Updated: 10/19/2007 12:19:09 AM
The road to fuel efficiency and lower emissions starts with hands-on research. Students at the University of Tennessee are doing just that as part of a national vehicle design competition.
The Challenge X Team has re-built a Chevrolet Equinox and is now calling it Revolution X. It's a street-legal passenger vehicle that gets 35 miles per gallon with a hybrid biodiesel engine and electric motor.
UT Engineering students have been working on transforming the car for four years.
"Year one of the competition was modeling and design," student Scott Curran said. "Year two, we actually built the vehicle. Year three was a refinement stage, and this fourth year will be a test of the durability of these student-run vehicles."
Next month, the car gets a true challenge with a road test in California.
Next spring, 17 participating colleges compete in a 600-mile road rally from New York to Washington DC.
