Who would have thought a car developed for racing would be able to achieve a fuel efficiency of 131 miles per gallon? A slightly modified version of the Caterham Seven Roadsport, a lightweight sports car based on an original Lotus design, achieved this astonishing result at a recent Eco-car event hosted by Shell in the U.K.

With the help of Axon Automotive, an expert in the manufacture of carbon fibre, and the aid of Energy-Efficient Motorsport, the superlight roadster was able to smash its initial target of only 100mpg. The event was an eco-race of soughts, where the winner is the car with the greatest fuel economy after 40 minutes driving around seven laps of a track at a minimum speed of 15mph.