Marcel Burger - Third time's the charm

Two urban concept cars, from Spain and Portugal, at the Shell Eco-marathon at the Silesian Ring in Poland, 14 June 2025

The Silesian Ring in Southern Poland, 14 June 2025. Cars in the shape of fancy cigars whoosh over the racing track, followed by others that look like they have been flown in by The Jetsons - the popular futuristic 1960s and 1980s cartoon series. But these vehicles are real, and their race is somewhat peculiar. Despite all drivers wear protective suits and helmets somewhat similar to the Formula 1 jocks, they hardly go faster than 25 km/h (15.5 mph).

While speed is not of the essence at this race called the Shell Eco-marathon, how far one can get on 1 litre/0.26 gal of fuel (petrol, diesel, ethanol - the latter is the most popular), a limited battery capacity or 1 litre of hydrogen is the purpose of the event. 1,301 participants of 121 student teams from 25 mostly European countries have landed this week in June at the track near the village of Kamień Śląski in an attempt to go where no one has gone before. Not an easy challenge, as the record of a previous year of 3,771 kilometres (2,343 miles) will not be easy to defeat.

"It is like driving from London to Rome and back," says my tour guide Angel when he shows me around. If one of the teams makes it this week, the achievement will be recognised by the Guinness Book of Records. But expectations are there will be no records in Poland this year, despite a perfect race circuit. "It is just a bit too windy and too warm today," Angel says, "and the track is new to all teams."

The Jetsons-style urban concept car from the IES Leonardo da Vinci from Spain.

The pre-race evaluation

All cars are being subjected multiple times, to guarantee nobody is trying to get around the rules. There are early evaluation tests to start with. Then there are checks before the cars are planned to hit the track, and also afterwards.

A prototype of the Ruse University of Bulgaria in pre-race checks.

The prototypes are like fancy cigars, with very little room for anything.

There is even barely space for the driver. Here at the breaks test.

The tiny electric power plant of this prototype.

Without the cover/canopy, some of the vehicles look not much more than a basic go-kart. But looks can misguide you. This is the vehicle, and the driver, of the High School of Trnava, Slovakia.

Discussing some technical challenges.

Final adjustment to a prototype.

40 years of Shell Eco-marathon

40 years of the modern Shell Eco-marathon, and the organisation decided to move away from its traditional host country of France for the European and African edition, and chose Poland instead. The Polish are super proud, of course. Other yearly regional Shell Eco-marathons take place in Houston (Texas, USA) for North America, in Qatar for Asia and in Brazil for Central and South America. The Eco-marathon as such goes back much further than 1985 though, with two Shell employees betting on who gets the furthest on a litre of fuel all the way back in 1939.

"At the Eco-marathon is not about who finishes first, but all about the most efficient consumption, and about learning," my tour guide says. "The teams consist all of very young people, they are the bright minds of the future; they will have to achieve the energy transition," Angel says talking about the plan of European countries to move away from fossil fuels and embrace renewable, carbon free energy sources in the coming decades instead - in an attempt to limit the impact of our energy consumption on the climate.

The ground crew of the Danish Technical University is monitoring the progress of its vehicle while it completes multiple rounds on the track.

More like a mini-vehicle from Star Wars than a car, being pushed through the pit.

Three car categories at the Shell Eco-marathon

The Shell Eco-marathon consists of two main categories: prototypes (the "fancy cigars"), and the urban concept cars that should in theory meet requirements to be allowed on normal roads. The cars run on three types of propulsion: either a small internal combustion engine running on petrol, diesel or ethanol, a small electro-engine backed up by a small EV battery, or an electro-engine powered by a small hydrogen fuel cell. This year, there is also a third category: autonomous vehicles - in other words: cars that drive by themselves.

One of the prototype cars in the final curve before the finish line.

The prototype of Ruse University, Bulgaria.

A fierce green lion on this prototype.

Shark teeth on this protytpe

Two prototypes on the track of the Silesian Ring.

Some urban concept cars look almost like a normal car.

Like this one from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece.

Other urban concept cars are very Jetsons-style, like this one from the Technical University of Denmark. The Dannebrog (Danish flag) livery is hard to miss.

Majority of drivers is female

"All teams are aiming to make the car as light and energy efficient as possible," Angels says. "We have a team that changed some 15-watt element of their engine into 5-watt equivalents. He says there is a long list of requirements for the vehicles, most of them implemented as teams tried to cheat in the past. "On the cars with the internal combustion engines, there are no air filters, as it was proven possible to hide 2 to 3 millilitres of fuel in them. That doesn't sound like much, but when thousands of kilometres is the record, such a small amount of extra fuel could get a team in theory 50 to 60 kilometres (31 to 37 miles; edit.) further."

Wind sails on the car are not allowed either (tried by a team in the past a well), and drivers all need to have a certain minimum weight. To level the playing field, extra ballast is added to the vehicles with slightly lighter drivers. Size also plays a role, as the cars are very tiny. "That's why you see that the majority of the teams have a female driver, or a skinny man."

A young female driver.

Tension and concentration on the face of this male driver, at final pre-race checks.

A young female driver before entering her urban concept vehicle at pre-race final checks.

The paddock

Strolling through the paddock - the home of the teams - gives one a great overview of not only the teams, but also their last minute adjustments to their vehicles.

Most cars accelerate with a button on the steering wheel and despite the limited speed of the vehicles, breaks are obligatory on both front and back wheels - usually the stoppers are controlled by the pedals in the front of the cars. The consumption of each car is measured over 35 kilometres (21.7 miles).

Inside the paddock.

One of the French urban cars.

Some Ferrari inspiration, maybe.

The urban concept car of the Politechnic of Lublin, Poland.

Adjusting the set-up of this French Car.

The urban concept of the Ruse University, Bulgaria.

A view into the heart of one of the urban concept cars.

With lines similar to the 1940s SAAB cars.

George Jetson would have loved it at the Silesian Ring in June. His famous yell "Eep! Oop! Poop!" would have sounded many times at this Polish piece of Earth, that felt a tad like the Astro world full of futuristic stars.