One of Shell’s most memorable and loved products of the 20th century was the Shell Guides. Edited by John Betjeman in the 1930s, they encouraged the British public to take motoring holidays across the UK, endorsing the discovery and pleasure of the landscape.

One of Shell’s most successful campaigns of the 1930s was a series of adverts creating puns that played on place names from across the country. Each advert featured a small map to prove that Shell was not inventing the names. The series captured the imagination of the nation and resulted in countless suggestions from the public for future puns.

It started with a wager between two scientists in a Shell research lab in Wood River, Illinois in 1939. Who could build the world’s most energy-efficient vehicle?

In 1985, the Shell Eco-marathon became an annual event in France, Europe. Students gathered in numbers to put their skills and vehicles to the test. The winners in the prototype category drove the equivalent of 680 km/l.

1997 saw the 13th Shell Eco-marathon Europe in the Circuit Paul Ricard in France.

In 2007, the Americas regional Shell Eco-marathon launched, where teams from all across the USA, Canada and South America come together to compete.

In 2010 Shell Eco-marathon Asia debuted, making the competition truly global, taking place in every continent, apart from Antarctica.

Shell Eco-marathon Europe hosts over 200 teams from across the continent for the Mileage Challenge. The current record for the farthest distance travelled on 1 litre of gasoline fuel is 3771km, held by the French prototype “Microjoule”, created by the team from University Saint Joseph La Joliverie