The dream of driving a car that gets 52 miles to the gallon on the freeway and in the city is not far off, thanks to one inventive Paly student.

Junior Darren Reis, has spent over 300 hours since August perfecting the design of a car that would combine the environmental friendliness of a hybrid, the handling and power of a sports car, and the versatility of a family sedan. His work allowed him to win a multitude of awards along with scholarships and money. The idea for the car came to Reis after he saw a need to replace both hybrids and regular cars.

“Seventy-two percent of total vehicle miles in the US are highway miles,” Reis said. “Hybrids only address city miles and I wanted to improve gas use at highway speed.”

The first thing Reis had to do was find a replacement for the internal combustion engine, which is only 20 percent efficient. He wanted to find whether it was possible to replace the internal combustion engine with an electric engine and compensate for the loss of power with a design that would reduce friction. To properly experiment he had to make models of cars and find a way to test for drag.

“In the beginning I worked on the wind tunnel and later on the car,” Reis said.

The completed wind tunnel, which sat in his backyard was seven feet long and had wind speeds of 30 miles per hour. Reis built several 20-scale models of cars and tested them in his homemade wind tunnel. Then he measured for lift and drag on each model. His experiments led him to find the optimal design to reduce friction on a car.

Reis did several experiments to find necessary information to aid him on his mission. First he needed to calculate forces that cause a car to slow down.

“We let the family car coast on neutral from 50 to 40 miles per hour and then I calculated force,” Reis said. He used a homemade accelerometer to aid his measurements.

“You feel it [acceleration] but it [the accelerometer] actually brings to your attention what you are doing,” Reis said.

He then found that most of the force needed on the freeway is used to enter the freeway, then changing lanes, and the least amount of force is used to maintain ones speed.

Through his experiments he found the key to making his idea for the car feasible.

“My plan was to reshape the structure of the car to reduce drag resistance and cut down on wheel surface to cut down on rolling resistance,” Reis said “I found that decreasing the weight is not nearly as important as other factors.”

He then went about the process of designing his car of the future. His criteria involved a car that could comfortably seat a family of four, be about the size of a sedan, could fit in street lanes, most of all, it needs to be practical. He developed a shape that had a low frontal area that could catch the wind. To cut down on rolling resistance, he used a three-chamber tire system. It uses a central inflation method, which is already in use with farm tractors. It pumps the middle two thirds of the tire with air for city driving. When the car is driven on the freeway, the middle chamber decreases so only the outer third of the tire have air in it. This cuts down on rolling resistance on the freeway by two thirds since only a third of the tire is on the ground.

“But the tires are not comfortable [to ride on]. So I put wings on the fuselage to act on the ground to get extra lift,” Reis said. “I created a pillow of air for people to sit on since the engine and weight are all on the bottom.”

Reis’s next challenge came with the engine design. He used a combination of a 13 horsepower electric motor and an internal combustion engine.

“I only use the internal combustion engine when entering the highway and passing,” Reis said.

The extra energy generated by the internal combustion engine is used to recharge the battery when the engine is in use. This way he only needs approximately 160 lbs of batteries as opposed to 1000 lbs in other electric cars.

Reis then needed to do a real world test to confirm his results.

“I sent a letter to NASA and asked them if I could use their facility [at Moffett field],” Reis said. “The guy they assigned me to was an RC hobbyist so he had fun.”

Reis built a 12-scale RC car to test on the tarmac at Moffett Field. His car was able to go from 0 to 60 in two to three seconds. According to Reis, his fear of crashing is the only thing that kept from going as fast as it could.

His predictions matched the actual data from testing. Although he wasn’t able to implement the tire changes, the RC still met the requirements of getting good city and highway mileage.

The car has a 300 horsepower engine that is rarely used so the car can have high performance will still being eco-friendly with a fifty-two mpg on the highway engine.

Reis took his design and entered it in the Synopsis Science Fair on March 14. His project won eight awards, which were presented to him over spring break at Great America. The awards included first place in Physics and the Yale Science Engineering Award.

His winnings include a$150 physics reference book, which his dad refers to as the ‘bible’ of physics references, a trip to the State Science Fair in May, and prize money.

“I don’t know [how much money], I haven’t counted it yet,” Reis said. Reis considered filing for a patent but is not sure what he will do with his design next.

“Maybe if I was out of high school and college I would make a business out of it,” Reis said.

The experience has cultivated a new interest in inventions and science. He says he mad a lot of new friends at NASA and learned a lot about science and is considering science or engineering in college more closely.