8 Students from DeLaSalle high school have brought shame to the Chevy Volt before it's even been released. Using a crashed 2000 Lola racecar, 21 batteries, and a lightweight plastic body, the students engineered an electric vehicle rated at the equivalent to 452 miles per gallon. The Prius looks like an Abrams tank in light of their work.Steve Rees, a former architect and car racer, mentored the students through designing, constructing and tweaking the sleek one-seater.
Rees located the discarded Indy car base from a dealer in St. Louis. It was trashed after IndyCar driver Jimmy Vasser did this to it. They stripped out the engine, filled the compartment with a motor and 21 batteries, and they replaced the racing breaks with lightweight models.
"It's literally a 3M product used to shrink wrap onto a cheap storm window," Rees says. And the plastic was strong enough to survive test drives, so they stuck with it. "The great thing is that you can see through it. It's just so much more exciting for people to see what's underneath," he adds.
Another key component to the team's success was tire maker Bridgestone taking an interest. The company gave the DeLaSalle students extremely low-drag tires and efficient wheels which improved efficiency greatly. The final product was a transparent, open-cockpit, slippery auto primed for efficiency testing.
Bridgestone opened its famed Proving Grounds, a 7.7-mile course in rural Texas, to the students, where they cruised around the track at 42 mph, impressing Bridgestone's engineers. Following their success, the tire company showed off the see-through wonder at the Indianapolis 500, where race fans fawned over the kids' work. "Over a hundred thousand people saw it," Rees says. "It was the belle of the ball."
