“Guys you are the first people in the world to put this back together," is what Omar Sevilla tells his students.
"This has never been done before.”
Students at Madison High School are trying to break a record. Students in the Automative Technology Program are working on what they hope will become the World's fastest electric car.
It's quite the undertaking. 110 students have been spending countless hours and weeks trying to perfect and create the fastest electric car, and it's all at the hands of high school students.
“Not many schools have the opportunity," shares Senior at Madison High School, Austin Gates. "And for me and my classmates to work as a team is a pretty cool experience.”
Students like Gates, with Madison High Schools Automotive Technology Program, are working side by side with some of the world's top engineers to try and get an electric car to reach the fastest land speed ever recorded.
“All the stars lined up and I thought this would be an awesome end of the year project for the students," explains Sevilla. "And now it’s here!”
Omar Sevilla, the Automotive Teacher at Madison High School has been leading this crew. They have taken Team Vesco's 'Little Giant' and made it even more powerful, by using Revolt Systems, a San Diego-based electric vehicle engineering company's electric motor.
This car is the current record holder at 353 miles per hour, but thanks to these students, they are hoping to break the fastest land speed record, at 375 miles per hour.
“We give them instructions and we just oversee what they are doing," shares Sevilla.
He furthers, "They are using these tools, they are installing parts, taking parts off, cleaning parts, preparing parts, inspecting parts, replacing parts, it’s a long process.”
The process will lead to the student's hard work racing in the 2022 World Finals this August in Bonneville, Utah.
In order to make the fastest land speed ever recorded, the electric car has to race it's fastest in 5 miles, and reach the same speed doing it all over again.
It is a once in a lifetime experience for students like Austin Gates.
“I want to take the opportunity to put my name on the car," he shares. "And learn a little bit about electric vehicles and how they work. Because this is the future. And I think it would be cool to learn how to work on future cars.”
As for Austin's future, the skills he has learned by doing hands-on work in this shop, will get him ready to join San Diego's Electric Union after graduation.
And hopefully, he and his peers' hard work on this racer, will be able to get them the title of High School Engineers to the fastest electric car.
San Diego Unified School District has five other schools that have a similar program to the one here at Madison High School.
