A group of students from the West Philadelphia High School’s Academy for Automotive and Mechanical Engineering have come up with a prototype hybrid car that runs on soybean fuel. And it’s a sports car, which delivers more horsepower than entry-level Porsches, but yet gets mileage similiar to the Toyota Prius. How on earth?
The car uses carbon fibre body panels donated by Hexcel Corp and wheels and tyres donated by OZ Racing. It participated in the Tour Del Sol, a competition for eco-friendly vehicles and managed to win the race. It’s chassis is based on a combination of parts from a Honda Accord and a car kit called Attack by K-1 Engineering.
The car prototype costed USD$25,000 to build and is powered by a combination of a 150-horsepower 1.9 litre Volkswagen turbo-diesel engine that’s modified to run on biodiesel (soybeans) powering the rear wheels and a 200-horsepower electric motor powering the front wheels. That’s a total of 350 horsepower, and the instant torque offered by the electric motor combined with a turbodiesel’s natural high torque especially at the low-end would make this a pretty exciting drive.
All of that allows the “Hybrid Attack” as it was christened to go from 0-100km/h in 3 seconds, yet it manages an extremely good average mileage of 50mpg. Previously in a video, the Top Gear Audi A8 managed 42mpg, driven extremely frugally. The car took 2 years to build.
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Nice car!!!
I nak satu!!!
Since pak lah make such huge hike
ahaks! :P
they can build it for 25k because the carbon fibre body and wheels were donated!!! AND you can get a GOLF 1.9TDI used on ebay for 5k USD. just go do a search now.
This is fabulous news, I only expected a car that ran on soybeans to perform averagely but I must say I am thoroughly impressed by the effort that was put in by only students.
This is probably a gateway to a new fueling concept. Imagina "growing" your own fuel. That would be so awesome.
0-100 in 3 secs? only one word :
W-O-W.
Ahah… the cost of $25000, does that include the free carbon fibre body panels and the high performance OZ racing wheels? But still I can't deny that the 3 second 0-60 timing is absolutely brilliant.
Yeah, growing your own fuel, that would be the way of the future. So we do not depend on those big greedy oil corps anymore.
hahaha chris u want one aa? come to malaysia, then will be tax summore.. then the price will be up like hell.. well what to say la, our malaysia fuel price is the cheapest in SEA kan hahahahah.. still using the stupid reason… opsss off topic.. sorry guys.
well, buy it oversea and import it back ourselves……..hehehe…….no fuss
we also can build one based on palm oil biodiesel too!!!! then we can show the G we no need to wait for those "SPECIAL ONES" to build cars coz we know how to build liao. hehe
wow…the student just take 2 years to build this fabulous car..even the body looks great…but proton?? 20 years?? sad…
import this car…..no way man…..
if import, Proton will have thousands of car left in stock…..not able to sell off……too makan minyak….i don think pak lah or any G politician will allow this to happen….
its either u buy it out there…then bring in….tax heavily by custom before that….(enof to declare bankruptcy)….then in the end u r force to sell off the car…bcoz u cant afford….lol
other option???
migrate then…..then u can own the car out there….enjoy a good high pay….pump the petrol with price reasonable to ur pay….yet enjoy such fuel saving car……hahaha…..
ok…serious off topic…
but from this car…we know that….
even hybrid+bio-fuel can produce such a speedy car….
surely usual car can be done so too….
G!!!!! its time for u to awake…..wat we need is something good
i remember i saw a comic before in a forward mail
"I only work for money, if you want loyalty, go get a dog"
Wahlaueh…
USD25k… if turn to mass production sure it will cost very cheap because this is not involve billion dollars R&D cost that will impose to buyers.
Malaysia G… 'Students' took 2 years to develope biodiesel with car…, but our Petrol rose 30cents, save billions….& G said will invest more in develope alternative fuel… WHEN CAN THIS HAPPENS…& release to benefit us, Malaysians…. 20years…will do????!!!!….haha…
Bravo bravo, i am waiting for malaysia to show off what they've got! I remembered years back when i came into an article saying a bunch of student built a car, some what sporty than the ones our national cars have now. But then I only saw the front view and then there were no news about it anymore.
Wonder when will we ever see a local built again with fancy technology in it? Anyone u guys heard for the KL International Motorshow?
