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Students Driving Home Their Point

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By RONNIE BLAIR

rblair@tampatrib.com

Published: January 7, 2009

HUDSON - Six Hudson High students who plan a summer trip to San Diego are determined to drive cross country in the most fuel-efficient manner they can muster.

The students, with the help of history and economics teacher Eric Johnson, are involved in an elaborate project to take four scrapped Volkswagen Beetles they rescued from a junkyard and operate the refurbished cars on alternative fuels, such as biodiesel, hydrogen-enriched gas and vegetable oil. Modifications have to be made to engines to make them run on some alternative fuels.

For students, it's a way to explore a topic many people were talking about this summer as a gallon of gasoline topped $4.

"We are way too dependent on foreign fuel," Johnson said.

The students' goal is to average about 60 or more miles per gallon as they travel to California, making stops at high schools along the way to raise awareness of hypermiling, a term that refers to techniques and practices for making adjustments to a car to increase its fuel-economy rating.

The students involved in the project are Spencer Johnson, Kristen Stump, Chris Jennett, Melvin Velez, Elaine McCready and Chelsea Shoben. Spencer, a senior and no relation to the teacher, said he and another student came up with the idea near the end of the 2007-08 school year.

"We thought it would be would be cool to do over the summer," Spencer, 18, said. "We didn't realize it would take us nine months."

Johnson happened to be passing by when they were hashing out their idea, and they recruited him to help.

"When we started the project last year, nobody believed it could be done," he said.

Not that he can blame the doubters. Johnson said that when the students approached him about the plan, he "thought they were crazy."

Johnson said the students found six scrapped cars at a towing company's salvage yard. They cannibalized parts from those vehicles to create the four cars they plan to drive to California. They are replacing the old Volkswagen bodies with fiberglass bodies, and have received assistance from several area body shops and automobile parts stores.

The students have invested their own money in the project; Johnson estimates the cost has been about $2,500 per student.

Johnson can't help but inject a history lesson into the project. Much of what the students are doing isn't new technology, he said. Biodiesel has been around for more than a century, and Germany experimented with hydrogen-fueled submarines during World War II.

Information about the students' project is available at www.hyper-miling.com.

Johnson said he's not sure what the trip to California is going to cost, but he estimated $2,500. Most of the cost will be for meals and motel rooms, not for fuel, he said.

"We're going to do it on the cheap," he said.

The students are seeking donations to help with their project and trip. Johnson said anyone interested in making a donation should contact the bookkeeper's office at Hudson High School.

Spencer said the project has practical rewards.

"It's nice to know how a car works," he said. "When it breaks, you can fix it yourself."

Reporter Ronnie Blair can be reached at (813) 948-4218.

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