UC Davis student engineers competing in the first national FutureTruck competition won the best fuel economy category and finished in fourth place overall, competition organizers announced today. Fifteen university teams from the United States and Canada competed in the two-week competition under the hot Arizona sun. Over the past year, they have worked to reinvent the sport utility vehicle. The challenge was to maintain all the "truck-ness" -- the ability to carry cargo and pull heavy loads such as trailers -- while reducing fuel consumption and emissions. The top-finishing vehicle, designed by West Virginia University, was able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 23 percent while still maintaining much of the overall performance of the production-model Chevrolet Suburban they began with. The UC Davis team achieved fuel economy of 18.7 miles per gallon; an almost 13 percent increase over the standard Suburban. Material, technical and financial support came from General Motors and the U.S. Department of Energy. Other sponsors included the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; the National Science Foundation; the Aluminum Association; Automotive Testing Laboratories, Inc.; Delphi Automotive Systems; and Natural Resources Canada. Davis was the only UC campus in the competition. It was the 1997 national champion in the earlier FutureCar competition, which was replaced by FutureTruck. More FutureTruck information is available on the Web at .