Futuristic 'Very Light Car' Revving Up for X Prize

(CANVAS STAFF REPORTS) - It looks like something out of "The Jetsons," but the Very Light Car could very well be the car of the not-so-distant future.

According to NPR , an entrepreneurial retired race car driver and real estate developer have created a dream team of experts from the world of racing to produce fuel-efficient vehicles to compete in the X Prize competition .

Virginia-based Oliver Kuttner dubbed his team Edison2 , which is the last remaining team with three vehicles competing in the finals stage, the mainstream category, one of which could win a $5 million prize.

"With racing, it's all about pushing performance to the absolute," says the team's director of research and development, Brad Jaeger, 25 to NPR. "With the other automakers, they've become so stuck because the cars that they're producing next year rely on parts that were used this year and the year before."

The talk of the X Prize contest at the Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich., is the four-seat sedan version of the Very Light Car, which gets the equivalent of 100 miles per gallon.

"We're on a trajectory to break the record carmakers have been chasing for decades," said Kuttner, who got the aerodynamic car to weigh just over 700 pounds.

According to DailyProgress.com , Formula One champion driver, Emanuele Pirro is driving the Very Light Car that runs on a mixture of gasoline and ethanol.

Most of the cars that were entered into the X Prize are electric and hybrid, but Kuttner determined the weight of the batteries wasn't feasible for the type of vehicle he had in mind.

Undergoing the final testing, Very Light Car's Twitter account will have updates on Friday.