Engineering students at London South Bank University (LSBU) (www.lsbu.ac.uk) have designed a fuel-efficient car to take part in the 2017 Shell Eco-marathon event (taking place 25-28 May at the Olympic Park in Stratford, East London).

The competition, now in its 33rd year, challenges students from about 200 European universities to create vehicles that use as little fuel or electricity as possible.

The six LSBU students, supervised by senior lecturer Antonio Vilches, have been working on their vehicle since October.

Dr Vilches said: “LSBU competed in the Shell Eco-marathon for the first time just last year, so we have all been working very hard to improve on our performance, with the knowledge we gained in 2016.

“The students have worked together creatively to address the problems we had to overcome, and we’ve now got a running car that has a small 50cc petrol engine. No matter how the car performs, this experience will have been invaluable for our students.”