Kids build [sexy] soybean powered car, 0-60 in 4 seconds, 50mpg - damn. Options

[zetec]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/17/...in1329941.shtml

he star at last week's Philadelphia Auto Show wasn't a sports car or an economy car. It was a sports-economy car — one that combines performance and practicality under one hood.

But as CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports in this week's Assignment America, the car that buyers have been waiting decades comes from an unexpected source and runs on soybean bio-diesel fuel to boot.

A car that can go from zero to 60 in four seconds and get more than 50 miles to the gallon would be enough to pique any driver's interest. So who do we have to thank for it. Ford? GM? Toyota? No — just Victor, David, Cheeseborough, Bruce, and Kosi, five kids from the auto shop program at West Philadelphia High School

The five kids, along with a handful of schoolmates, built the soybean-fueled car as an after-school project. It took them more than a year — rummaging for parts, configuring wires and learning as they went. As teacher Simon Hauger notes, these kids weren't exactly the cream of the academic crop.

"We have a number of high school dropouts," he says. "We have a number that have been removed for disciplinary reasons and they end up with us."

One of the Fab Five, Kosi Harmon, was in a gang at his old school — and he was a terrible student. The car project has changed all that.

"I was just getting by with the skin of my teeth, C's and D's," he says. "I came here, and now I'm a straight-A student."

To Hauger, the soybean-powered car shows what kids — any kids — can do when they get the chance.

"If you give kids that have been stereotyped as not being able to do anything an opportunity to do something great, they'll step up," he says.

Stepping up is something the big automakers have yet to do. They're still in the early stages of marketing hybrid cars while playing catch-up to the Bad News Bears of auto shop.

"We made this work," says Hauger. "We're not geniuses. So why aren't they doing it?"

Kosi thinks he knows why. The answer, he says, is the big oil companies.

"They're making billions upon billions of dollars," he says. "And when this car sells, that'll go down — to low billions upon billions."

video on the site

more detail here: http://www.realcities.com/multimedia/phill..._car/index.html


pretty fucking nice, actually. especially the speed.

[Seussninja]

Freakin ridiculous

[impala454]

It's definitely admirable to see kids turn their lives around by finding something like that to work on.

but

That thing is essentially a go kart.

[Seussninja]

It's definitely admirable to see kids turn their lives around by finding something like that to work on.

but

That thing is essentially a go kart.

where does it say that?

[James]

I'd be interested in knowing how many miles it can go on a single tank as well as what safety features it possesses, if any. It may be kind of weak integrity now, but give it to an engineering department and they could build it up from there.

[impala454]

where does it say that?

did you look at the size of the car?

[James]

did you look at the size of the car?

All I see is the hood and the kid standing next to it? Low profile?

[hodge]

click news article.

its on the right side. looks like an elise and a NSX had a baby.

[James]

I see. It's really short. It still might be fun to drive.

[Spectatrix]

I watched the video... it looks like any other sports car. Not just a fucking go cart.

[James]

Bio-diesel is more prone to build-up of sludge? That's what I'm hearing from someone else I showed it to, but he could be wrong.

[Seussninja]

did you look at the size of the car?

Yeah, it looked like a Lotus

However i suppose if it isn't a 83 ton Trans Am it doesnt count as a motor vehicle does it?

[dauss]

pretty fucking nice, actually. especially the speed.

A 2006 3000 pound VW Golf TDI will get 44 mpg. Sure the numbers look impressive, but looking at the usability of the car, its not good. It has a carbon fiber body that was donated which would make it very expensive if it went into production. I also highly doubt that there is any sort of safety features like airbags or ABS. Forget air conditioning too. There's no trunk room because electric motor in the front, 2001 VW 1.9L TDI engine in the back. I'll put money that this car doesn't even weigh 1500 pounds.

[zetec]

A 2006 3000 pound VW Golf TDI will get 44 mpg. Sure the numbers look impressive, but looking at the usability of the car, its not good. It has a carbon fiber body that was donated which would make it very expensive if it went into production. I also highly doubt that there is any sort of safety features like airbags or ABS. Forget air conditioning too. There's no trunk room because electric motor in the front, 2001 VW 1.9L TDI engine in the back. I'll put money that this car doesn't even weigh 1500 pounds.

it was made by fucking highschool kids, not germany's finest, step the fuck down

[Gert]

it was made by fucking highschool kids, not germany's finest, step the fuck down

thats what i was thinking