas? If you're like a lot of us, your ride probably gets in the range of 15 to 40 miles per gallon. Not so the low-slung entries in Shell's Eco-marathon stakes, which challenges teams of students to design and build a vehicle with the goal of seeing how far it can travel using as little fuel as possible.

The 2008 edition of the Eco-marathon Americas takes place through this weekend at the California Speedway in Fontana, Calif. One of the groups participating in the event is the Cedarville University Supermileage team, which has two vehicles entered in the internal combustion category: the Slipstream II (foreground, just outside the speedway track) and Gold Lightning III. On day one, Thursday, both passed inspection.