Proton should consider to buy the rights from the students and use the know how to build hybrid vehicles for the mass market. Cost them only USD25k only mah. Even if it cost them USD100k, it's still cheap compared to the other investment than they spent on. Maybe then if it was mass produce would cost only RM50k for a performance car. Dream on I everybody.
apa boleh buat…….. so near yet so far………oooooo………..
With Petronas around, don't think the Government will allow such cars to be sold or manufactured in MY. It will kill their coffers.
Otherwise, we would have hybrids now from Honda n Toyota or Ford. Australia as the Prius n why can't we? Those who can afford it should opt for it. It is a cheap city car n clean too.
send me the pillow i can dream on………….
My grandpa who's a soya bean milk seller is gonna be rich!
He can now convert his stall into a soyabean oil pump for such cars! LOL!
this car must be healthy
Pretty nice design yet fuel saving, wat a good combination of both world. I like this, babe…
that would be the baby would have 2 engines, front and back… for both electric and biodiesel ones. pretty heavy huh? yet absolutely camparable to McLaren F1 timing. RESTECPA~!!!
… or am i wrong? Hmmm…
Kudos to some US high skool kids for able to develop such cars which can consume soy oil…..
What bout our palm oil?? I heard that PORIM also had some collaboration with Petronas before to develop biofuel based on palm oil…….whats the status??…..In fact, they tested it on a Petronas E01 engine….and it works well…Why can't the corporate execs monkeys up there commercialise it??…..Don't wait too long until our oilrigs sudah habis!!!
check this out… thou.
http://www.gizmag.co.uk/go/5241/
That's a hell of an engineering evolution! And the car is stunning! The headlight shape kinda reminds me of the Elise thou! Is it just me?
I don't remember it corretly but if I'm not mistaken, ONCE UPON A TIME, UTM's engineering students built a sports car. I don't wether it's hybrid technology or what. Or is it solar?
And what happen to our Wira and E200 bio-diesel that was developed by UPM (is it?) Heck, those student can even built a lightweight sports car with so much power. What do we got?
Anyone up to the task of making a car that runs on teh tarik and does 0-100km/ph in 3 minutes?? Malaysia boleh!! yeah right…
cbljkkj said,
March 4, 2006 @ 12:40 am
Anyone up to the task of making a car that runs on teh tarik and does 0-100km/ph in 3 minutes?? Malaysia boleh!! yeah right…
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now tehtarik price also keep on increasing … would not be a good idea…. in the future.. the price will be as high as petrol…
why not make car that runs on human waste??? hehehe…
u sure 3 seconds? that's faster than an F60 Enzo.. … speechless..
i want one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yeah man!
3 secs? Sure or not? Maybe NAZA can import? 25k is cheap. Let's put a cost to the donated parts. How much? 100k? 200k? (doesn't it seem like insourcing parts; heck, vendors maybe). So, total cost to give birth (if 3 sec claim is real) to this baby is what… say 500k max. Man, that is a very cheap (for a [working] prototype) but viable idea. put it into mass manufacturing, sure cost per unit also down (but still need further testing for reliability and whats nots lar). No? I also remembered UTM's sports car, black color or something like that and a solar car. Hmmmm… whatever happened.
soybeans? emmm air kacang soya ke :) i can fuel it from makcik kacang soya near the street…cooll…one liter only 0.50 cent…coolll :)
Hi.. I am The Captain of the Hybrid Vehicle team, Senior at the Academy of Automotive and Mechanical Engieering, and only asian member of the team. My name is Joe and i am responsible of the direction of the team and the production of the Hybrid K1 Attack (car pictures above) this year. The car actually performs really well. The soybeans actually give us more performance than pump Diesel Fuel. we run B100 BioDiesel and we have been gettting 60 Miles per Gallon and 0- 60mph in around 4- 4.5 seconds. So we are fast and Earth friend. Running as a Hybrid we will be getting 70- 75 mpg and 0- 60mph in about 3.5- 4 seconds. so what were some of you saying that this car won't perform?
For more Pics on the K1 attack and past projects visit: http://evteam.gambitdesign.com/gallery/albums.php
Email me anytime at: [email protected] .. ty for your time
hi