From the grit and grime of a high school auto shop, one group of students from West Philadelphia is challenging the expectations of a generation. The last thing sponsors, contestants and the press expected to see in a large-scale, international automotive competition was an inner-city high school team. What seems like a giant leap in the eyes of their competitors is just the next step for a team that has been kicking tail for more than a decade. These students do all their own research, use off-the-shelf technology, and operate under what is possibly the tightest budget in the competition. They're the West Philly Hybrid X Team, and they're fighting for the $10 million Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize.

West Philadelphia High School sits in the middle of one of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in Philadelphia. It's like any other inner-city school in the country--chronically low-performing and persistently dangerous.

"I think it's a tough place to see large success or a lot of students succeeding at really high levels," says Simon Hauger, former director of West Philadelphia High School's Academy of Automotive and Mechanical Engineering--or "Auto" as it's known at the school--and current director for the X Team.

Despite the difficult environment and low expectations, in 1998 a team of students (known then as the EV Team) pulled the engine from a go-cart, replaced it with an electric engine, and entered it into the Philadelphia Science Fair--a competitive event that West Philly students had never excelled in. To the students' surprise, they finished second out of 600 entrants.

With an encouraging win, the students went back to their shop and dreamed a little bigger. Under Simon's supervi¬sion, they reengineered a Saturn SL2 to average 180 miles per gallon. In 2000, they entered it in the Tour de Sol--an alternative-fuel-vehicle contest, pitting teams against each other in a five-day road rally. The SL2 didn't win the com¬petition, but it did finish.

"The first time out… the car making it to the end was a big deal," says Simon.
In 2002, they returned to the Tour de Sol with a modified Jeep Wrangler. This time they took second place, besting 40 teams from around the country.

"We--the team, the adults and the students--came back from the 2002 competition believing that we can do anything," says Simon.

At that point, the team took a step back and began looking at what they wanted to accomplish next. Customizing a new hybrid wasn't enough; over the next couple of years they built what became the world's first hybrid supercar, one that could compete with the likes of a Porsche or BMW. The K-1 Attack is light, accelerates from 0--60 miles per hour in under 4 seconds, and gets more than 60 miles to the gallon.

"Nobody had used hybrid technology up to that point to make a cool, fast sports car that's also environmentally friendly," says Simon. In 2005 the K-1 won the Tour de Sol, and retained the title with another win in 2006.

Like any high school team, there's turnover every year, as seniors graduate and a new group of students moves in. But the teachers don't carry the team from year to year. Students are responsible for their own automotive education, with older members teaching newer members.

"As new members join the team, they pretty much learn all the subjects by word of mouth," says Jacques Wells, co-captain of the X Team.

It's a group effort. In each stage, they're working together and teaching each other what they've learned, rather than waiting for the teachers. They do everything from the research, design, and mechanics to talking up gearheads at car shows.

"The school-day program [Auto] works for kids that don't like to sit in desks and chairs to learn abstractly," says Simon. "They need tangible hands-on, real learning." Both the teachers and the students are passionate about education fitting the student, rather than expecting every student to learn the same way.

"I'm interested in getting my hands dirty," says Sekou Kamara, a team member that works on mechanical as well as online projects. "I think I learn better that way."

Each student has a specialty, their own niche that they're interested in learning more about. Khaleda Sharif is passionate about blogging to get their message out. Jacques does mostly mechanical work, but he's also interested in PR and public speaking. Azeem Hill, the other co-captain, wants to change education by creating opportunities for every student to contribute.

"One of the things I think is important is to show that getting students involved in real-world things really is a school-reform strategy," Azeem says. "It really improves a person's dedication to school and education as a whole. I think the more real issues our schools are putting our young people to work at, the better it is for our country as a whole."

Their current project finds the team in their biggest challenge yet, competing for the $10 million Progressive Insur-ance Automotive X Prize. They're up against teams from all over the world--from auto manufacturers to backyard inventors--to engineer a car that gets 100 miles or more per gallon with about half of the carbon output of the average modern car.

The team has entered two cars into the competition--one of only a few teams to do so. They modified a Ford Focus for their mainstream entry. The hybrid engine runs on a 15kWh Ion battery and gasoline or biobutanol, and gets more than 130 miles per gallon in the city. They also built a GTM Factory Five kit car for their alternative entry. The Factory Five is a biodiesel hybrid that can go from 0--60 in less than 5 seconds. Both entries need to have five hundred miles on the odometer before May at the shakedown stage of the competition in Michigan.

In addition to meeting design specifications, the competition requires a business plan proving the ability to manufacture or modify 10,000 cars (based on their design) per year by 2014. For this, they partnered with an MBA program at Drexel University. With the help of volunteer consultants, the X Team brainstormed a few key ingredients, and then a group of MBA students took those ideas and fleshed them out into a full-fledged business plan.

"We got a lot of accolades from X Prize around the business plan. We really didn't know what to expect, but they [the X Prize judges] were very, very impressed with the final document," says Simon.

The X Team has gotten a lot of attention during their bid for the X Prize. Even Popular Mechanics talked them up early in the competition, naming the West Philly team one of 10 teams to watch.

Since then, half of those teams have been eliminated from the competition.

"It feels pretty good that we are considered such competition to them [the other teams]," Sekou says. "It's been a great experience for me. I feel as though I'm doing something real big, a part of my community."

The X Team has already made it through one qualifying round--something the Massachusetts Institute of Technology team, among many others, failed to do. They have four more qualifying stages before September, when the top three teams will be announced in a ceremony in Washington DC. There's still a lot of tough competition, but the team is hopeful.

"We're always the underdogs and we prove everybody wrong," Jacques says. "A lot of people don't think that a high school team has what it takes to beat out top flight universities and multi¬million dollar organizations. We've never been beat by them."

Sources: americanwaymag.com; youtube.com; nextgreatcity.com; evxteam.org; popularmechanics.com; progressiveautoxprize.org