What would it take to make a car that drives like a Porsche but sips gas like a Prius? Apparently, the smarts and engineering acumen of ... a bunch of teenagers. Students at West Philadelphia High School have been building green-powered cars since 2001. They made a splash at the city's annual auto show with their latest innovation, a sleek hybrid-electric sports car (right) that gets 50 to 60 miles per gallon and runs on soybean-based biodiesel made at the school. penn-partners.org/evteam

(Photograph by Cindy Hauger)