Bay Area high school students building solar car to compete in national competition

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (KGO) -- A group of Mountain View High School students are hard at work building their very own solar-powered car.

It's all by hand and from scratch - some of the students are even learning to use power tools for the first time.

They're building the solar-powered vehicle to compete in the annual Solar Car Challenge at the Texas Motor Speedway in a few weeks.

"It's a little bit of a crunch right now," Ryan Liu said. "We definitely have had a few technical difficulties. But we're working around the clock and we're working the best we can to get it ready for Texas."

Garage 803 Racing is racing against the clock, so they can race against high school students from around the country.

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It's a one-of-a-kind car designed and developed by the team, with parts literally pulled off some of their personal things to finish the job by the time they need to leave on Saturday, July 12.

"I've spent a lot of time experimenting with different materials, like 3D-printed plastics, steel and aluminum," Jerry Liang said.

The team has bonded over their love of engineering, but they were inspired to join this competition for another reason.

We have covered a Palo Alto team's journey to the Solar Car Challenge in the past.

When Liu and his friends saw the story on ABC7 News, they made it a goal to compete themselves.

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"We've all been able to work together and develop new skills," Liu said. "We thought it would be a really good addition and a really cool experience to be able to have."

The competition in Texas involves three days of technical inspections and three days of racing on the Texas Motor Speedway.

When, not if, all goes well, this team says they can't wait to see their car on racings' biggest stage.

"It's going to be really rewarding to see all our hard work pay off and all the hours we put in, all the time we sacrificed away from school and see this whole thing come to life," Tyler Wang said.

If all goes according to schedule, Garage 803 Racing's car will be ready for the competition in North Texas on July 16.