Before I share this story with you, let me get out the obligatory disclaimer: I searched for other diaries and/ or comments on this and came up with nothing, so if this has been previously posted...well, too bad - I tried;)
At this point we are all aware of the automotive industry's complicity in helping big oil hold back alternative fuel technology that could save the world alot of oil and us alot of money and pain in the future. Until I read this story I have never seen that made so painfully obvious, though.
Please share this story with everyone you know and pass it along to your Senators and Congress Critters. Ask them why 5 High School students with less knowledge than your local mechanic and a physics teacher have accomplished what the big name automakers SHOULD have accomplished a LONG time ago, and with a mere fraction of the funding and expertise.
Follow me to the other side for the rest:
I have been sitting on this for a couple of weeks, dying to spread this story, but I was waiting, hoping I would have time to create a really nice diary that does the story justice... Since that day will never come, I resigned myself to just getting it out there so more people know about it.
Meet the k-1 Attack Hybrid. Designed by 5 below average students and ex gang members as an after-school project, over the course of a year.
A CBS News story (with video) about the kids and car can be found HERE
And HERE is the team's website with more pictures and a video from a local newscast.
This is off-the-shelf technology, and we're not 180 I.Q. people around here," said Simon Hauger, a physics teacher who is the West Philadelphia automotive program's administrator."
Last year the car won an award for eco-friendly vehicles at the Tour de Sol competition, held by the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association. Despite their success, the program was on the school district's budget chopping block until an outcry from parents and local car dealers convinced them to keep the program going.
"The West Philly squad's car is based on a kit called the Attack, made by K-1 Engineering, based in Serbia and Montenegro. The kit's carbon-fiber body fits over the chassis and frame assembled from a K-1 kit and a Honda Accord donor vehicle, which the team modified extensively.
The students altered the frame to accommodate a 200-horsepower electric motor under the front hood. An upgraded 150-horsepower, turbocharged Volkswagen diesel engine occupies what would be the trunk on most cars.
To comply with Tour de Sol rules, the engine runs on "biodiesel" fuel: It's biodegradable and nontoxic, and has significantly lower emissions than petroleum-based diesel when burned.
The Attack's soybean-based biodiesel was made by students and Hauger in their West Philadelphia garage, Hauger said.
Could it be that simple? Putting a VW turbo diesel (TDI) engine from a junked car on a Honda Accord chassis, and adding an electric motor to the front wheels? Oh, and don't forget the car's body, purchased as a kit from K-1 Engineering in Serbia. A simple flash presentation of the car can be found HERE. Well, there's slightly more to it, but I am no scientist and the concept is so simple it made me furious. Furious we have allowed ourselves to be taken by big oil and the automotive industry for all these years... Anyone with a very basic knowledge of cars and physics should be able to understand how this is put together.
The electric motor that powers the front wheels is driven by a bank of 450 volt ultra-capacitors that give it excellent power for short bursts of acceleration, but when not accelerating the vehicle is powered by the diesel engine. In other words the electric motor stores enough energy to take care of the acceleration, which is where alot of fuel is normally wasted, and the diesel engine takes over, giving you the benefit of good mileage numbers at higher speeds. That's it!
The result is a hybrid car with sports car performance ( 300 hp, 0-60 in 4 seconds) and sips fuel you could literally make in your garage at the tune of 50 mpg. But here's the real kicker:
The car beats the gas mileage/ performance ratio of any car on the market today... Yes, you read that correctly.
At the recent Philadelphia Auto Show, the car was like a huge elephant sitting in the corner of the room, highlighting the collosal failure(s) of the big car makers to get a car like this to market. Of course there was the few known hybrid vehicles on display at the show, developed with multimillion dollar budgets, and sold at premium prices to America. But these kids did it much better, with MUCH less:
The West Philadelphia team's budget was considerably smaller. "We've estimated that there's probably between $80,000 and $100,000 worth of parts in the car," Hauger said. That includes carbon-fiber body panels donated by Hexcel Corp., of Stamford, Conn., and wheels and tires from OZ Racing. Philadelphia-based refining company Sunoco gave $5,000.
Still, he said, for last year's campaign leading up to the Tour de Sol, his team and students spent about $25,000. That included building the car and incidentals, such as lodging costs on the way to the race in upstate New York.
"The Robin Hood Motel," Hauger said, laughing. "Use your imagination - it probably was as bad as it sounds. We're really low-budget."
They raised the funds through Philadelphia Academies Inc., a nonprofit board that steers city high schoolers to career-focused schools and gets support from businesses and individuals.
So why haven't the big automakers offered a car like this? Kosi (one of the students) gets it - It has to do with 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."
From the mouths of babes...
And lest anyone think these kids are child prodigies, working on concepts far above what most adults could comprehend.
"We have a number of high school dropouts," he (Hauger) 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.
In the high school's neighborhood, the median household income is $21,300, about half the national average, with nearly a third of residents below the federal poverty line.
"The urban environment is challenging," said Hauger, who is in his 13th year of teaching. But projects such as the hybrid car make abstract class concepts real, he said.
"They're doing real problem solving... . I've seen cases where kids are marginal" academically, he said, "but this has given them the extra push to succeed."
"It's good to be on the team," said Bruce Harmon, a soft-spoken 18-year-old who said he got one step closer to his dream of designing cars when he transferred to West Philadelphia High this school year.
Although the program developed an environmentally friendly hot rod that puts Detroit gas guzzlers to shame, the West Philadelphia program is handicapped by Philadelphia's chronic school budget woes.
Could a more stark contrast be drawn? A group of kids considered misfits and lost causes, fighting school district budget problems and their own personal demons beat the hell out of ALL the carmakers who spend hundreds of millions of dollars researching this stuff, only to tell us the technology is "not viable" or would cost too much to produce?
Obviously there are other considerations in bringing a car to mass market, like safety regulations and emissions standards, but since these kids did the hardest part of the job, why can't a car maker with a HUGE research and development budget figure that part out? Is that asking too much?
Below I have listed all the links from above, in case someone missed something. I want everyone to know about these kids and what they have accomplished.
http://www.cbsnews.com/...
http://www.nbc10.com/...
http://evteam.gambitdesign.com/...
http://www.philly.com/...
http://www.nesea.org/
*Ammendment*: After reading some valid comments on my attention given to portraying the kids as ordinary, or less than, I feel like I should clarify that these kids are only "below average" when looking at their traditional grades, which are not always the best reflection of a child's intelligence or gifts. Too often kids gifted in the industrial or fine arts are not seen as equal to those viewed as gifted in the three "R's"... I have worked with kids like these in art camps and feel that in many ways children who come from circumstances such as these kids, are more motivated to do well at something because they want to find something they are good at and use it to get themselves and their family a better life... I apologize if the diary insulted anyone because of this - I only wanted people to understand the kids won an uphill battle to accomplish what they did...
--Also, apparently the team was diaried on 3/1/06 by Johne, a link to that diary can be found HERE
Sorry Johne!