EVANSTON, Ill. --- Forty undergraduate students at Northwestern University's McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science are unconcerned about the skyrocketing cost of gasoline. They have designed and built a car that is fueled by the energy of the sun.

The solar car, called NUsolar sc5, will race against more than 20 teams from universities around the world in this summer's North American Solar Challenge, from July 13 to 23. Northwestern Solar Car Team members will drive the car 2,400 miles from Plano, Texas, to Calgary, Alberta.

During this week, a small group of students will be test-driving the car on campus and on rural roads in Wisconsin, as well as putting final touches on the vehicle, before both team and car head to Texas Thursday, July 3, for qualifying trials and the start of the race.

The student team, representing a range of disciplines, has worked on the vehicle during the past two years, creating a sleek, lightweight car that, in addition to being powered by Sunpower A-300 solar cells, also harnesses the latest lithium-ion battery technology.

The race requires four drivers from each team to take turns driving their cars hundreds of miles every day, and team members must consider sunlight and battery power to determine how fast and long they can go each day.

Students Vytas Bradunas and Patrick Markan are co-managers of Northwestern's solar car team project. Kornel Ehmann, James N. and Nancy J. Farley Professor in Manufacturing and Entrepreneurship; Walter Herbst, director of the Master of Product Development program at McCormick; and Chi-Haur Wu, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, are advisors to the team.

The car is called NUsolar sc5 because it is the fifth created by the Northwestern University Solar Car Team in the past 10 years. The team's second generation car, 'NErgy, is currently on display at the Adler Planetarium.