Posted on Sun, Feb. 05, 2006
The little hybrid engine that could W. Phila. High's team will display its
award-winning car at the auto show. By Akweli Parker Inquirer Staff Writer

One of the most impressive cars at this week's Philadelphia Auto Show
doesn't come from Japan, Germany or Detroit.

It came from the auto shop at West Philadelphia High School.

The car - designed and built by students in the school's Academy for
Automotive and Mechanical Engineering - delivers more horsepower than some
Porsches and gets gas mileage comparable to a Toyota Prius. It runs on fuel
made from soybeans.

Last year, the car was the surprise winner of a competition for eco-friendly
vehicles, the Tour de Sol. The students, hoping to prove their success was
no fluke, will enter the car again this year.

They'll be back despite an effort by school district budget-cutters last
year to eliminate the program. It was saved by an outcry from parents and
area auto dealers, who see the program as a source of hard-to-find trained
mechanics.

The high schoolers' engineering feat may have observers wondering why
Detroit hasn't already made such a car.

"This is off-the-shelf technology, and we're not 180 I.Q. people around
here," said Simon Hauger, a physics teacher who is the West Philadelphia
automotive program's administrator.

"We're super low-budget," he said, so automakers "should be cranking them
out.

"Who wouldn't want a cool sports car hybrid?"

The Motor City could have built one, but years ago, the Big Three domestic
automakers misjudged where oil prices and consumer desires would be today.

President Bush, in his State of the Union speech this week, conceded that
"America is addicted to oil" and encouraged research into alternative fuels
and power systems such as hybrids.

Major automakers are showing several hybrids at the auto show, which opens
Saturday, each developed with multimillion-dollar budgets.

The West Philadelphia team's budget was considerably smaller. "We've
estimated that there's probably between $80,000 and $100,000 worth of parts
in the car," Hauger said. That includes carbon-fiber body panels donated by
Hexcel Corp., of Stamford, Conn., and wheels and tires from OZ Racing.
Philadelphia-based refining company Sunoco gave $5,000.

Still, he said, for last year's campaign leading up to the Tour de Sol, his
team and students spent about $25,000. That included building the car and
incidentals, such as lodging costs on the way to the race in upstate New
York.

"The Robin Hood Motel," Hauger said, laughing. "Use your imagination - it
probably was as bad as it sounds. We're really low-budget."

They raised the funds through Philadelphia Academies Inc., a nonprofit board
that steers city high schoolers to career-focused schools and gets support
from businesses and individuals.

The West Philly squad's car is based on a kit called the Attack, made by K-1
Engineering, based in Serbia and Montenegro. The kit's carbon-fiber body
fits over the chassis and frame assembled from a K-1 kit and a Honda Accord
donor vehicle, which the team modified extensively.

The students altered the frame to accommodate a 200-horsepower electric
motor under the front hood. An upgraded 150-horsepower, turbocharged
Volkswagen diesel engine occupies what would be the trunk on most cars.

To comply with Tour de Sol rules, the engine runs on "biodiesel" fuel: It's
biodegradable and nontoxic, and has significantly lower emissions than
petroleum-based diesel when burned.

The Attack's soybean-based biodiesel was made by students and Hauger in
their West Philadelphia garage, Hauger said.

The car cotillion taking place in Center City this week will serve as a
tune-up for the team's bigger goal: winning the Tour de Sol again in May.
Last year, the West Philadelphia team stunned rivals at the contest for
electric and low-emissions vehicles at Saratoga Spa State Park in New York,
as it built the fastest, cleanest, and arguably best-looking car of the
field. The team - with different students - also captured the crown in 2002
with an electric-powered Saturn.

But it is this week's show - attended by nearly a quarter-million visitors
last year - that could give the program priceless visibility and attract
corporate sponsors.

For individual students, it's a chance for exposure to recruiters for
auto-technology schools and potential employers, not to mention basking in
the oohs and ahhs of show attendees.

"It's good to be on the team," said Bruce Harmon, a soft-spoken 18-year-old
who said he got one step closer to his dream of designing cars when he
transferred to West Philadelphia High this school year.

Although the program developed an environmentally friendly hot rod that puts
Detroit gas guzzlers to shame, the West Philadelphia program is handicapped
by Philadelphia's chronic school budget woes.

"Almost all of the automotive programs in neighborhood schools have
disappeared" in the city, said Ann Cohen, president of Philadelphia
municipal workers union AFSCME Local 1637. Cohen chairs the nonprofit
Philadelphia Academies Inc.; the union works to put the high schoolers in
apprenticeship programs. Of the city's 59 high schools, five today have auto
programs.

That might seem counterintuitive, given the shortage of trained auto
technicians nationwide. The most commonly cited estimate is that 60,000 new
technicians are needed in the auto-repair industry. The number is expected
to hit 110,000 before the decade is out.

The West Philly program was on the budget chopping block last year, but the
team's Tour de Sol victory and public outrage at the proposed elimination
spared it.

"Everybody rallied together for the program," including sponsors Pep Boys,
Sunoco, Central City Toyota, and Gary Barbera," Cohen said.

In the high school's neighborhood, the median household income is $21,300,
about half the national average, with nearly a third of residents below the
federal poverty line.

"The urban environment is challenging," said Hauger, who is in his 13th year
of teaching. But projects such as the hybrid car make abstract class
concepts real, he said.

"They're doing real problem solving... . I've seen cases where kids are
marginal" academically, he said, "but this has given them the extra push to
succeed."

Alumni and at least one current member of the program have received jobs or
scholarships as a result of their involvement in the program.

Tyson Drummond, this year's team captain and a senior, works part time as an
apprentice in the city's fleet maintenance division.

Still, the auto program has a big shortcoming as a means of getting good
jobs for its graduates: lack of certification by the National Automotive
Technicians Foundation, or NATEF. That's the educational arm of the
Institute for Automotive Service Excellence, which most consumers know
simply as ASE.

The endorsement requires schools to teach core automotive subjects with
expensive equipment and training modules.

Teachers and local auto dealers are clamoring for it.

"It's reprehensible that we don't have a NATEF-certified school" in
Philadelphia, said Kevin Mazzucola, executive director of the Automobile
Dealers Association of Greater Philadelphia.

High schools in surrounding counties, including Bucks County Technical High
School in Fairless Hills, the Center for Arts and Technology campuses in
Coatesville and Phoenixville, Delaware County Technical High School in
Folcroft, Camden County Technical School in Sicklerville, and many others in
the region carry the certification.

This week, Philadelphia School District chief executive officer Paul Vallas
agreed that it was sorely needed. In a meeting with the regional auto
dealers' group, he all but ensured that Philadelphia vocational schools -
starting with West Philadelphia - would get the certification over the next
two years.

"We're actually looking at laying out a two-year plan to get all five of our
automotive training programs certified," Vallas said.

He added, "Clearly, our premier program is the West Philly auto program."

The NATEF certification is "another way of making our kids more competitive,
another way of leveling the playing field, and of filling opportunity gaps,"
Vallas said.

On Thursday, a city Parking Authority flatbed hauled the team's finished,
spiffed-up car to the Convention Center.

Hauger said he fantasized about what the students could do if they had the
financial firepower of the colleges and corporate teams they compete against
at Tour de Sol.

"It would be nice to get a corporate sponsor that could underwrite this" and
throw money at their electrical problems and rough engineering until they
were solved.

"That's what it would take. It would be nice."

*ONLINE EXTRA*

For a preview of the auto show, slide shows of the cars, and information on
hours and tickets, go to http://go.philly.com/autoshow

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