Media Platforms Design TeamTeam: Edison2Car: Very Light CarClass: MainstreamDrivetrain: Internal combustion engineEnergy Storage: E85PM Says: A machine optimized for the competition. Can it reach 100 mpg?Odds to Win: 5 to 1To Edison2, there are only two absolute virtues: low weight and low aerodynamic drag. Standing 53 inches high with its wheels mounted outboard under fairings, the four-passenger version of Edison2’s Very Light Car (VLC) seems incredibly tiny—it’s 7 inches shorter than a Honda Fit. The 40 hp from the 250-cc turbocharged single-cylinder engine is more than enough to push the svelte 800-pound car. Constructed around a steel-tube frame with a stressed skin, the VLC is spartan in the extreme. Would buyers accept that? Or feel comfortable in a car that seems so vulnerable in a world still filled with big trucks? And wouldn’t it be ironic if the big-money X Prize went to a car powered by an internal combustion engine?X-Prize Entrant: X-Tracer Team Switzerland E-Tracer »>Media Platforms Design TeamJohn Pearley HuffmanContributing EditorJohn Pearley Huffman has been writing about cars since 1990 and is getting okay at it. Besides Car and Driver, his work has appeared in the New York Times and more than 100 automotive publications and websites. A graduate of UC Santa Barbara, he still lives near that campus with his wife and two children. He owns a pair of Toyota Tundras and two Siberian huskies. He used to have a Nova and a Camaro.
