When 11 engineering students at Drexel University decided last year to enter a contest to design and build a super-fuel-efficient car, they knew that choosing to power their homemade vehicle with solar energy would increase their costs, their risks, and their aerodynamic drag.

They decided to go for it.

Their successful journey illustrates a truth that emerges to some degree from stories of all the 69 teams that competed in last weekend's Shell Eco-marathon Americas. Put enough young, smart folks together and ask them to focus on making a single vehicle, and the very barriers that have proven too steep for the big auto companies don't seem so insurmountable.

(See "Pictures: Building the Perfect Solar Car")

But the Drexel students—all graduating seniors who