Man Drives From Canada to Mexico on a Single Tank of Gas

Recently, a guy named Craig Henderson drove from Canada to Mexico in a car that he designed. It is listed as a Guinness World record breaking car with 119.1 miles-per-gallon. That's a long way to drive on a gallon of gas. A normal car these days that's considered to get great gas mileage gets about 25 miles-per-gallon highway average.

This car was originally constructed in 1984, Henderson has been almost constantly modifying the car to make it run better and better.

He traveled from Blaine, Washington to Chulla Vista, Mexico on his trip. This trip took him a little while, but he made it in under a take of gas, using 12.4 gallons of diesel along the entire 1,384-mile trip.

Henderson originally designed the car with his partner, Bill Green. He designed it as a prototype he hoped to sell. Their commercial aspirations never panned out, but Henderson continued to improve the Avion. He fine-tuned its specs with careful attention to weight and aerodynamics.

The automobile has a aluminum conquered frame. The Avion weighs in at just 1,500 pounds. Its sleek and aerodynamic body is constructed from carbon, fiberglass and Kevlar. The Avion requires only 3-4 horsepower to maintain a 55 mile-per-hour speed. It's outfitted with a set of Goodyear-sponsored, low rolling resistance "Fuel Max" tires which help extend its mileage even further.

There's not really any reason why the commercial aspect of the Avion shouldn't work out, it probably just didn't fit right with the oil companies, and the commercial auto makers probably just wanted to stay on their good side. Hopefully, cars like this will become more known in the future, and more attention will be placed on them.