Our favorite X Prize team is the West Philly Hybrid X Team.
Probably everybody’s favorite is this team based at the West Philadelphia High School’s Academy of Automotive and Mechanical Engineering, a public high school serving one of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in the city of Philadelphia. NBC’s Today Show, NPR, and Popular Mechanics are among many who have noticed this team. It would be easy to dismiss this team of high-schoolers as a Rocky-type Hollywood fable, going up against larger, better funded teams, except for one thing: their serious record of accomplishment.
The West Philly Team has built and raced alternative cars before. Their Hybrid Attack, a low-slung, aerodynamic sports car that can go from zero to 60 in 4 seconds and get 60 miles per gallon of bio-diesel, won the Tour de Sol (an alternative-fuel efficiency and performance competition) in 2005 and 2006, and in 2007 West Philly won the 21st Century Automotive Challenge.
West Philly is one of three X Prize teams, including Edison2, entered in both the mainstream and alternative classes.
Their mainstream entry, the EVXb, is a parallel plug-in hybrid based on the Ford Focus chassis, powered by a two-cylinder 80 HP Harley-Davidson engine and a Azure dynamics electric motor. The alternative entry is the EVXd, a two-seater, diesel electric sports car based on the Factory Five GTM frame. The drivetrain is a VW TDI 1.9 liter engine, also with an Azure Dynamics electric motor. These entries are designed to demonstrate that a high-school team, using off-the-shelf technology can create vehicles that are safe, affordable, meet competition guidelines and can perhaps capture the X Prize.
Good luck to the team from the City of Brotherly Love!