Designing a car that can run 100 miles on a single gallon of gas would be a lofty goal for any research team. When that team is a made up of students from a disadvantaged West Philadelphia high school and their teachers, it’s a goal that seems downright delusional.
Don’t count these kids out yet, though. The “West Philly Hybrid X Team” is short-listed to be one of the top teams in the Progressive Automotive X Prize, sponsored by the X Prize Foundation and Progressive Insurance, among others. The $10 million competition in “designed to inspire a new generation of viable, super fuel-efficient vehicles.” according to the group. Cars that “qualify will race their vehicles in rigorous cross-country stage races in 2009 and 2010 that combine speed, distance, urban driving and overall performance.” More than ”60 teams from nine countries” are expected to compete.
The West Philly team was founded by physics and math teacher, Simon Hauger, in 1998, and ”has built and raced alternative fuel vehicles, including electric, hybrid and bio-diesel, for the last nine years.” They won the “Northeast Sustainable Energy Association’s Tour de Sol in three of the six years they raced,” according to an article on the mayor of Philadelphia’s Web site.
Here’s how they plan to win:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORhP_B8KfbM
(Photo and video courtesy of Progressive Automotive X Prize)
