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.

[WestVirginiaRebel]

I hope when these kids graduate they start their own corporation and sell millions of these things. Just to remind GM how it's supposed to be done.

[kellynla]

I hope I don't have to give you another class on the cost of alternative fuels vs. gasoline...

[Right Wing Assault]

"They're making billions upon billions of dollars," he says. "And when this car sells, that'll go down — to low billions upon billions."

And why don't they teach these kids where the profits go?

[Reactionary]

There are no details at all concerning this great technological marvel. CBS is spreading the usual hysterical BS.

[WestVirginiaRebel]

"Soylent Fuel is people!"

[kellynla]

"but does it meet DOT crash regulations, have an airbag, meet EPA and CARB emissions requirements, and operate in all weather from -40 to +140F?"

and neither does my Jeep Cherokee parked in the drivway...
let us all know when you build one! LMAO

[kellynla]

hey, I just posted the article if you want more information you should have gone to the show. LMAO

[G.Mason]

At last, a use for soybeans.

I'm flying and I havent't even stepped on the soybean accelerator!

[dhs12345]

Energy content in ethanol versus gasoline is 66%. That means that you have to burn approx 50% more ethanol to get the same power versus gasoline. Even less for diesel.

http://www.nafa.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Resource_Center/Alternative_Fuels/Energy_Equivalents/Energy_Equivalents.htm

And how many acres of South American rain forest does it take to produce a gallon of ethanol?

Guessing that Brazil don't have all of the regulations on production and thus overhead that we have here in the US.

[layman]

Cheeseborough?

I was thinking the same thing. I wonder what his last name is.

[Rakkasan1]

WWND?

what would Nader drive?

[MNJohnnie]

Point of fact, Ehtanol is fuel additive, you still mix it with Gasoline. It is not a fuel source in and of itself. It merely reduces the amount of oil used in a gallon of gas it does not replace the oil. The solution to rendering the Middle East as significant to US National and Ecnomoic Security as Africa currently is, is multipronged. Ethanol may be part of the solution, it is not the whole solution. Developing all our own resources such as shale oil, coal gassification, Off shore drilling etc is also part.

Basically the problem is imported oil is CHEAP. Our domestic sources are more expensive. IF I could I would slap a $35.00 a barrel tax on imported oil as a National Security cost tax. It would be cheaper to pay $4.00 a gallon for gas then have our economy held hostage by every third world thug sitting over a pool of oil.

[BobS]

"I hope I don't have to give you another class on the cost of alternative fuels vs. gasoline...

How about a urine-fueled car?

That's what my dad said a used Chrysler Newport would run on if I bought it while in HS:):)

[Rakkasan1]

that's the city where Mayor McCheese rules with an iron skillet.

[GSWarrior]

Isn't Cheeseborough located betweenn the Bronx and Queens.

[Keith in Iowa]

>>>Ethanol is fuel additive, you still mix it with Gasoline. It is not a fuel source in and of itself. <<<

Tell that to the Indy Racing League, who will be burning E100 in their 2007 season. Ethanol can be used 100% in engines that are tuned for it.

[CindyDawg]

I bet that was supposed to be "cheeseburger" :')

[Keith in Iowa]

>>>Then this bio diesel probably takes as much oil to produce as a gallon of gas.<<<

I'd like to see you back that up with actual scientific evidence.

[MNJohnnie]

Do you have a source for this? All I could find on the Web was that it is a fuel blend that can be mixed as high as 15% with a petrolum based fuel. None of the sources cite a pure fuel varient. Thanks

[kellynla]

I don't have the time or the inclination to give you another class on ethanol. You obviously don't know what you're talking about. The Brazilians are filling up on ETHANOL.



and "imported oil is CHEAP?"
$60 a barrel? now I know you're insane!

and try and tell that lie to the over two thousand GI's who lost their lives in the Middle East...and their families.