Five kids from an auto shop program at West Philadelphia High School have built a vehicle that runs on Soybean Bio-Fuel. And this aint no GEO Metro (no offence to GEO or their owners) with a lawn-mower engine; it's a very attractive sports car, that goes 0 to 60 in 4 seconds, and gets 50 miles per gallon (on soybean bio-diesel fuel no less).
CBS News did a story on it. Video is also available (on the right column of the linked page).
Most encouraging, these High Schoolers were all what some might call "troubled youth"; on the verge of dropping out, joining gangs and not really caring about school at all until being part of this project.
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.
"We have a number of high school dropouts," he says. "We have a number that have been removed for disciplinary reasons and they end up with us."
One of the Fab Five, Kosi Harmon, was in a gang at his old school -- and he was a terrible student. The car project has changed all that.
"I was just getting by with the skin of my teeth, C's and D's," he says. "I came here, and now I'm a straight-A student."
To Hauger, the soybean-powered car shows what kids -- any kids -- can do when they get the chance.
"If you give kids that have been stereotyped as not being able to do anything an opportunity to do something great, they'll step up," he says.
But I think the biggest question is, if these 5 young boys can do it, why can't Ford, GM, Chrysler, etc.?