ZAP (fka ZAAP)

[WOLDUMAR]

On msnbc
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/06/21/4530115-x-prize-cars-back-on-track
X Prize Foundation
Vehicles fielded by the Spira, FVT Racing and X-Tracer teams roll down the Michigan International Speedway track in May during an X Prize run aimed at testing the cars' durability. Click here for a slideshow featuring X Prize vehicles.
The organizers of a $10 million contest for super-efficient cars are bringing two dozen teams back to a Michigan racetrack this week for the second round of trials. And this time, they're keeping score. You can keep track of the scores yourself during the Knockout round of the Progressive Insurance Automotive X Prize.
This won't be like the typical auto race, where the first one across the finish line is the winner, no matter how much fuel is burned. These cars also have to satisfy standards for fuel efficiency, range, emissions and marketability. The key requirement is that the cars get 100 miles per gallon of gas or its equivalent (MPGe). They can run on gasoline, or biofuel, or all-electric power - and the organizers have set up a formula for calculating how much electricity is equivalent to a gallon of gas. The setup is laid out in the X Prize Foundation's contest guidelines.
Most of the cars that have come to the Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich., survived the initial Shakedown tests that were conducted at the same track in April and May. Two European teams missed out on the Shakedown because of the air-traffic jam created by the Icelandic ash cloud. Seven other teams couldn't satisfy all the Shakedown requirements last month but were kept in the competition. Those teams were given makeup exams last week, and this week they'll find out if they can move on to the Knockout stage.
The competition is broken up into two classes of vehicles, "mainstream" four-seaters and "alternative" two-seaters, with Progressive's $10 million purse shared equally between those classes. During the Knockout stage's on-track tests, the mainstream X Prize cars will have to prove they can hit 67 MPGe, two-thirds of the ultimate goal. They'll also have to go for 134 miles without refueling - again, two-thirds of the ultimate goal of a 200-mile range. The two-seaters have the same mileage standard to meet, and they'll have to go 67 miles without refueling. Eventually the alternative cars will have to demonstrate a range of, you guessed it, 100 miles.
The first round of on-track tests didn't result in any official rankings of the contestants, but this time around, tallies will be kept for fuel efficiency, speed and the other factors that will be weighed to decide the winner. The X Prize Foundation has created a "Competition Tracker" that will put many of those metrics online as soon as they're available. There's also a leader board and team-by-team breakdowns. This YouTube video previews all the features coming to the Automotive X Prize website.
Who are the favorites?
All of the cars that meet the minimum requirements can go on to the final round of on-track tests, but the scores should reveal which teams are the favorites and which are the dark horses. So who are the favorites? That depends on what your definition of the word "favorite" is.
The ZAP Alias has risen to the top as the most stylish of the X Prize entrants, based on an unscientific online poll being conducted as part of the "Fan Favorite Sweepstakes." This contest is designed to reward the fans rather than the automotive teams: The more often you vote, the greater your chances of winning a drawing that offers $3,000 and an X Prize team jacket as the grand prize. Future stages of the contest will focus on the most innovative, most practical and most desirable cars.