SOUTH BELOIT (WIFR) --
A Stateline manufacturing company is helping make a solar powered car a reality.
Cutting Edge Water Jet in South Beloit is teaming up with
the Northwestern University Solar Car Team. The company is one of very
few able to cut 185 inch long piece of special carbon fiber materials
used to build the frame of the car, which is a bit difficult to cut. One
of the solar car team members says there still needs to be a lot of
research before we can have one of these cars parked in our driveway.
Northwestern University Solar Car Team Member Matthew
Filak says, "Our cars are not extremely comfortable or economically
reasonable Our budget for this car is I think is somewhere around
$200,000. So in terms of production vehicles its not very likely in the
near future but it defiantly inspires all of us to look into green
energy."
The Northwestern University team will race their car later
this Summer in the American Solar Challenge, which is a road race from
New York to Minnesota.