<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"  Of the 111 Teams that competed for the $10 million purse in last year&amp;#039;s Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize, only one was from a high school\u2014West Philadelphia, where85 percent of students are economically disadvantaged. West Philly entered two vehicles\u2014a Factory Five GTM biodiesel hybrid kit car and a converted Ford Focus gasoline plug-in hybrid\u2014and made it to the semifinals with both. &amp;quot;We were going up against teams that had dozens of engineers, and we had 15 students, a couple of teachers and a dream,&amp;quot; says adviser Simon Hauger, a teacher in the school&amp;#039;s Academy of Automotive and Mechanical Engineering. &amp;quot;One of the marvelous things about teenagers is they&amp;#039;re not daunted by that.&amp;quot; After its impressive X Prize performance, West Philly won the Green Grand Prix in Watkins Glen, N.Y., last April, when its GTM achieved the equivalent of 160 mpg over 100 miles. &amp;quot;I always liked fast, gas-guzzling race cars, so when I first heard the club was named the Hybrid X Team, I wasn&amp;#039;t so sure, but I gave it a try,&amp;quot; says captain Stefon Gonzalez. &amp;quot;It definitely broadened my horizons, not just with cars but with things like public speaking, fundraising and networking.&amp;quot; The after-school program also helped the high school senior (and two other teammates) land a public-transit internship with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. &amp;quot;I call it the light-switch effect,&amp;quot; Hauger says. &amp;quot;This work truly enlarges the students&amp;#039; vision for what they&amp;#039;re capable of doing. We don&amp;#039;t put them in a row of desks and lecture about fuel efficiency, biofuels or aerodynamics. We say, &amp;#039;Let&amp;#039;s solve this problem together.&amp;#039;&amp;quot; The students so impressed Edison2 founder and Automotive X Prize champion Oliver Kuttner that he asked them to build an electric version of his Very Light Car (VLC). The team hopes to operate a nonprofit after-school project that employs students to make and sell the EVLC kit car. &amp;quot;When they&amp;#039;re done, they will have the world&amp;#039;s most efficient electric car by a leap,&amp;quot; Kuttner says.    &amp;amp;lt;&amp;amp;lt;&amp;amp;lt; 10 Brilliant Innovators    Reimagining Flight &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt;    "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/hybrid-electric/a7262/the-west-philly-students-who-build-supercars/>