With the past couple of years of higher fuel prices in the U.S., many people have honed their driving skills. Instead of trying to set better lap times on a road course, they are trying to beat their previous best fuel economy. There’s even a name for it – hypermiling – defined by the New Oxford American Dictionary as the practice of making adjustments to a vehicle or using driving techniques that will maximize the vehicle’s fuel economy.

Ford is launching the Ford F-150 EcoBoost Challenge on August 17, 2011, pitting eight drivers representing eight U.S. cities against each other in to see who can get the best fuel economy in an EcoBoost®-equipped Ford F-150. The winner will be determined through a blended score measuring the highest average miles per gallon achieved throughout the week, the most votes on the Ford Facebook page and how many volunteers participated in a community improvement project that is also part of the challenge.

The winning driver receives a year’s supply of free Shell Nitrogen Enriched Gasoline. Plus, Shell will provide free regular-grade gasoline (up to 15 gallons per vehicle) at two local stations in the winning driver’s hometown on Sept. 2 for two hours and 22 minutes – in honor of the 22 mpg the F-150 EcoBoost delivers on the highway.

You can learn more about the Ford F-150 EcoBoost Challenge and see updates at www.facebook.com/ford.

Each driver in the challenge will drive an F-150 EcoBoost truck for one week. The first five days of the challenge involve a real-world fuel efficiency competition, with the average miles per gallon monitored via the Ford Crew Chief™ system installed in each truck.

Challenge cities are Louisville, Ky.; Pittsburgh; Houston; San Diego; Orlando, Fla.; Denver; Kansas City, Mo.; and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. The EcoBoost Challenge drivers come from a variety of backgrounds, ranging from a middle school biology teacher to a Twitter user with more than 40,000 followers.

The community service piece of the contest teams drivers up with their local communities to create a goodwill project on Aug. 27, 2011, that includes public support. Drivers will create their own community projects, using the F-150 EcoBoost trucks to carry materials to their project sites.

The 2011 Ford F-150 equipped with the all-new 3.5-liter EcoBoost truck engine delivers an unbeatable combination of power, capability and efficiency, making it perfect for this challenge. Fuel economy is an EPA-estimated 16 mpg city and 22 mpg highway, complementing the best-in-class 420 lb.-ft. of torque the engine produces. It also offers best-in-class conventional towing of 11,300 pounds and best-in-class payload of 3,060 pounds. EcoBoost is fundamental to Fords strategy to provide technologically advanced, high-output, smaller-displacement powertrains that deliver uncompromised performance and fuel efficiency. Ford EcoBoost engines deliver fuel efficiency gains of up to 20 percent and reduction of CO₂ emissions of up to 15 percent, compared with larger, less-efficient engines.

By 2013, Ford plans to offer EcoBoost engines in up to 90 percent of its North American nameplates, supporting global sales of 1.5 million EcoBoost-powered vehicles per year.