The shop is littered with sleek body panels, motors of all sizes and hundreds of exotic-looking parts that make up the seemingly mad science of auto racing.

Yet the setting is far removed from the paved speedways of Indianapolis and Daytona Beach, or Ferrari's legendary factory in Maranello, Italy.

In the rooms of Bainer Hall on the University of California, Davis, campus, students on the UC Davis Formula Hybrid Team are building a decidedly green racing machine, with an emphasis on efficiency over unbridled speed.

There's a fair chance that some of these students will someday be working for internationally known automakers, helping create fuel-efficient, alternative-powered cars for motorists worldwide.

For now, they're honing their mechanical engineering tools on a single hand-built race car … and getting a crash course in business as a bonus.

"There are numerous business possibilities," said Sean Fountain, a UC Davis senior majoring in mechanical engineering. "It goes beyond sponsorship … We're working with businesses through the entire process."

The UC Davis team is focused on completing its car for the April 30-May 3 Formula Hybrid International Competition at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, N.H.

That event is part of Formula SAE, a student design competition under the Society of Automotive Engineers and founded in 2006 by the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College. Under the rules, student teams develop hybrid-electric racing vehicles to exacting specifications, or what the international racing community calls a "formula." The roster of teams competing in New Hampshire includes more than 25 U.S. and international colleges.

The UC Davis team is building an open-wheel race car with a 250-ccgasoline engine and an electric powertrain. But that's just the beginning.

They have to hand-build the car's frame, body, cockpit, electrical systems, controls, powertrain management system and safety systems. That has so far involved hundreds of working hours, with 15 of the team's members working on the vehicle virtually full time, and up to 70 students taking at least some part in the effort.

Cars in the hybrid competition are slightly larger than a go-kart. Lightweight materials are used to build the one-seat cars that weigh about 500 pounds. Top speeds are around 75 mph.

In New Hampshire, competition will include examination of cars by some of the top mechanical engineering minds in the country. Students are likely to be grilled by engineers from General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.

Further competition evaluates car performance and endurance. One slip-up in design or one miscalculation of a car's limits can be the difference between winning or finishing far down the entry list.

Long hours have paid off in past Formula Hybrid competitions: The UC Davis team placed third two years ago and second last year. It won the Indy 500 Emerging Tech Day hybrid competition in May last year, just prior to the centennial running of the Indianapolis 500.

Alejandro Hernandez, a graduating senior and captain of the UC Davis team, said the presence of high-powered automakers at the Formula Hybrid competition raises the level of intensity. Automaker representatives are not only evaluating student-made cars, they're on the prowl for future talent.

"When they come by to ask questions, you have to be ready to explain exactly what you've done and how you did it," Hernandez said. " … Getting a business card handed to you is a great thing."

Dave Barthmuss, a West region spokesman for GM, agreed that such competitions are hotbeds of young, quick-thinking automotive engineers.

"That's certainly true of the colleges in general. That's where the engineers of the future are being groomed," he said. "We're always looking for that kid who's looking to build the next-generation battery in his garage … and make sure they have the resources for that."

There are other business considerations on the line as well, including the hybrid race car itself.

Fountain explained that "we are supposed to be building a vehicle that could be mass-manufactured and sold to the weekend racer market, which is fairly large."

Amateur autocross racers compete in Formula SAE-specification racing events worldwide. They're typically on the lookout for moderately priced, dependable cars, and SAE competitions are a primary source.

SAE Formula events also are a magnet for corporate sponsors. Competing student teams rub elbows in the pit area with representatives of tire, auto parts firms and oil companies.

Like automakers, some of those firms are looking for engineering talent.

On the local level, some companies provide key car components for the UC Davis team. And dollar contributions likewise help.

The UC Davis students are perpetually making sponsorship pitches to individuals and businesses. Sponsorship can result in a business getting its company logo on the Formula Hybrid team car – a business arrangement repeated thousands of times a year in the world of big-time auto racing, from IndyCar to NASCAR to Formula One.

C.P. "Case" van Dam, chairman of UC Davis' Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, said competitions entered by student teams provide the right mix of classroom-acquired knowledge and real-world savvy.

"In the first place," van Dam said, "student teams take the knowledge they've gained in various courses and apply it. They can look backward to their classes and say, 'Oh, now I get it. That's what that means.'

"Secondly, at these competitions, (students) have interactions with people in the industry, and a lot of the judges also are from the industry. There's tremendous exposure as to what the industry is looking for."

ALTERNATIVEENERGY"We're always looking for that kid who's looking to build the next-generation battery in his garage … and make sure they have the resources for that."

DAVE BARTHMUSS,

a West region spokesman for GM

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