Kids Build Soybean-Fueled Car(50 MPG & 0-60 MPH 4 SEC!)

CBS NEWS ^ | Feb. 17, 2006 | STAFF

[kellynla]

(CBS) The star at last week's Philadelphia Auto Show wasn't a sports car or an economy car. It was a sports-economy car — one that combines performance and practicality under one hood.

But as CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman reports in this week's Assignment America, the car that buyers have been waiting decades comes from an unexpected source and runs on soybean bio-diesel fuel to boot.

A car that can go from zero to 60 in four seconds and get more than 50 miles to the gallon would be enough to pique any driver's interest. So who do we have to thank for it. Ford? GM? Toyota? No — just Victor, David, Cheeseborough, Bruce, and Kosi, five kids from the auto shop program at West Philadelphia High School

The five kids, along with a handful of schoolmates, built the soybean-fueled car as an after-school project. It took them more than a year — rummaging for parts, configuring wires and learning as they went. As teacher Simon Hauger notes, these kids weren't exactly the cream of the academic crop.

[MamaB]

Some students in my old high school in MS have developed a solar car which has won many competitions. They went to Australia a year or so ago and won the competition there.

[Jackknife]

I've noticed something on this thread - when people can't win with facts, they start to insult people personally. It's really very unbecoming.

Here, here.

[TexasTransplant]

>>>>"any time you want to put your money where your mouth is just let me know...
but just like my other challenge which you declined,
cluck, cluck, cluck...
I won't be holding my breath! LMAO"<<<<

I know who you are! Your the guy in Scary Movie 2, the one in the wheelchair with the bad comb over.

"YOUR" thread has become more informative than it started out, the World now knows who you are.

As entertaining as you were in the beginning, you are now just as boring.

Solutions for our Energy needs of the future will not be found in your nonexistent research. You and Iowa are most likely the same little boy in the basement and in closing do the Marine Corps a favor and quit calling yourself one.

TT

[Figment]

I'll reply with the same message as always. If it's viable, private money will flock to it. Private money isn't flocking and the corn farmer welfare contingent is screaming for more taxpayer handouts. It's snakeoil

[mrsmith]

It goes to show you...

Kids will do anything to avoid eating their vegetables.

[Keith in Iowa]

You want private money going into ethanol, eh?

Well - here you go:
http://www.globegazette.com/articles/2006/03/30/latest_news/doc442c737a8bf3f806829550.txt

[Keith in Iowa]

Here's some more...

http://www.agriculture.com/ag/story.jhtml?storyid=/templatedata/ag/story/data/1143755784659.xml&catref=ag1001

It's a $100 million dollar deal...

Under terms of the purchase agreement, Global Ethanol, an Australian company, would become a 60 percent owner of MGP LLC. Shareholders would receive about $3.23 for each share they own. Plus, more money from an escrow account will be sent to investors in a few years.

Nelson said the average farmer-investor has between 15,000-20,000 shares.

[P-40]

Kids will do anything to avoid eating their vegetables.

I can't eat those peas. We need them to get to Grandma's house for Christmas. :)

[CindyDawg]

You are missing the point. I could care less about the in's and out's of oil. (The light switch thing). These kids, even though maybe not cost effective did something special that may lead to an alternative fuel. Most important though , they have shown that hard work and ingenuity is still alive in American kids if we give them the opportunity to dream. Atta boy to the teacher. I don't think he meant anything negative about them not being academic. In fact I think he's proud of his boys.

[Muleteam1]

Sorry but I have not been reading this thread since my last post and it seems to have grown a lot since I left. If I misunderstand your reply to me, please excuse.

You are talking to an old hot-rodder from way back (high compression V-8s and all that stuff) but you are preaching to the choir if you think I have not supported U.S. research on alternative fuels. Nothing would disappoint this old rod-bender more than having to get into a Jim Beam-powered go-cart and having to drive across Texas pulling a loaded trailer. However, I am a realist. If the U.S. had continued its research on alternative fuels that was began in the 1970s we would not be having this discussion. In the 1970s I was invited by one of Sandia Laboratories engineers to see some the Lab's work at Albuquerque. It was quite impressive to see reflected solar energy burn through a two-inch steel plate. I do support alternative fuel research and have been disappointed that every President since the 1970s has ignored its need. Not only would alternative fuel research benefit transportation but it may have added significantly to reductions in facility and home energy use.

I might only add that I am not trained in thermodynamics, energy transfer models, or any other closely applicable science that would allow me to credibly take sides in this forum thread. I will try to go back and read through all I have missed.

Muleteam1

[SkyDancer]

I read the book first but I can't remember the title, wasn't it October Sky??? Then came the movie ... it seems it followed the book pretty close .....

[sausageseller]

Yea but alot of time and engery was used to grow the plants that you turn into fuel. In illinois are fuel costs are higher because we are forced to use a higher ethanol mixture.

I use WVO. Try again.

[sausageseller]

How come all the National Bio Diesel sources say you have to have a blend? Curious, how do you do this or is it a trade secret?

Most vehicles are not equipped to run 100% biodiesel. most of the problems are cold weather related.

It also depends om the type of "blend' you are talking about. A blend of straight oil and petro diesel?

A blend of soy oil that had been processed into "bio diesel" and then blended with petro diesel?

Terminology causes misunderstanding. No trade secret just google biodiesel and look from home brewers.

Or look here:

http://www.biodieselcommunity.org/

[sausageseller]

In illinois are fuel costs are higher because we are forced to use a higher ethanol mixture.

Ill. has higher fuel taxes than In. , Mo. and Iowa thats why you pay more at the pump.

[Figment]

"It's a $100 million dollar deal... "

yet we're still pouring 4 BILLION in tax dollars into a losing proposition